Episode #163 Tips for a Reliable Recall

Ever wondered how to transform your dog's recall from distracted to precise? Join me, Amy Jensen, as I walk you through the world of recall using a long line—a game-changer in building your dog's recall reliability. Through my own adventures with Baxter, I'll let you in on creating those irresistible positive associations that have your dog bounding back to you amidst any distraction. Discover the secret sauce of treats, praise, and play that makes recall training not just effective, but a true joy for you and your pup.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Puppy Training Podcast, episode 163. Want a reliable recall with your dog? Check out these tips. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning, as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is the Puppy Training Podcast and I'm your host, amy Jensen. Hello and thanks for listening to the podcast. I love talking dogs and I'm super glad you're here.

Speaker 1: 0:36

The other day I saw a post about a horse who had been set free to run in a pasture after working in the city. This horse ran and kicked and galloped around. Pure joy was radiating from its soul and you could tell right. So fun to watch. I love things like that. I really like it when we can tell that an animal is loving their life. Now can you tell what your dog is feeling by watching them? Do you know their body language? That tells you and speaks to you so that you can understand? Baxter does, and it increases the bond between us.

Speaker 1: 1:07

One of my favorite activities to do with Baxter is take him on a ghost sniff walk in our local park. Now, it's a pretty cool park, I will admit. It has lots of paved walking trails, soccer fields If you know my family at all, we are crazy about soccer, so we spend a lot of time there Baseball and softball fields, splash pads, playgrounds, sand, volleyball pavilions. Our city's really done a good job with this park. It's about a mile and a half around the outside if you follow the outside trail and you can vary where you go using any of the inside pathways that go in and around these different fields. So it is here that I like to take out my long line, attach it to Baxter's harness on the back and let him be a dog Instead of that strict leash walk, right a heel, for example. Many of us are focused on teaching our dog a heel, which is great. There's also the attention walk, which is just on a shorter leash. This kind of walk Baxter gets to go explore, sniff, really just check the area out, and it's more of a recall practice. So I like to do these kinds of walks Again, not just for walking like loose leash walking practice.

Speaker 1: 2:12

This is more of let's practice, the recall, and it's a great activity for both of us. So every so often he'll check in with me, meaning he runs back to me for a food, reward or price, and then he'll take off again to return to exploring. Now, pure joy is radiating from him, just like this horse I saw the other day. He just loves it, right? He gets so excited to go sniff the bush and then come back and check in with me. Now on these check-ins, sometimes he does it on his own. How great is it right when our dogs do things we like without being asked? That's amazing. And then other times I use a recall cue to signal him to come back to me. So we practice both and I reward him for both. So either way, when he comes back to me, I reward him and then this is the ticket I release him to go have fun again. And to him he's like what? That's awesome, I love this game. It's so worth it to go check in with Amy. She'll most likely let me go back to what I was doing anyway. Right, I might as well get a reward for it. So to him it's this fun game and to me, we are building the concept that coming to me is worth it. That's really important for dog training. If it's not worth it to the dog, or if there's not a reason why they should do it or it doesn't matter to them. Most likely they won't do it. So this leads to Baxter choosing to do this behavior more in the future, because I make it worth it to him To begin recall training.

Speaker 1: 3:29

If you're just starting out with a new puppy or maybe a new dog in your household, always begin with establishing a positive association. I like to use food, rewards or praise or really anything your dog loves. Baxter adores a belly rub, so when he comes to me I can ask him for a roll and then scratch his belly, and that's a great reward too. Some dogs love fetch or love frisbee, and why not use the recall as the kickstarter to the game of fetch or the game of frisbee? So always have a reward in mind, and it needs to be something that your dog loves right.

Speaker 1: 3:59

Begin in a quiet environment. I recommend starting inside your house and gradually increasing distractions as your dog progresses. So, for example, start with just you and your dog in a quiet room. There's nothing else going on, and then we work up to other members of your home outside, friends and finally strangers coming to help you with these training sessions. Once you've practiced that all in your home, take it out to the backyard with those different sets of people and then take it to the park and practice with those different sets of people. So taking it a little bit harder but keeping it easy enough that our dog can be successful.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Initially, keep distances short. Maybe in my house I'm just recalling them from two to three feet away that builds up to four to five, 10, you know, 10 to 15 feet the length of the room right A hallway. If you have a long hallway in your house and when you get out to your backyard you can increase that distance a little more. And at the park you can really increase that distance. Obviously be safe but depends on where you live and what kind of perks you have. It's available to you, but that distance can definitely increase from what you had inside your home. Now, over time we work up to these further distances and longer training times. We just keep making things a little bit more difficult, but always keeping in mind that we want our dogs to be successful, as the more they win, the more they succeed, the more fun they're having and they'll want to keep training. If we get them frustrated and it's a power struggle between them and me they're going to give up pretty quickly. So consistency is key. Always reward prompt responses.

Speaker 1: 5:28

I like to use a four to six foot leash inside my house. That helps keep my puppy on task. I just let them drag it around. The leash makes sure that I can follow through with what I'm asking them to do without them just running off to the next room. When I work outside on the recall, I like to use the long line, even in a fence backyard, as again, I'm just able to step on the line or hold it in the event that my dog, you know, looks at me like yeah, should I come? No, and then chooses to walk the other way. They can't go further than the line away from you and at that point they're likely to make the decision to come back to me for that reward, as it's worth it, right, okay, I might as well go back and collect my reward Now. Again, that trick, you guys, is to praise them and then release them. Let them go back and do what they were doing before.

Speaker 1: 6:09

So recall is a check-in, right? Recall does not mean fun ends, which is what most of us accidentally make it out to me. So if you have a dog, when you call them and they're playing the, catch me if you can, or I don't think so I'm running the other way. Game, that's a little bit of a flag that you know okay, like. More often than not, recall to my dog means fun stops and we can change that by using what we call the 10 to one rule. So I know it's tempting to quickly take them inside as soon as they come back to us, but we don't want them to think that the pattern is she recalls me, I come, play stops, we go inside. Right, who likes that game? No one's dog, ever seriously. So instead we use the 10 to one rule. 10 times I call my dog to me, I release them to go play again for every one time I take them inside or end the fun slash play. I like to make everything a game if possible. It's more fun for me and it's more fun for my dog. So try to incorporate games that make recall enjoyable for you and your dog Playing fetch, as I mentioned earlier, or Frisbee, you know, calling your dog's name before each throw as they return, toss the toy and then they get to go get it. That's the reward. So this not only reinforces the recall but it also integrates that physical exercise and fun into the learning process.

Speaker 1: 7:29

We have several recall games on our games and activities page. They're all outlined for you with instructions and a short video that describes or demonstrates how to do it. We also teach these in our games and activities six week course. So this is a basic level course. Everyone's welcome to join, but it's taught all through games. Now, recall is a great exercise for both learning on the dog's part, but really easy to make it into a fun game as well. I toss in the occasional sit or down stay, then the recall and that launches into the fun game right. So I'm stacking these cues that I'm asking my dog to do and we're getting other practice in as well, even though my dog thinks we're just playing a game. Now, training is a lot more enjoyable when play is involved. Play is powerful. It motivates the dog to want to keep working with you and as we're going to be spending a lot of time training our dogs and teaching them cues that are helpful in having a dog live inside our homes with us, we might as well make it fun right Now.

Speaker 1: 8:23

One of my favorite ways to strengthen a recall, especially outdoors, is using that long line that I mentioned earlier. This is a long leash for controlled off leash training. So dogs get exercise, they feel like they're off leash, they get to sniff, explore and be a dog, but it's in a safe environment. So then I recall them to me as a check in every so often and I reward them for doing so. And that long line allows my dog some freedom While I get to reinforce the recalls with those food rewards or the play now positive experiences. We'll build that strong recall foundation like we talked about with that 10 to 1 rule.

Speaker 1: 8:56

My favorite length of leash is a 10 foot leash right now. That allows me to practice the loose leash walking, even heal work, if I want to. But then that 10 feet really gives my dog some good go sniff room, as they like to do as well. Now. It's long enough that they can sniff, but then again short enough that I can easily manage it. If you really want your dog to run and play say you're at the park and you want them to be able to toss a ball or, you know, fetch a ball or chase a frisbee, then I like a lightweight 20 to 30 foot line, a little bit longer line, Super small and lightweight so there's not a lot of weight to it. When it's attached to the back of your dog's harness it's light enough that they can run and play and it just kind of floats along behind them. But that gives me a way to make sure they stay close enough to me that they're not taking off away from me. They're easily redirected.

Speaker 1: 9:46

Okay now, consistent repetition is essential. So practice recalls in various settings, not just inside your home. We want to start to generalize this behavior to other areas, more difficult areas, like we mentioned with your backyard and, say, a public park. But practicing these in various settings and then assuring that our dog associates that coming to me is positive and again they get to usually go back out and play, will really build a solid foundation for you.

Speaker 1: 10:13

In summary, you guys, teaching a new dog a solid recall involves patience, consistency, positive reinforcement and enjoyable games make it fun. This approach not only establishes that reliable recall that you're trying to get, but also enhances the overall relationship between you and your dog. The better recall your dog has, the more freedom they will enjoy now, more times when pure joy will just radiate from them, which is so fun to watch, and that's what we all like to see. Right? All right, you guys have a great week and happy training. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site. Backster and Bella comm to contact me. You