My Dog
Doesn’t Come When I Call
One of
the most common complaints is “my dog doesn’t come when I call”.
Training
the recall is one of the funniest of all dog-training exercises because we do
so much completely wrong! Let me explain.
This is
what we want to achieve: When we call our dog “here Bella” we want Bella to
come sprinting as fast as she can to us.
Now, in
order to achieve this we must make “here Bella” the best command in the world.
With the best result and rewards at the end!
So here
are some tips!
Never
call your dog if you are thinking of telling her off! You can undo months and
months of hard work training your dog to come by telling her off just once.
Suddenly coming when you call could be a really bed move!
9 times
out of 10 make sure that your dog has a good experience when she comes if you
call you. On the 10th recall if you need to put your dog on a leash then do so.
When you
call your dog to you think of coming as more of a “check in with me” than a “I
am calling you to stop what you are doing”.
Use a
long line to keep control of your dog if you are unsure. A long line is a piece
of line or rope that can be as long as you like that lies on the ground but you
keep within reach!
If your
dog hates returning to the car then reward your dog back at the car with water
and a small feed and things will soon turn around!
The basic
formula to any good recall training is:
CALL your
dog to you, then
REWARD
your dog within 2 seconds and then immediately
RELEASE
your dog.
In order
to make your dog enjoy the experience you should learn the power of using
affection and attention by withholding it and only giving it as a reward. This
is one of the most powerful tools available to us and yet we get it all so
wrong by giving the dog attention whenever they want and wondering why they
don’t come when we call them!
All of
the above are demonstrated live on video as well as how to establish yourself
as the pack leader on The Online Dog Trainer.
