Dog Recall Command

Of course with recall we don’t mean it as in…. ‘Hey pooch, remember the time you and I went to the beach?’.  We’re talking puppy dog please come to me when I call you.

I want you to ask yourself a really honest question.

What percentage of times do you call your dog because it is doing something you don’t want it to do?

If your dog usually gets called because he is engaged in something interesting ‘to him’ and he gets e.g. shut away because of it, you don’t have much hope of building a recall. Proofing is important but be selective about how you teach this command.

Build in ‘Come’ commands (or whatever word you have chosen) for a variety of reasons and I implore you to make the majority of them pleasurable.  About to get dinner, take him out in the car, about to give him a massage ‘Come’.  Use it from when he is close by or way down the yard.  If you don’t think he’s going to do it, don’t ask it – just go and get him because the more times he ignores you the more this will continue. Let’s just say he’s found something really interesting in the lawn and is scratching away as if someone buried a wheel of cheese.  Everything about his body tells you he wants whatever it is.  I personally wouldn’t waste a come command on this one but would take a lead over and get him.

If I’m close by and can easily distract him from something he likes, I ask him to come.  After giving him a brief and hearty praising I quickly give him a ‘free’ command and let him go back to whatever he was doing.  This way I’m helping him understand that come doesn’t automatically mean banishment from what he is enjoying.

If he happens to be bounding toward me of his own accord I use the ‘come’ command.  So many moments are an opportunity.  Be creative and every now and then give him a ‘jackpot’ like a big piece of high value reward.

And one day if you need to use this life saving command in a dire situation you have a hope of him responding.

Leah & Angela OMeara

Hound Dog Day Care (Specialists in Dog Minding & Dog Boarding, Pet Sitting Brisbane & Doggy Day Care Brisbane)