Most puppies come with the basics of a recall. I said most not all, there are those independent models out there that learn very early on that the world has much to be discovered and they need to explore every inch of it
All puppies can be taught a brilliant recall, it is much easier if you start when they are young, but it is possible at any age.
That brilliant recall requires two basic things from you 1) the willingness to really get focused with what you are want and what you are currently doing and 2) the willingness to having at least one 5 minute session of daily fun with your dog — two or three would be ideal but one is necessary.
Ha! I bet you where thinking it required that four letter word w-o-r-k didn’t you. Nope, fun, that is how I got my brilliant recalls, it has got to be fun. Work is play and play is work and unless you are enjoying what you are doing and your dog is enjoying what you are doing it is unlikely to end up brilliant!
Take this scenario, your dog is playing with a pack of dogs their own age, new people come to visit, how many of you could recall your dog away from that event?
Not too many right? But remember I said most puppies do come with a pretty decent recall. When that puppy was 5 or 6 weeks old if he was playing with all his litter mates (a pack of dogs his own age) and there where new people visiting (possibly you there to see the litter) and the breeder said “pup-pup-pup” I bet that same dog that won’t recall now did it perfectly back then right?
Why would they? Why do dogs do anything . . . it is simple; reinforcement.
Reinforcement builds behaviour. Somebody (like your breeder) started to say “pup pup” to the litter before she put the litter’s dish down at meal time or to get the litter to follow her in or out doors. Whatever it was (many times over) if the puppy comes when you call it as a wee one, it has been given reason to believe people are very reinforcing.
That is how it starts. So then, what causes Recall Collapse? Aaaah that would be reinforcement once again.
Yes, all of the dogs out there, that have a brilliant recall, have been taught it with reinforcement. All of the dogs out there that have a crappy-doo recall have also being taught that with reinforcement.
It has nothing to do with being the “pack leader” or not physically correcting the dog enough. As a matter of fact, my dogs have never being physically corrected and definitely all have brilliant recalls.
The brilliantly trained dogs earned all of their reinforcement from their owner or trainer while the dog with the crappy doo recall earned a lot of reinforcement for NOT coming when called from his environment (chasing, sniffing, finding something to roll in etc)
So what about your dogs? Where has the value been for him? What distractions have been so reinforcing for your own dogs they are choosing them over you? I really want to help so let me know what is distracting your dog?
Today I am grateful for another great group of campers here at Say Yes handling camps.
WOW! There are a lot of posts on this topic! My boy Pete has about a 65-70% recall. The most distracting thing for him is when another dog’s person has a “chuck-it” tennis ball thrower and he thinks he can get the all before another dog (even though we have a chuck it too, he is a competitive young boy and always prefers the other dogs toys.. When the other dog’s person chucks the tennis ball, my recall goes out the window. My female is another story. I’ve only had her for 6 months, she was a rescue BC. We have been working on her recall and it is getting better, however lately as the 4th approaches, fireworks going off terrify her and she runs — luckily we have had her in a contained area when it has happened. With her, helping her over her fear will help a lot, though it is hard as we have little control over when someone will shoot off fireworks. With Pete, it is harder to figure out what to do.
My dogs have a HUGE value for a 4-wheeler starting or any tractor for that matter. My brothers have wood lot and when the equipment starts it means that they are going to work, which translates into a critter hunting session in the wood pile. They are both gone within seconds, they don’t make a sound just run full speed.They are getting better now that I’ve changed the rule to include that they need permission because without they don’t get to go at all and get their butts hauled back to the house. I constantly have to keep reminding myself that the rules are the rules and cannot be broken.
Kangaroo’s! I live in Australia, in the country, and kangaroo’s and wallabies are the main things my dog (a Greyhound) gets total focus on. Being a sight hound, most visual stimuli will distract him though he is getting better with reinforcement techniques slowly.
I called my Wirehaired Hungarian Vizsla off from a running deer last summer in front of a group of lady mountain bikers … I was so thrilled!!! …not to be taken for granted though! Must keep up with fun and games and keep mixing up the reinforcements!
I have a dachshund who thinks he’s a lab. He has a great recall on land, I can call him off prey. But once he is in the water and sees a duck all bets are off. I think this is because instead of going to get him after the first recall, I tend to try calling him a few more times (to avoid getting wet) before diving in. Is just taking a plunge the only way?
(A picture of a bad dog being retrieved for everyone enjoyment 🙂 http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OtoYFxUdMpo/TCgCzDQiKZI/AAAAAAAAAFc/xcdyfkOm_r0/s1600/seanissad.jpg )
We have a 2 year old American Cocker who has had a strong recall since he was about 6 months old, not perfect, but strong. We did a lot of early recall games…hide and seek was his favorite. We started agility at about 4 months, and did regular work on restrained recalls that seemed to really motivate the pups. The best thing I learned though was “OK. Bye”. JoAnne Collis, our agility instructor taught us that if ever our pup made a break for it, or just refused a recall, turn away, run, and yell “OK. BYE”, and when he catches you, reward big time. It sure works! He snaps right out of it and comes on the fly. One day he got out the front door and streaked toward the busy street after a deer. I started to chase him, then remembered JoAnne’s advice. I turned, ran toward the house yelling “OK. Bye!”, and the pup did a four foot sliding turn, and raced back to me.Thanks for that one JoAnne. That was a busy street!.
With our 2 year old Sheltie I have a “decent” recall 98% of the time – taught off lead through positive reinforcemnet from puppy days – but I am no match for her Sheltie friend at class, the rabbits and squirrels in our yard, and especially the motorcycle that roared down our road the other day. (THAT was scary.)
The motorcyle incident prompted me to order Really Reliable Recall, which arrived last night. I have seen the first 15 minutes so far.
I have found mistake #1. Do I ever reissue the command if she does not come on the first try? I fear the answer is “yes”. It seldom happens when we are “training”, but happens now and then when “out and about” in the yard or the training facility where I teach.
I can call my labrador off of birds, bunnies and squirrels, but she can’t resist people, especially the friendly neighbors, the mailman and the UPS guy who adorn her with treats. I’ve tried to train the people with little success, so now it’s time to focus on training the dog to resist them!
The problem comes when I stop “working and playing or playing and working”. I get immediate disengagement. I feel as though I have to constantly work and play and play and work to keep her in my world. As soon as I stop, it’s bye for now. What I want is a dog that will always keep one eye on me when I am not asking for a behavior. If I had that, I know I would have a perfect recall.
Ducks and birds. And cats. On the top of her list. I have switched parks because she wasn’t able to work / play around them. Loading up the recall somewhere else and maybe I can go back when she knows how much fun it is to stick around me. Now I can call her when she is within eye shot of water – which was not always possible.
I can almost see the switch flick in her and I know I am losing, or have lost her. So I just get her (hopefully) and get her out of there and work somewhere else.
So maybe it hasn’t collapsed yet, I just don’t consider we are at 100% …yet.
Three years ago I started as a beginner knowing nothing about dog training. Little did I know that my cocker spaniel puppy fit your description of an independent model. Thank you for acknowledging such a circumstance exists. Even as a puppy the environment was much more interesting than me (loved to run into the bushes in search of ?). You are absolutely right, recall is everything. She knows the agility obstacles, but if she sees something that interests her (person, dog, doorway), she’s gone. In obedience, she knows the exercises, but we can’t get past off-leash heeling. We’ve taken many classes and private lessons, but haven’t found the answer yet. One instructor became so frustrated with her, she gave her a slap on the butt “to get her attention”. Is there any hope for us?
Establishing a good bond with the pup or rescue is imperative. In my experience, after this bond is formed, the dogs might stop and look at a distraction, but when I say “IN”, they come in close to me and assume a proximal heel position.
It took a little bit of time to get the trust of my rescue, but, once I got it, I realized I would never be able to rehome him because he had bonded with me with complete trust. When, in a class, we were doing the Really Reliable Recall with distractions, and even with really really good ones with the distractor, when I called him, you could almost hear the “see ya!” as he turned and ran to me.
Having a good RRR word, and testing it in many locations helps extinguish any collapse. Once my rescue was bulletproof, I would change from a RRR to a regular recall, and as he came to me, I would run backwards to see if he would follow, and his desire to please me kept him coming. If I do it too many times in a row, he will sit and look at me as if to say “are you done being silly?” and then come slower, anticipating a change. I keep changing things because, like a lot of dogs, he started to anticipate the drop on recall.
if you want to see your dog thinking, try these exercises.
— Call to front but turn around and put your head between your legs, and see if he fronts to your face or your feet.
— recall your dog when you are lying down… it’s hilarious to see how different dogs think this one out.
People! All kinds of people! 😉 She lives for them and it is hard to get her away from them and back to me!
I have great recalls, in the house!! Ha! I have two labs, one is very high drive and does agility and has her CD obedience title. The other is a therapy dog., who passed the advanced training to visit hospitals and schools. She has no interest in agility. We live on 33 acres, with horses. The labs run the land, loose, as they never go off of the property. However, when they are outside and either a herd of deer, UPS truck (cause they have learned he gives them milk bones), rabbits or something really smelly is on the property, they will NOT come when called. It does seem, however, if I get within 12′ and say “come”, they will. If I am outside of that range or they have gone outside of that range, I do not have a consistent recall. They are both food driven, but at times, even a promise of a treat will not bring them to me, unless they are ready. 🙁 I could really use some advice.
My two are a breed that LOVE their people so a good recall for them isn’t that much work. After having a Golden that was a bolter I do make sure I work on it daily though. I know I can call Max off of birds (not so confident about squirrels as we don’t see them off leash and he does go nuts when he sees them on leash). We had a racoon in our yard last year and it was the first time in his life he didn’t come when he was called (well after his five month old rebellion which saw him spend a few days on leash everywhere). Now though, although he comes 90% of the time grass is more interesting than me and his recall if he is sniffing grass usually takes two tries.
I haven’t tested my baby dog on anything he won’t come to yet but I’m sure there are things as he is a most social creature.
My Basset Fauve is generally very good on recalls, everyone told me hounds were impossible to train so I took that as a challenge and worked on it, there has been a couple of times where she turned a deaf ear to me though, she loves my cats that are inside the house but does not like the feral cat that lives outside, so if I go out to practice agility which is in a non fenced in area I have to make sure the cat is nowhere around, I am stumped on how to fix this though, if she seems non focused and is looking for the cat, her punishment is that she does not get to play agility….but that is not good because then i don’t get to practice.
Biggest distraction for my intact male is an inticing bitch smell, and even a nice smelling male! (He really likes to sniff butts).
My 2 yr old BC has a really good recall, because he thinks I am just the best thing in the world. In fact he hardly leaves my side ever, (not always good for distance work) My 5 year old BC will not come on the first command when deer are present in the yard. But if I have a ball or frisbee in my hand, she comes flying to me. Not my ideal of a good recall.
My younger dog, a border collie, cannot be called off ‘herding’ another dog. I have called her out of play, off wildlife, etc, but when she goes into herding mode, that’s it! My older dog has a terrible recall and I for one agree with your last post…it does impact the relationship. I see the payoffs with my younger dog!
Biggest problems are my agility instructor and my obedience instructor who of course provide loving attention to her when I’m trying to get her to stay off and stay with me! Can you tell she is a golden? Squirrels and rabbits are also an issue.
My recall is reliable except when she really, really has to go potty. Any tips for getting her to go before a run besides giving her every opportunity available? 🙂
Scout is our 16 month old, fun loving Cavalier King Charles Spaniel: http://www.pbdh.com/node/6449
Yes, we go to weekly agility classes but it’s the day to day living situations that are getting us into trouble. I’ll confess that when Scout and our older dog go to work with us it’s not always convenient nor am I ALWAYS able to take time for those teaching moments. And this lack of consistency is undermining our overall training especially for recalls and pulling on leash. If I’m in a hurry it hard to make time to stop and get the correct behavior.
The newest and biggest temptation for Scout is when a bird catches his eye while we’re walking/hiking. Recently he ran and did come back toward us on recall but in a huge arch (not at all direct) and then didn’t stop but headed back out toward the bird again.For sure we can’t trust him off leash anymore when hiking.
Another temptation is along our fence line when people or dogs are walking on the sidewalk. Bad trainer, bad.
For the big one- other dogs to attack. She came to me scared of them and I was stupid enough to let friendly dogs be around her when she wasn´t comfortable with them and not protect her from them (as she thought I should have) so now she takes care of the threat herself and now seems to enjoy the act itself. Not in training situations- she knows no dogs will be all over her on the trainig field and is perfectly fine working close to them there.
For one small one- wildlife tracks and wildlife itself. She is a brilliant and driven hunting dog.
For the other small one- nothing. No hunting experience nor “puberty” yet at the age of one either so that might not be final…
I have conditioned that “come” means look very carefully at everything around you to see if there is anything better than the momma’ — if so, chase it/eat it/grab it — if not, come and see what the momma’ has…. I’m thinking that my dog has done some brilliant human training 🙂
I work on recalls all the time. I guess I would say I have a really good recall with all my dogs, but each one of them could be better. I just reminded three of them that they need to come out of the water when I call them. I expect them to come the first time I call. I don’t always have food or toys on me but I sometimes send them back to the distraction as a reward also.
It’s just too important to not address on a regular basis.
People, especially children!! Loves them!! Also, other dogs. This dog was nervous/anxious around other dogs and growled/lunged and a little wary of adults, so I have reinforced incorrectly along the way… (Her anxieties are much redcuced now)
Kangaroos and rabbits. I can immediately recall my dog out of every other situation very reliably.
Like many of the others, smells, (especially wildlife) and garbage food, or rather any garbage, cause us the biggest problems. He always comes, but often has to get in that last mouthful or last sniff. But I can call him back from chasing cats, bikes, skiers and so on. So whats the difference? I think maybe theres more “panic” in my voice when hes chasing something, and he reacts better to that?
However I have several times called him back from chasing a cat (what can be more self rewarding?) and not rewarded him, cos I simply didnt have anything to hand. And yet that recall situation has not (yet) failed.
I have a rescue BC that has turned on to the training of agility. BUT when the game is over he will not come into the house because he knows his turn is over. He has 2 other dogs in the family that like to train too.
Greeting people is tough too. If he is off leash he really takes some time to think about coming back to me. When he does I reward him, then take him to the people and let them meet.
I find there is a critical point at which if I get the dogs attention as it is taking off I am ok but I have only my instinct on each individual dog that allows me to define that moment. My miniature poodle seems to be heavily rewarded by the sheer thrill of the huge run around just as we leave the front gate for the car (I live on 55 acres) and is not actually chasing anything she just runs for the fun of it and seems to not realise I am there. She comes back when the run has been enough. Two of my Belgian Shepherds are however chasing the smells of other animals, such as cows, horse, rabbits, alpacas and the farm cats. Once they get this smell and the reinforcement of chasing something it is all over for sometimes hours. Management is the only thing that works and that consists of never letting them get out there as once they are they are off. I can call till I am horse but getting the car out and pretending to leave can work.
Regards from Australia
For my rescue BC mix just being outside is a huge distraction. I have come to learn that a big part of the problem has been major league stress (we are currently trying various medications), but for the past 1.5 yrs of training I have felt like I have made very little progress with a good recall (especially outside and forget about off leash). I have resorted to using bunnies and squirrels to get attention. I am now planning on asking for a come, before we chase the bunnies and squirrels. It is the most reinforcing thing I can use outside since playing and food drive decreases with stress. Inside with low stress and fewer distractions the recall is very good. I am so glad you have brought up this topic!
I am happy to say that my 3 year old has a brilliant recall. Wildlife, playing with other dogs, whatever. I’ve managed to make myself the most reinforcing thing in her life, and the gateway to giving her access to other wonderfully reinforcing things (like wildlife and playing with other dogs!) We’ve just started herding, and she’s pretty intense about that, so not sure that calling her off sheep would be 100%, but then, we’re not putting her in a situation where we need to ask for that so she can’t fail right now.
Of course, this arose out of NOT having fabulous recalls with my older dogs (really good, but not great and frustrating at times) and I did some poisoning of their names early on, as well as not controlling the environment so they got reinforcement for behavior I didn’t want!
Susan Mann, Brodie, Kyp!, and Arie
This blog has inspired me to go back & train better recalls! My 11 month old Australian Cattle Dog loves to chase deer, rabbits, bikes, etc. He has a good obedience recall, but not when there is something fun to chase around.
Thanks, Susan, for reminding me that I can do better!
My sato, Charlie, has a crappy-doo recall, but it’s getting better! The reason for both the good and the bad is definitely because of reinforcement — reinforcement that he has collected with me, and without me! Also, I saw people actually kicking Charlie when I was in Puerto Rico. And the one time he was captured, they chemically neutered him! So sometimes he gets it into his head that he is going to be all bouncy, and he will come and he will sit or hand target (I’ve reinforced so much) but then he might not let me actually touch him, because some funny bone in his body is warning him that it could be a trap. Anyway, all of a sudden recently, for reasons I really don’t understand, he is doing better, going less insane when off leash. I don’t ever expect a perfect recall, because the day I expect that is the day I am most at risk of having a dog disaster. I am happy when I see those great recalls, and they always surprise me and please me and I reinforce them in every way possible. But it’s probably a dangerous thing to imagine that any dog will have a perfect recall in every environment.
My border collie Tag cannot leave a tennis ball that is stuck under our fish pond’s waterfall. I think he’s good about everything else but I used a tennis ball to reward him for leaving many distractions (turtles!) and now if one of his favorite things gets stuck in the pond, he gets stuck there too.
We have one dog in class that wants to go ‘mark’ everything. He is an intact male. However, if the owner brings out his ball……….he decides to come play!
Anything that runs!
My border terrier pup came pre-loaded with an excellent recall. His breeder whistled and rewarded every recall from the time they could just barely walk. He still comes to the whistle at a full speed run. And I always have a bucket of treats at the back door to reward him with. It’s too important of a behavior not to keep rewarding. We play the Name Game a lot too. He goes to daycare with me daily and I can even call him off another dog that he’s starting to play roughly with. He’s a terrier, so keeping him responding is so very important. I never want him to learn to blow me off so I’m rewarding all the time.
My 2 yr old English Shepherd is pretty good when we are ‘working’ but not when
I actually need her to come. We can work with some distractions, but a bike
or a jogger on our country road wins – unless we happen to be training at the exact moment a bikes goes by and even then recall isn’t 100%. Even away from something to pester, “come” is a dilly dally. Sometimes, she’ll actually go find a ball before she comes. Aaahhhhhhh!
She is not food motivated, toys (balls) are her favorite.
I do confess to reinforcing c-r-a-p. Sometimes I’m just grateful she moves in my direction. Sad, but true.
I have 5 Aussies and 4 cats. My recalls are about 99% because that is a major issue with me. However, I have a young cat who likes to sneak up behind a dog, then take off at full speed, running underneath the dog if possible. It is the one thing that I cannot get a handle on. It results in a hundred yards of mayhem before my dog(s) can hear me. Sherman the cat thinks it is the best game ever. Aaaaagh!
Small moving animals – dogs especially. I can call her off squirrels and birds in the backyard but a fast moving animal is too great a distraction
My dogs recall is not good consistantly. If he starts barking at the dogs next door I can now call him and he will come back to me ….food each time he returned to me seemed to helpwith that.
My main issue relating to recalls though is when he takes off to bark at ‘someone’, last week it was a big man with a beanie on walking at the beach, He comes back but not until he is ready and it is not nice for people to have a large black barking dog approach them. This hasn’t happened often but once is too often for me.
So what is his best (worst) distraction ….I would say things he is unsure of.
Bunnies. That and he tries to lure me into the “I have your most prized possession and I will chew it up if you don’t chase me and get it back.” I know better than to play that game, but he still gives it a try.
Please help!! I love your DVDs, because you are so good at breaking things down and making even difficult exercises seem easy and doable for a green trainer like me. I have two American Eskimo dogs. You have mentioned working with eskies at your camps before, so I’m sure you know how independent minded they can be!
My male (now 3 years old) has always been VERY independent. Our biggest problem is cars driving past our house on the road (he likes to bark at them from our porch up on the hill). But more troubling, sometimes he has these moments when he will stand still and just look at me, like he’s deciding whether or not to respond, and wondering what I will do if he doesn’t! I worry that he is shaping me to get better treats, or work harder for his attention, rather than me shaping him to respond more readily. How do I respond without giving in to the little terrorist?
My female eskie is 15 months old. She seemed to be born with a rock solid recall, and would come EVERY TIME on the first call — until she turned one year old. The best description I have is that it was like the terrible twos hit, and one day, she decided to see what would happen if she said “no.” She still comes frequently, but instead of the sweet puppy who would always respond immediately when she was asked to do something, she has started developing selective hearing.
My immediate thought is that I probably have to start varying the rewards a bit more (I usually used cut up smoked salmon, microwaved hotdogs, or cubed chicken breast, or pieces of steak); these don’t seem to be providing enough motivation, and/or the value isn’t transferring to responding to me. In addition to reading your book Ruff Love (which I have ordered), what can I do to convince these independent guys that it’s their idea and in their best interest to respond immediately to my requests?
When my new pup-pup-pup came to us, he had, and still has, at 5 months, a brilliant recall. I can call him away from ANYTHING! which made me think of the less-than-brilliant recall I have with my 4-year old. His recall was more along the lines of the “I’ll come if I want to” variety, which, as you say, doesn’t make the handler/owner feel very “special”. (I am referring for the most part to recalls while we are out walking.)
So I went to work. A good recall, coming to me at full tilt earns a lot of praise and a good cookie, a slight delay, but anything less gives him moderate praise, and perhaps a cookie if he comes in to me and gives me a “behavior”. Not coming is a matter for a stern “what were you thinking” reaction. Biggest distraction I would have to say, is “garbage food” … Oh, another thing I did was I switched from “Come” to a whistle. I was amazed at how differently he responded – guess the old-hat “come” had lost some of its meaning?
/Abi
I also have to agree with Dawn about the bathroom thing. Doesn’t matter what they’re doing the boy dogs sometimes just have to get that extra squirt in…..even if they have nothing left to squirt.
I have two dogs with brilliant recalls. I have reinforced and rewarded those recalls heavily…and still do! My youngest dog – who is very confident, independent, and has quite the prey drive – isn’t so pretty. Wildlife and other dogs can be a challenge. Recalling out of a pond? Maybe. My biggest concern is traffic – she isn’t given the opportunity, of course, but she might chase if she could. How do you build that recall with things (like ponds or cars) that the dog places a higher value on than food or tug?
We’ve got a fairly good obedience recall – but that isn’t really what this discussion is about. I’m kinda happy that we at least have that. I can take some pleasure in knowing that she likes to come to me sometimes.
Unfortunately, I’m in the group whose dogs’ recalls have collapsed over time. I fully take the blame for it. I didn’t make myself as rewarding or reinforcing as other things are to her, and I need help in understanding how to do so.
Things that I’m pretty sure I’d be ignored for : 1) certain food (if it’s treats or cheese or something, she might come to me. If we’re in an open field and she finds a carcass, no way), 2) critters (doesn’t help that she’s caught squirrels, chipmunks, and birds on the fly – if the squirrels try to run atop the fence, she’s discovered that slamming the fence with her shoulder knocks them off. At least lack of intelligence or problem solving ability isn’t the issue) 3) if she’s in a zoomie attack it might be 50/50.
I guess, the short of it would be, I’m not as rewarding/reinforcing as her prey drive.
We’ve done recall games in training so, like I said, she is good on a formal recall. But not when she’s found things more interesting than me 🙁
Mika, my schnauzer, actually has a pretty great recall. Very occasionally, she will find a really interesting smell and not come when I call, but that’s *very* occasionally. (although she never ignores me completely; she will always look back at me)
Wall-e, my sheltie, is a different story! If he’s in herding/chasing mode and sees a car or a group of kids playing, he’s already lost his brain and won’t hear my recall cue. He has been getting a bit better lately, but I have to make sure to call him before he goes over-the-top crazy and manic.
~Nat
Ditto to Kathy above. Definitely need help! Any ideas will be appreciated.
Great subject.