New Puppy Guardian: How to coach a reliable recall

What an exciting time, getting a puppy! To give your puppy the best start in life it’s important to give them the key life skills to be able to deal with the world as they grow and develop. It’s also important to raise a puppy who fits into society and is not a bother to other humans or dogs. Part of this involves coaching a reliable recall. A recall is the ability to call your dog and for them to return to you. The fundamental thing to remember with a recall is that the dog doesn’t feel that they ‘have’ to come to you when called, but they ‘want’ to come to you. 

Start coaching a recall as soon as you can, with all coaching it is important to start in a low distraction environment. 

Below are the things you need to get together before you start:

• Lots of small smelly treats that your puppy enjoys
• Pop a harness or collar on your puppy – if you need help on how to fit these items stress free please let us know
• A lead if you are heading outside (it’s also good to practice inside with a lead on too)

Stages of coaching a recall

Start off in the house, your puppy will be used to the sights and smells so it will be easier for them to concentrate on what you are teaching them.

1. Sit on the floor with your puppy and place a treat out about an arms length away from you, as you place it on the floor encourage your puppy to get it. As they eat the treat and turn back towards you call their name or make a noise to encourage them to come towards you. As they reach you make a fuss of them and give them a reward. 
2. Repeat the same as point 1 but with you standing.
3. Repeat the above but throw the treat out a bit further, as they turn to come back towards you start moving backwards whilst encouraging them to come towards you. As they reach you give them 3 rewards, one after the other. This will make you more valuable to them than the 1 reward they picked up off the floor to start with. 
4. Now they are getting the hang of coming back towards you it’s important to start marking the behaviour and adding a cue to it. By a cue we mean a word that when you say it they know what behaviour you would like them to do. In this example we are going to use ‘Come’.
5. As your dog comes towards you use the cue ‘Come’, as they get to you mark with your verbal marker (i.e. ‘Yes’) or use a clicker and give them the reward. 

What is a marker?

A marker is something that you say i.e. ‘Yes’, ‘Good’ or ‘Nice’ or the use of a clicker to mark a desired behaviour. This is always followed by something the puppy enjoys – such as a food reward, play or fuss. The puppy therefore pairs behaviours with something nice happening, which increases the chance of those behaviours being repeated. 

You should find a food reward is enjoyable for your puppy but remember they may prefer a toy or physical fuss so find out what motivates your dog.  

Teach a release and play!

1. Once your dog has completed the behaviour – by coming back to you and receiving their reward you then need to release them. This is so they know the behaviour is complete and they can go off again. 
2. To teach this, decide which word you would like to use such as ‘Ok’, ‘Free’ or ‘Break’. Once you have rewarded them for the recall say your release cue word as you gesture away from you. Then leave them to go off and sniff, investigate etc.
3. Once you have finished a coaching session it’s advisable to finish with a fun game. This not only builds the bond between the two of you but is also shown to help cement your dogs learning. Puppies often enjoy a game of gentle tug. 
4. As your puppy starts to understand what the recall cue means – i.e. ‘Come’ means run back towards my human. You can start using this cue before they are doing the behaviour. For example, when your dog is away from you, call their name and ‘Come’ and they should perform the behaviour of running back towards you. As they get to you, mark and reward. Again, then release them and ensure at the end of the coaching session you finish with play.

 
Don’t Rush! 

Please remember that the steps above cover the whole process of coaching a recall, these steps should be taught over a few sessions. It’s important to always set our puppy up to succeed so don’t rush things and keep coaching sessions short, max 5-10 minutes at a time depending on their age. You can repeat this a couple of times a day but when you are coaching or practicing a skill make sure you keep the session short. As the puppy (and you!) become tired, mistakes and frustration can occur and learning will be hindered.
It’s also important to only call them when you are 95-100% sure they will come back. If you call them but they don’t perform the behaviour they have failed and no learning of how to complete a recall will take place. This could also lead to frustration on your part.

Success leads to success 

It’s important to always set our puppy up to succeed, if their experiences and coaching sessions are successful and enjoyable their learning will be accelerated. It’s important when teaching a new skill to start in a low distraction environment to help ensure success. As your puppy becomes proficient in the skill in this environment you can then move to a higher distraction environment. It helps to think of it like a video game, you need to start at level 1 before being able to ‘graduate’ to the next level.

The below gives and example:

Level 1: In the home
Level 2: In the garden
Level 3: On a quiet side street
Level 4: A field without other dogs/humans
Level 5: A field/park with dogs/humans/children or a busy high street

If you find your puppy disengaging, such as sniffing, scratching or drinking they may be finding the task too difficult or are not sure what you are asking them to do. If you spot these signs it’s important to stop and give your puppy some downtime. Come back to the session again later but simplify what you were asking them to do by going back a step or 2 on the above stages.

Troubleshooting 

• As your puppy gets older they will hit adolescence (from around 16 weeks), don’t be surprised if your training goes backwards and you feel like your puppy ‘isn’t listening to you’, take your training back to basics and lower your expectations of your dog performing behaviours successfully in high level environments.
• You need to bear in mind if you recall your dog, mark and reward and release them straight away they may get in to this habit and start running off straight after their reward. To combat this, vary the time between rewarding and releasing. Rather than just giving them one reward each time. Other options are to sprinkle a few treats on the floor or ask for another behaviour such as a hand touch (their nose touching your hand). 
• It’s also important to sometimes put the lead on them when you recall them, before taking it off again and releasing them. This means that they won’t get used to the lead going on and going home at the end of a recall. This could start to create a negative association with recall. 
• To ensure success, when you go to higher level environments i.e. fields, have your dog on a harness and long line so they cannot move too far from you. Do not pull on the lead if they don’t recall straight away, just wait for them to re engage with you. When they do, that means party time – lots of treats, toys and fuss!

Progressions 
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Think about adding variety to the end of the recall, here are a few games you can incorporate: 

• ‘Through the legs’ – As your dog runs back towards you, throw the treat through your legs so your dog runs through to get it. This will help keep their speed up as they run towards you rather than them slowing down or stopping a few feet away from you. If this isn’t possible you can turn on the side as they come towards you and throw the treat sideways.
• Hand touch – Teach your dog a hand touch, when their nose touches the palm of your hand they get a reward. As you call your dog, offer them your palm and watch them run in for a nose touch!
• Scent game – As they come in, sprinkle a few treats on the floor for them to sniff out.

Find out more about our Puppy Coaching classes

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