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 10^th 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:

1. CALL your dog to you, then
2. REWARD your dog within 2 seconds and then immediately
3. 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!

 

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