When Recall goes Wrong

TRAINING BLOG

Watch the video and pause when the information comes up to give you chance to read and digest it fully. Then read the blog to give you a full incite on teaching a good recall.

I am not videographer so I apologise for the video quality.

When recall goes wrong, So many owners struggle with recall and in this blog I want to help owners understand more about the ‘why’ and the possible contributors, what can contribute to a behaviour happening. Help owners to understand why previous training might not of worked.

If you want to skip straight to the part that explains the video scroll down and you will see the title but I strongly urge you to read all the in formation to get a better understanding and if you want to get an even better grasp on training I recommend reading my last blog about my dog training blog.

Why hasn’t your previous training worked, there are so many complex parts to why a certain behaviour happens which is why there is no one action that can fix a behaviour problem. I am going to attempt to show owners how our own actions and how we act with our dogs whether unintentional or not can contribute to certain types of behaviours with our dogs and not all we want, And the behaviours might happen. Like with any type of training you do to alter a behaviour looking into what can cause it and the contributors to it, will help you to understand why it happens and because without first tacking the why and the contributors the end result won’t change as the ‘why’ is still there.

Why do you think your dog’s recall has gone wrong, the most common reason owners say that they have poor recall is because there dog runs off to other dogs or people.

So why do dogs run of to other dogs and people or just generally dont come back when called, well to make a long story a simple short story it’s because they are more interesting than you. Although the ultimate reason is quite simplistic there are multiple complex part that all contribute to a poor recall, Which is why so many owners struggle with it. If the why is just simply because you’re not interesting enough isnt the answer just be more interesting or could it be improving your relationship with your dog so they don’t want to run off to more interesting things.

What would you think If I told you that how many times you call your dog’s name when trying to recall can be a contributor, their diet even how you leave the house when going out for walks or if your dog’s pulls on a lead, I know what you’re thinking, what? think of it this way if they don’t listen to you when on the lead what do you think your chances are when they are off the lead, if you can’t get your dog to stop pulling no matter how many times you tell them why would you expect them to listen when they are off the lead, well that sounds simple and almost common sense, but to go back to the complex parts why are they pulling? are they over excited, under stimulated leaving them frustrated, lack of proper exercise these all are contributors to recall as well and Lead walking and recall are more linked then you think.

Where does poor recall most commonly happen, out on a walk which involves lead walking and How does your dog know they are going out for a walk, usually when you pick the lead up which your dog then runs to the door all excited. You put the lead on the dog open the door and then your dragged out the door and down the street to the park where you let them off, but they see another dog so they run off you eventually catch up to them put them back on the lead and head back home. Creating a vicious circle of ever excitement, lack of proper exercise and leaving your dog under stimulated and frustrated, and the circle is continued every time you take your dog out. I am not going to cover lead walking in this blog as that’s a whole story on its own, But picking apart what you have just read how did the circle start, before the they run off to the other dog, the very start is at back home when you picked their lead up so the story started with excited usually over excited. which can be caused by pent up energy, lack of stimulation, lack of proper exercise all causing frustration for the dog. The most common contributor to over excitement the fuel to its fire is the dog not knowing or not being taught how to switch off, again that is a whole different story on its own too much to cover here, but I highly recommend you do your own research for this.

An over excited dog has less ability to think rationally, Excitement, over excitement can fuel most behaviour problems but it’s not the dog being excited that’s the problem like I have just said if the dog hasn’t been taught how to switch off and relax they are always on the go this then contributing to the dogs having a lack of ability to control its excitement without becoming over excited to the point where they can’t listen, acknowledge its surroundings and they lose the ability to think rationally.

So going back to the beginning of the circle which was over excited. If you’re at your door and you can’t get your dog to sit before leaving the house what do you think your chances are for getting them to come when called when out. What do you think there chances would be, if you were to wait for your dog to calm down, at least to the point where you can get a sit. Starting your walk in a calmer manor stetting your dog up on the right path where they can think rationally and acknowledge its surroundings which in turn your dog actually acknowledges its surrounds, sniffing giving them the mental stimulation they need. They are less likely to be pulling at the end of lead because they are acknowledging its soundings and sniffing them, Because a dog that is pulling at the end of the lead isnt sniffing and isnt really acknowledging its surroundings, so it’s not fulfilling their needs. Just to point out this won’t fix lead pulling but can you see how it can contributes to lead pulling and hopefully you can see how it can contribute to poor recall and what I mean by the multiple contributors to our dogs behaviour which is why there is no one action that will fix the problem. But starting of on the right foot will contribute to the behaviour we do want.

Getting your dog to calm down is just a matter of simply waiting but this will take time but if you practice this before ever walk it will get better and you will have to wait less and less overtime.

On to our own contributors to the behaviour we are wanting to change, if you want to go for a walk and you want to set of with your dog in a calmer manner do you think you interacting with your dog excitedly will keep them calm. Our own feelings, mood, tone of voice, body language, how we greet our dogs all contribute to behaviours in dogs and not all to the behaviours we want, the most common contributor to over excitement in dogs is over zealous greetings and goodbyes from us, not only does this teach our dogs to greet other people in an excited manor but other dogs as well which may result in dogs snapping at your dog as in dog language it’s actually not a polite way to greet, And it can also contribute to anxiety and stress in dogs.

We love our dogs and we do get excited when we see them and we don’t like to leave them, I am not going to tell you how to interact with your dog, just bring light to if you have behaviour issues what can cause and contribute to those behaviours a lot of time it’s finding the balance of what we want to do and what will benefit the dog. I could go into grave detail on how lack of boundaries, jumping up, feeding dogs of our own plates, and their diet can all contribute but you would still be reading this till next Christmas.

How can we inadvertently teach our dogs something, to give you an idea, going back to the beginning of the dog walking circle when your dog gets over excited for its walk it’s because it wants to go out, so if you leave the house while the dog is in that over excited state that rewards the dogs over excitement to give you more context ‘you have a treat for you dog you ask your dog to sit before giving it to them the dog wants the treat so they sit’ you then giving the treat is the reinforcement for the sit, the reward. The dog getting what it wants is the reward, you could be unintentionally rewarding the over excitement, so if where to wait for you dog to calm down what do you think the reward for that behaviour would be, a treat… No it would be going out the house. A reward to the dog isnt always a treat it’s what is more desirable to them at that time, some behaviours are self-rewarding like lead pulling or steeling food.

Explaining the video

On to the video, First things first I always recommend using a long line (Not a retractable lead) if your dog has a history of poor recall to prevent any potential accidents, which can happen and is quite common with dogs that have a habit of running off.

If you have watched the video and now reading this did you notice one thing, Dora the dog used in the video wasn’t on a long line, you may of caught a bit in the video to why but. As it says in the video, Dora is a family members dog, I have known her from birth which means I know her, I know her previous training and her capabilities and temperament, and her history of recall, she doesn’t have a history of poor recall and we were the only people there. so if you have watched the video you will know why I don’t have Dora on a long line and that I was taking advantage of a teaching moment while Dora was having what you could call a teenage strop as she is still young and to show you how I re train recall, and how I go about creating a trust worthy recall. As I was taking advantage of the situation it meant that I had my own dogs with me because we were out on a walk and not wanting to miss the training opportunity and as for Dora this type of behaviour needed to be tackle as it happened to not to let it develop into a problem behaviour. This training is best done alone just with the dog your training. You can see in some of the clips my dogs often get in the way but I hope you can still see the method and technique I was trying to show and how it all came together.

For this method I used a clicker, a lot people will know what a clicker is as it’s the most used tool in training and is the most effective tool when used correctly. But briefly if you don’t know what it is its simply a sound you use to mark the behaviour your trying to train in. You click the clicker at the exact moment the behaviour happens then reward with your training treat. To get the best results for this training, previous training with a clicker is needed. It is too much to cover here but If you haven’t used a clicker before there are plenty of videos on YouTube, clicker training is used for far more than just recall training so I highly recommend you look it up and it’s so easy to teach.

When starting this training you need to do it in a low distraction area maybe start in your home or garden with less distractions they are more likely to come when you call and then build up on each session of training you do, quiet field, quiet area of the park then an area that’s a bit busier and so on this also helps to proof the behaviour teaching your dog to come back in all different environments.

So call your dog and then wait for them to come as soon as they comes close enough to touch click then reward as said in the video this may take time but be patient wait for them to come and if they don’t come leave it a couple of minutes and try again. Your dog being close enough to touch is important as this will help you for the next step and not to mention for when you need to put their lead on, so don’t get clicker happy and click to soon.

Once you get a consistent reaction you’re ready to move on to the next step. But before you do, did you notice how many times I called Dora’s name when I did a recall, you may of noticed in the video not all clips showed me saying her name as I cut some out so you didn’t get sick of hearing me, but I only said her name once and sometimes after wating a few seconds twice if there was no reaction with the first but that was it. No conversation and I didn’t keep repeating her name Only one clear Dora and maybe a 'come' their name to get their attention and 'come' as the cue to come to me, I use ' Come' for my dogs as I have four I find it easier to just say 'come' rather then all their names. I dont say ‘come here Dora come on, Dora come here, come here Dora, come on Dora, Dora, DORA’. I use simple clear one or two words. To reference what was said at the beginning that how many times you call your dog’s name can contribute. If they didn’t come the first, second or third time of saying their name and you keep calling them all this is teaching them is to ignore you and it takes away the meaning and the potency of the recall, this is where our own actions can contribute and not to mention confuse the poor dog.

We can also have a habit of not giving the dog enough time from you saying the cue (name) and then for them to actually do the behaviour before saying the cue again so allow some time. Our dogs don’t understand how to pick a cue out of a sentence so having a conversation with your dog when you want them to come back will just fall on death ears. Short and sweet cues are easy to understand, anouther key thing for me to point out if you only ever call your dog back when you need to which would be to put them on the lead they are only ever going to see recall as end of their fun, its best to practice recall three four times on their walk but let them go off again this is also a great way to keep your dog interacting with you on a walk helping to keep their focus which then helps to make a good recall more likely to happen not to mention the benefits it will have for your relationship and bond with your dog.

The Next step asking for a wait, like mentioned in the video previous training with wait will have needed to be done before hand, some people use stay which is fine, I use wait as with my training stay means something different. It’s also mentioned in the video I train wait to a sit but if you haven’t that’s not an issue you can simply ask for a sit, but you don’t need your dog to be in a sit if you don’t want I just like to use sit as it make a quick getaway less likely to happen.

So Recall your dog click reward ask for a wait and then let of go again.

After a lot of practice and practising in all different environments to now quote what is said in the video she knows where to be, she knows not to shoot off, so I am now not going to click until she is sat and if you have been asking for a sit previously now is the time to stop asking and just wait for it to happen. This is also the start of teaching an automatic sit, which is a great tool to teach your dog and even more so if they have a habit of jumping up. It’s also mentioned in the video, in the time that they are waiting for the click they will go through a moment of confusion and they will then naturally offer an alternative behaviour that they think is what you want so they can have the treat. Nine times out of ten the behaviour they offer is a sit, which is what we want.

In the case they don’t sit or maybe taking a little to long we can use our own body language to provoke a behaviour to happen as we are wanting to teach this as an automatic sit you don’t want to ask for it, like demonstrated in the video just slowly move towards your dog, this is a great example of how our own actions and how we act with our dog can contribute to behaviours happening not all necessarily bad. It’s also shown in video moving away from the dog when calling them incises them in, our body language is our best tool to communicate with dogs with that in mind standing tall, not crouched over will send a far better signal to your dog and they are more likely to listen to you if your stood tall rather crouched or leaning down. To put this in our perspective we look more confident when stood tall and we look shy even afraid when crouched.

It’s also at this point you will find out if you have taken the process to fast for your dog, because if they don’t sit and they then just wonder off in confusion you need to take it back a step and continue with recall and asking for a wait with them in a sit position and as you have gone back a step at this point you can ask for a sit just like before and continue this till you get a consistent result. There is nothing wrong with having to go back a step you can see in video I didn’t get the constant results I was looking for without a setback, you’re working with a living animal with its own feelings and interests. I you have a young dog repeating training as they develop will ensure your training will last.

Summary, You call your dog and when they come and sit in front of you, you click and reward them and then let your dog go of again. After a few weeks of consistent results and practicing in all different environments you can start to slowly fizzle out the clicker but still using rewards, hit and miss when you use the clicker until you feel it’s not needed, after you have stopped using the clicker you can if you choose to start to fizzle out the treat rewards in the same way but you can offer a ‘good dog’ and fuss instead along as you will need some praise or reward of some kind and you may find fizzling out the training treats will need to be a slower process so your dog doesn’t loose the motivation to come back.

So the end result is a recall that happens not matter the situation or environment, they come sit in front of you and wait till you them release them to go off and play again or attach their lead. Depending on how your dogs recall was to start with, will depend on the time frame on getting the end results as it’s a habit that’s hard to break and recall is a battle of the dogs self-reward and you’re your reward.

I go into more detail in my previous blog about my methods and that I work on building the bond, a bond and relationship with your dog with a mutual respect, this mutual respect is so your dog wants to listen to you, and not because you rolling on the floor or dancing around trying to make yourself look more interesting and exciting then the thing your dog is running of to. Which is probably the most used method from dog trainers to get a dog’s attention. The most important thing I would want any owner to take away from my blogs is there is no one action that will fix the problem you have to look in to all the contributors and the why, there is no do this and it will stop that. Just in case you need to hear this and its meant with no ill intent and I am only saying it in hope it may change the way you think about your approach to dog training, it’s not the dog that needs training, it’s you.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope it helps you on your dog training journey. If you liked my blog please share with your friends and give it like, its very much apricated.

Deborah from deborahsdogs.co.uk