Recall is one of the most important skills to build. There are many things that will build and improve your dogs ability to COME when called.

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4 Rules of Recall PDF

4 Rules of Recall Podcast

This YouTube playlist includes the name game, collar game, silly search, chase games and more! Click below to watch.

Youtube Video Recall Playlist

Click the below buttons to jump to each section.

VIDEO LINK

You can also watch this video for more details: https://youtu.be/T97ZyB_9nrc

DESCRIPTION

It is essential for your dog to recognize and respond quickly to their name. This improves engagement and it’s a safety precaution.

This will make all of your training in the future much easier. The idea behind name recognition is to teach your dog that their name means something good is about to happen!

SET UP / SUPPLIES NEEDED

1. Treats or even kibble if your dog loves kibble
2. Location - Do your first session in a comfortable, quiet, familiar, location inside your home (bathrooms are great).
3. Have 5-10 pieces of kibble and/or treats.

When you start any new training, you will go faster and further if other family members and pets are not in the same space as you. You can add these distractions later.

TRAINING DIRECTIONS

Start when you have your dog’s attention. With some treats handy, say your dog’s name and then immediately give a treat. Wait a bit for them to finish eating and then repeat their name for 5 to 10 treats.

Stay close and get the treat to them no matter what they are doing when you start this game. Practice near your dog in many areas until your dog begins to associate the sound of his name with a delicious treat.

After you’ve done 5-10 treats multiple times you can advance the exercise when your dog’s attention is not on you. When your dog is distracted, call their name. As soon as they turn towards you, say “yes!” and immediately give or throw a treat.

Keep a sealed container full of treats on the counter and do the name game 100X per week. Keep practicing this easy game that you will not want to practice because it’s so easy. Don’t stop doing this for a minimum of 3 weeks 2X / day. This classically conditions our dogs to have an automatic response to paying attention to their name and it will make a big difference.

GOAL: To teach your dog that when you call their name, they stop in their tracks and turn on a dime to pay attention to you.

ADVANCED GOAL: if you keep practicing, and slowly add calling their name in more challenging environments, the name game will get a response no matter where your dog is.

WHY WE NEED IT: Getting your dogs attention, getting a quick response.

The Name Game It is essential for your dog to recognize and respond quickly to their name. This improves engagement and it’s a safety precaution.

If you want a great recall do this 100X each week for 6 weeks about 15 treats or kibble/day. The goal is to call their name and they will stop in their tracks and turn on a dime to pay attention to you. This will make all of your training in the future much easier. The idea behind name recognition is to teach your dog that their name means something great is about to happen!

The name game is much easier to do than most training games, you might be tempted to complicate it. DON’T

Dogs Name = Great Things Happen

Be sure to cue your Dogs Name and then REWARD. If you say your Dog's Name & REWARD at the same time, this does not work. If you feed at the same time, it's too exciting to pay attention to anything you say. FIDO!

WEEK 1 -

Start when you have your dog’s attention. Say your dog’s name and then immediately give a treat. Wait a bit and then repeat for 5 to 10 treats. Send them off with a SEARCH/FIND IT ( depending on your cue word ) low value reset. CUE, show them the food and then throw it, hard kibble on a hard floor is a great choice.

As you practice this everyday, your dog will begin to associate the sound of their name with a yummy treat. After you’ve done 2 or 3 sets of 5-10 treats everyday for a week, you can advance. You can try these options as the week progresses — You can generalize the behavior by alternating the hand you use for treat delivery and by changing training locations.

WEEK 2 -

Do not advance until you do the name game 100X for a week working close to your Pup and are getting an excited response. See how your Pup responds to one or two of these versions each day.

• Change the volume of their name from whisper to shout - mostly middle volume but add in the extremes here and there
• Change the tone of voice, use high tone Mickey Mouse voices much more than low tone angry but add a few in.
• Change the speed of delivery Call the name, wait for eye contact, then REWARD. When your dog is distracted, call their name. As soon as they turn towards you, say “yes!” and immediately give or throw a treat.

VIDEO LINK:
https://youtu.be/k6A06RtYuLY

DESCRIPTION

To keep our dogs safe we have to condition reaching for and eventually grabbing their collar. If our dogs back away when we reach for them, nips or has any shy or any type of fear response we can recondition our outstretched hand. We want them to feel comfortable with this and if you do enough repetitions, they will be participating and coming into your hand.

SET UP / SUPPLIES NEEDED

1. Collar or Harness on.
2. Location - Do your first session in a quiet boring area inside your home (bathrooms are great).
3. Have 20 or so pieces of kibble and/or treats.

TRAINING DIRECTIONS

• Have 5 or so treats in one hand.
• Visualize your dog's head as a clock. Move your empty hand slowly toward your dog in a claw-like gesture, near 6:00 o’clock. (This helps your Pup understand that it is a request for the collar vs a flat vertical hand which might indicate a request for a nose touch, or a flat horizontal hand which many use as a request for a paw.)
• Feed a treat from the other hand while your reached out hand stays in place.
• You are not grabbing your dog's collar at this point, but just reaching out towards it to help your dog feel better about a hand approaching in this way. If your dog moves back or tries to avoid your hand, this is information that you're moving too close too fast. Approach at half the distance towards your dog in the next repetition.
• Remove both hands at the same time and hide them behind your back.
• After your dog is comfortable at 6:00 and is okay with you touching the collar then grabbing the collar, you can go to 3:00, then 9:00, then 12:00. Reaching / hovering over your dog's head at 12:00 can be scary, if your dog is shying away, slow down and know if you go slow you’ll get there, if you rush, you may lose the progress you’ve made so far.
• You can do everything the same when reaching for a harness, slowly working to be able to grab the harness.

RESET

• After 5 to10 treats working closer to the collar as your dog is comfortable, it’s time for a reset to give them a break. Say the word SEARCH or FIND depending on which cue you created. After you say the word, toss the treat a few feet away so they can wander off and take a break.

* PRO TIP - say the word SEARCH before tossing a treat. *

If you toss the treat FIRST and then say the word AFTER your dog is not learning to LISTEN for cues to do the next behavior.

These little details of timing & mechanics will build the behavior fast.

HOW FAST OR SLOW DO WE ADVANCE THE COLLAR GAME?

If your dog is anxious, confused, moves away and/or displays a stress signal (see signals/body language PDF) you're going too fast or you are too close… perhaps hovering over.

Reposition, move slower and have your hand come from below toward the collar at the throat instead of above toward the back of the neck.

As your Pup learns the game, reach a little farther and faster when your Pup is ready.

PRACTICE

Work with a short slow reach until your dog is comfortable and happy to get a treat after the reach, you will advance to touching the collar, THEN FEED. After a few weeks of regular practice you will grasp and feed and eventually advance to holding the collar, THEN FEED.

When you hold the collar, practice holding by the throat so any pressure necessary goes to the back of the neck. We also recommend conditioning and using a harness for this and many of the RECALL training games, for comfort and safety.

Repeat and change it up as your Pup gets comfortable.

ADVANCED

• Change hands.
• Change where you touch the collar.
• Change your speed.
• Change who plays so your Pup accepts others doing the game so your dog can be caught by strangers in an emergency.

This game done consistently and with subtle adjustments as you go, creates a COLLAR GIVE! (After 100 successful grabs) You will shift your approach and be holding your hand near the collar and WAIT… your dog will move into your hand!

GOAL: To teach your dog that it’s fun to have anyone reach in and grab their collar.

ADVANCED GOAL: The GIVE teaches you the difference between classical conditioning and operant behaviors. It teaches your dog to participate in the game and teaches you to wait for your dog to succeed then treat.

WHY WE NEED IT: This is for SAFETY we want to be able to grab our dogs without them shying away. If you have practiced this consistently you will be able to use this in case of emergency.

We can also use this to improve recall work. Our dogs need to come all the way in to get the reward versus the ‘drive by’ RECALL. The reward/s happen after the collar grab.

There is a tendency to use a reached out hand with food in it to lure your Pup to you. When you LURE... your Pup is too focused on the food to learn a behavior and if you teach the behavior with a lure, you may always need the lure.

When we reach out with an empty hand as our Pup is coming to us, they learn that coming into the hand is the terminal / finishing position that earns the reward. This is also how we can prevent ‘drive by’ recalls!

They learn that you are the most important thing to engage with and rewards will follow that engagement.

Coming soon!