# Teaching An Honest, Enthusiastic Recall



## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

Ljilly28 said:


> The way I achieve trustworthy recalls with my dogs is by starting at 8 weeks with that goal foremost in my mind right after housebreaking.


For me it's before and during.....  Especially since most puppies really aren't housebroken until after they go through their big growth (bigger bladders). 

I trained Bertie (and Jacks before him) doing the treat toss recall in addition to the "post office" game. 

The treat toss game we did last night at class =

Toss the treat and alternate between tossing the treat back behind you through your legs (to build drive for fronts) and asking for a sit in front of you. We had 8 treats when we went out on the floor and 2 of them were used for sits. The rest were tossed through the legs.


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

Such good advice!

My breeder actually started Comet early by stamping her feet and drawing his attention and then making a party or giving another kind of reward (including a pigeon wing) when he arrived, and then immediately letting him return to exploring without restraining him. So by 8 weeks, he was already coming over if you stamped your feet or whistled.

Here are some more tips:

Don't punish your dog for coming. The first piece of that means that if your dog was blowing you off and running around, you don't yell at him when he finally pays attention to you. You reward him when he finally does it right. That can seem like rewarding the bad behavior, but dogs are pretty poor about chaining consequences together, so a reward for what he's doing right now doesn't really reward what he was just doing a minute ago.

The second piece is not to _accidentally_ punish your dog for coming. The definition of punishment here is not yelling or hitting; everybody knows those are punishments. It's anything that makes recall less likely next time. If coming to you ends playtime, that's a punishment. If coming to you means that we have to go inside now, that can be punishment for a dog who wants to stay outside. If coming to you means the leash goes on, that can be punishment. If you restrain the puppy for a hug once he comes, that can be a punishment to many pups, since many don't like hugging and many would prefer to immediately go back to exploration after getting their reward for coming to you. 

Read your puppy and think ahead to make sure that 99% of his recalls end in a reward and then a return to whatever he wants to do. Then the 1% where you do have to end playtime, leash the dog, go inside, or pick him up won't undo the 99% where it was awesome. Realistically, it needs to be 9 times that it's rewarding with no punishment for every 1 time that you end playtime.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

Keep in mind your body language. If you have a dog that is reluctant to come, or is learning what 'recall' means, turning sideways can help, 'head on' can be perceived as 'confrontational' as can direct eye contact, lowering your body is more 'inviting'. Moving away from the dog, backing up or turning and running away, rather than moving/stepping towards them. Don't forget to reward, praise, part when he gets there.
Be aware of your tone of voice - keep it happy, up beat - yelling at a dog to come, lets him know you are not 'happy'. Don't repeat your recall cue word, encourage the dog to come with praise as he does.
Set your dog up to succeed - start up close in a non distracting environment, gradually build distance and then distractions. Use a long line to keep him safe when building distance, but resist the urge to 'reel' him in.


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