# Recall Words



## Sweetearlgrey (Mar 3, 2015)

Unfortunately the family dogs do not have a trained recall, how ever they do come 99.9% of the time, unless they have it in their mind to chase down squirrels. As a person who plans about three years in advance for everything I do in my life (even planning for my poodle companion) and I am extremely determined to train my future pup with a recall. I've done a lot of reading on the subject, but my main curiosity is the recall word that would work 100% of the time, since it should be a word that isn't said a lot, but also one you can say quickly. Should your recall word be one that you hardly use with your family, but also one that is easy to say, and efficient to train with?


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## nifty (Aug 2, 2013)

Good question! In puppy training class, we were taught to simply use "Come". 

My recall training with Dulcie hasn't been going so well, and unfortunately I managed to teach her that when I say "Come" it is an optional command.

So, now I am working on training her with a new recall word. "Vite!" which is french for "Quickly!" as the emergency recall word and C'mere for the regular recall.


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## Rachel76 (Feb 3, 2014)

I think it's less about the word and more about the training and consistency. 

I use 'by me' I don't use come because even in german it sounds the same and everyone says it (me included) without much thought.

We still have a lot of work before I will feel Hemi has a good recall.


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## Sweetearlgrey (Mar 3, 2015)

Thanks for the advice . I know of course that consistency is key with training, but I knew that the recall word should be one that isn't used all of the time? Or at least thats what I have understood about recall vs just a general come here? I'm thinking potentially of using Russian, as well as hand signals for most of my training along with english, but I have still yet to figure out my perfect training program.


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## Rachel76 (Feb 3, 2014)

I hope others will respond too. I just mentioned what I do, but there are much better and more experienced trainers/owners than me on this forum.


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## dogsavvy (Mar 6, 2015)

I have a few ways I recall my dogs. I used to lose my voice a LOT. I had terrible allergies & never knew when I would totally lose my voice. I also did training seminars & demonstrations in front of large groups. Aside from my vocal troubles there would always be some low grade dude in the crowd who thought he was a parrot (sometimes ill mannered handlers, sometimes low rent trainers bitter because they weren't giving the demo, etc..) But I'd say a command to the dogs & the rude dude would parrot the command trying to mess me or the dogs up. I learned at my very first one of these to simply use hand signals. 

So my dogs have a hand signal, a whistle & a command. Sounds confusing but the fact is through puppyhood they get all of them. Maybe the pup is out in the field & I will give a very specific whistle. If the older dogs are with the pup, they will drop what they're doing & report to me ASAP. Pups tend to follow the group. If the pup is alone, the whistle gets their attention & when I have their focus I will use hand signal & command. (C'mon is the command I'll use). So for the first year of their life they're getting 3 cues to report to me. Always praised for correct behavior. Then as time goes I generally use less & less of the command & use the whistle or hand signal. This is no big deal for dogs. I've friends whose dogs know commands in multiple languages.

Where I catch problems is when people choose a word that they use when under stress but they use it wrong. "Come" is just such a word. So if I catch the dog chewing the couch & say, "Come here" then I have to praise the pup for coming to me. The dog obeyed even though I have fire shooting out of my eyes. So I have to be disciplined with myself. I always tell clients if they can see themselves having a hard time in the scenario I described, pick a different word. Here, Report, By Me, Front, Spot, Recall... whatever it is, it has to flow without you stopping to think about it. My sister could never whistle. She would say, "wheeeet" & the dogs would come flying. She was like that since she was a kid. 

So as long as you pick something, stick with it, make it fluent in your training vocabulary it's all good.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I use the dogs name followed by Come! In an emergency it is name plus Dangerous! I think a lot of the cue is down to intonation - a word blurred in a sentance doesn't usually have the same meaning for them, while an exclamation that sounds similar will get a reaction. I once announced "Gosh it's _chilly_! and Tilly-cat jumped on me...


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

I use "come" or their name followed by "come" for a front. They should come quickly and sit right in front of me and look at me. For just coming closer to me, coming along, catching up etc, I use "let's go." I have also started incorporating a whistle made from my own mouth. I use to use one of those silent whistles with my Dobe. They're kind of fun. Hand signals are taught too, simultaneously with "come." Sometimes when they're off leash, I'll whistle for them (with my own whistle) while I say, "let's go" just to start getting them to recognize that as a cue as well...in case I ever get laryngitis. LOL. I've found that dogs are so smart, they can have a few cues for the same behavior. (they always use to tell you use the same one cue for each behavior) But I find that in some cases multiple cues serve well and they totally get it once they get started learning HOW to learn.


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## Ladyscarletthawk (Dec 6, 2011)

We usually either call their names and say come. Now that our eldest has lost a lot of hearing we clap too. Normally if they are off a ways and sometimes not we just whistle.


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## peccan (Aug 26, 2014)

Sweetearlgrey said:


> (...) I'm thinking potentially of using Russian, as well as hand signals for most of my training along with english, but I have still yet to figure out my perfect training program.


I'd recommend a language that has less S and Z-type sounds and less obscene swear words... With Russian, unless you have a proficient speaker helping you, there's just too many ways to mispronounce and end up unknowingly using ridiculously explicit words as cues 9v9


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## Sweetearlgrey (Mar 3, 2015)

peccan said:


> I'd recommend a language that has less S and Z-type sounds and less obscene swear words... With Russian, unless you have a proficient speaker helping you, there's just too many ways to mispronounce and end up unknowingly using ridiculously explicit words as cues 9v9


I'm an early intermediate speaker of Russian  and usually do fine with general conversation, or I did fine until I was pancaked on the road trying to do advanced russian classes for a grad program I decided to leave. Trying to talk about political, and nuclear issues was above my head. Training with Russian is more of my own...self friendly way to encourage myself to get back on the horse and practice more often. My boyfriend is also a fluent speaker  so I usually run everything by him before I say things lol! Actually the zh is one of my favorite sounds, and oh dear the curse words are rather explicit! There is a chance that my boyfriend and I will be moving to a Russian speaking part of the world together, so I'd like my dog to be at least comfortable and slightly bilingual (Omg I'm a nut). лужа or Luzha is actually one of my top names for my poodle when I get her  Puddle! 

Thanks for all of the other advice, training a really good recall is super important to me, especially with a smaller dog, because if I ever let her off leash in a controlled environment, (my grandparents own a few hundred acres of land and creek property and ponds and all sorts of grasslands free of cars) I want her to be able to be safe, and have fun.


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## ROHAN-K9mm (Nov 20, 2011)

Use 2 , one everyone uses, and one you use. My husband uses come so much that it is like Charlie Brown listening to adults wa wa wa and our dog thinks that is optional. I trained Now privately and didnt tell anyone but the dog, I always reward it , and never use it when I think he won't come or i need to stop him from something he likes. When I call him with that command he flies. if I ever have to use it in an emergency the odds are that he will come. There is a DVD by Leslie Nelson called "Really Reliable Recall" I found helpful.


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