# Difficulty with recall



## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

I feel your worry! My previous house was about 200 feet from a 6 lane highway - with no fence inbetween! 

I've always been really big on recall training. Either she doesn't understand it or your reward is not good enough. the failure of most dog training classes with the "come" command is that usually everybody lines up on one side of the room, walks to the other side of the room and calls their dogs. WHILE FACING THEIR DOGS, they do various activities practicing come and stay.

This does not translate to real-life situations.

The recall, in my mind, is not about your dog coming to you. It is teaching the dog to break focus and TURN towards you. The simplest way to do that is clicker training because you can, very accurately, teach the dog that the reward is for the moment when they turn to you. I trained the foundations of it at least 100 times per day, per dog. And it pays off. When you recall your dog off chasing a low-flying duck, or from chasing a feral cat, or recaling your dog out of a dog fight (!!!!!!!), or recalling your dog from acres away... then you will know that every second and every repetition was worth it.

Right now, your dog is not ready for the amount of freedom you are giving. She must stay on a long line outdoors until you've more progress on the recall. I believe you should practice the recall when she is out on that field, even with other dogs around.

When recall training is "iffy", second command you can teach is very easy. Teach "go home" or "to the car". This is a HIGHLY REWARDED behavior. I would come in from training/playing, imprint the cue, and dump the rest of the treats on the front porch. Every time we went in the front door, I imprinted "go home" and they got a huge food reward on the porch.

It paid off. One time I was training a dog offleash, and my other dog ate a whole pizza off the stove, opened the back door, jumped the fence and came running out into the yard (heaven forbid that she would not be the center of attention, lol). The two dogs started playing and started running towards the highway. I yelled "go home!" They turned on a dime, about 20 feet from the highway and ran to the front porch. 

A harder command to teach (but well worth the work), is an emergency down. Imagine your dog is running full force after something. You give a command and your dog drops on the ground. Pretty awesome to watch.


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## hershey567 (Mar 15, 2012)

Thanks for the insight. Yes, it is true that my reward for recalling her has been lacking. I really like the idea of "go home" with tonnes of treats!

I got a bit "gun-shy" on the treats a few months back because I went overboard with (testing some different) treats and she ended up soiling her crate two nights in a row. Not just soiling, but SOILING. It was everywhere!!! I think it was too many carrots :S

Right now I just user her kibble as treats, and she LOVES it! I have tried liver flavoured biscuits (will ignore them outdoors) and just found some liver treats that helped me train her to heel while I'm running. Strange that she won't heel while I'm walking though....

Thanks again. I'll try the clicker, extra treats with "go home" and upon her turning her attention to me outdoors. I'll have to go get me a long lead now, or make one.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Good ideas from Tortoise.

Can I ask how old Hershey is? Adolescent dogs often go through a phase of forgetting everything they have learned, And research has shown that an animal that is completely focussed on something interesting simply does not hear you calling - she may not be ignoring you, just not hearing you!

I try to practice recall several times in every walk, with treats and sending off to explore again as the reward. And cooked chicken is usually both irresistable and safe. I have invited a local councillor to come for a walk with us, as part of my campaign to get the council to soften a proposed Dog Control Order. I have chicken all ready cut up in the freezer, to ensure my dogs are super well-behaved that day!


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

Very good points above. I totally second the cooked chicken idea. It sounds to me like you just need to practice more in real work situations, starting with a long line, and up your reward. I wanted to stress what fjm said about recall, reward, release. In my experience, this is one of the most overlooked but also most effective ways of building a recall. 

I read in a book, can't recall which one, a really good example of this. It said to think of an adolescent boy, he's out playing with his friends in the park. If you call him over and gush over him, give him hugs and kisses in front of his friends, he's not going to like it. He's likely going to get all defensive and run away as fast as he can, then be reluctant to do the same in the future. But if you call him over, hand him $5 for a snack, and let him be on his way, you are going to be the coolest parent ever. Apply this same principle to your dog for practicing recall. Don't call Hershey to "come" and then lavish him with love and affection and pets and keep him there a long time. Call him to come, hand him a couple pieces of boiled chicken, and _immediately_ release him to go back and play.


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## sarpoodle (Dec 26, 2011)

Sookster said:


> Call him to come, hand him a couple pieces of boiled chicken, and _immediately_ release him to go back and play.


Also, as you give the chicken (or whatever the food reward is, I use liverwurst for my recall drills), be sure to put your hand on the dog's collar. As my dogs come in, I first take a hold of the collar using the loose fist around the treat to draw them in. Once I have the collar, then I treat the dog.

If you don't do this, often times when you recall the dog, and try to leash it up, the dog may back peddle and speed away. He may be reluctant to come back to you after that because he knows that you will leash him up to presumably end the party as it were.

One last thing worth teaching too with this is a release command, such as "free dog" (which is what I use). At first, you're simply trying to reinforce the recall command, but you are ultimately building towards the goal of recall and remain with me sort of thing. By using the release command now after treating the dog starts to help create that boundary.

I agree with tortoise's suggestion of using a drag line until the dog has regained a solid recall. My youngest dog Saydee (now 10 months) had a great recall, even under strong distractions, until entering adolescence. Now she is on a long drag line while training so I can immediately enforce a recall or some other command she may be blowing off. I drill her every day by taking her into increasingly more distracting environments and recall her, treat and release. We do a number of recalls during each session. If she comes right away, she gets the super yummy treat. If I have to use the drag line to bring her in, then she gets a slightly less yummy treat. She likes the liverwurst much better, and soon gets the point.

Greg


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

Excellent advice here already. 

I would only add that it is crucial to build the HABIT in the dog of recalling.

It's tempting, once we feel the dog knows the cue, to forget to practice, or to only recall when we want the dog for something (usually to go home).

But by building the habit of recall when there are no big distractions, I think you actually build a sort of automatic physical response, which is what you want. I don't want my dog considering each time whether it is worth coming back to me ... at some point, there is going to be something more valuable to him than the bit of liver cake I might have on me. I want a reflex response. The dog has a general picture in his head ("recall = good stuff") plus a very strong habit of recalling. This combo will save the day when there is something alluring out there.

Practice, practice, practice, hundreds of recalls per week. 99% of them will be to treat the dog and send her back out again. She'll forgive you the 1% where you want to take her home or keep her from rolling in the fox poo :smile:.

If liver upsets her stomach, what about smelly cheese or boiled chicken? Bits of bacon are popular with my dog. The recall reward, especially if her recall is iffy, should be a super one.


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