Recall: Does Your Dog Really Know to Come When Called?

Behavior & Training

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Recall: Does Your Dog Really Know to Come When Called?

PhD

A third possibility is to immediately set up a similar situation as a training opportunity. Put the meatball right up to her nose, move a few feet away and call her to come. Lure her with the treat if necessary—anything to get her to come away from the food the man is giving her, and then reinforce her for doing so. Then, allow her to go back to the treat man to get whatever he has. Allowing your dog to get both reinforcement from you and what she gave up in order to come to you makes responding to your cue a winning situation all around. Setting up winning situations for your dog over and over again in all sorts of contexts is what proofing a dog for a cue is all about.

During training, have something better than what she gave up so she learns that coming to you is always worthwhile. This means that if someone is giving her liver biscotti, you give her chicken. If they are giving her a lot of nice petting attention, you give her a belly rub. If they are luring her with an ordinary ball, you reinforce her with a super bouncy ball.

In terms of your question about dogs really “getting it”—it’s hard to know for sure that your dog is proofed to respond to a cue in any situation if you have not explicitly practiced and trained her to handle a variety of environments. That said, the more situations and types of distractions in which your dog has learned to respond to the cue, the more likely it is she will respond appropriately in a novel context. Eventually, all situations are sufficiently similar that she can be said to be “fully proofed” for a particular cue. Some dogs get there faster than others, but for virtually every dog, it takes a lot of practice in a wide range of situations involving different places, with different distractions and from different distances.

For more information about canine learning, the best book on the subject is Excel-erated Learning: Explaining in Plain English How Dogs Learn and How Best to Teach Them by Pamela J. Reid, PhD. For specific advice on teaching a reliable recall to your dog, the best resource is the video Lassie Come! by Patricia B. McConnell, PhD.

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MORE TIPS
Training your dog to reliably return to you when called—any time, anywhere—could literally save her life, so it is no exaggeration to say that recall is the most important behavior you will ever teach her. Here are a few tips I regularly share with clients.

1. Play is one of the best reinforcements. If your dog learns that coming to you is fun, she will be more likely to respond. Call her to play tug or fetch, or let her chase you; even just running in the opposite direction often works, because almost all dogs love to chase. (Don’t chase your dog; she will learn to move away when you approach, and that can ruin her recall.)

2. Not all dogs are equally easy to train to come when called, and while there are exceptions, here are a few breed generalizations that usually fit. Dogs bred to work closely with people and pay attention to them during that work—Collies, Shepherds and Retrievers—are often easier to train to come when called. Dogs bred to work independently—Terriers, scent and sight hounds, Mastiffs, and Pointers—often require more practice and time for the recall to be completely proofed.

3. If your dog has learned that the word “come” has no meaning and she ignores it, consider changing the verbal cue. If a word has become irrelevant, it is often more efficient to start over. Common recall words include “here,” “front” and “ven” (Spanish for “come”).

4. Dogs need to generalize many aspects of their recall training in order to be able to respond appropriately in all contexts, which is why practice in so many contexts is important. Place, a key factor, is particularly hard for many dogs to generalize. A recall in your yard is completely different than a recall inside the house, and a recall at the park is completely different than a recall at home—inside or out. Other factors include distance (how far you are from your dog when calling her) and distraction level (food, other people, sounds, traffic, toys or other dogs). Plan to train your dog everywhere—that way, she will be more likely to respond, no matter what.

This article first appeared in The Bark, Issue 49, Jul/Aug 2008

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