13/05/2020
Are you looking for a little something to do with your dogs during the "Stay at home" orders? How about working on your dogs recall! Here is an article written just for our Fields Of Funs Pack member's. Stay healthy and enjoy the time with your pups!
Recall and important training tips:
If you are like most pet owner's you probably struggle with getting your dog to respond to the most important command they will ever learn, "Come". Many times I hear owners ask why is it so hard to get my dog to respond to this command? And my response is always a long explanation to why dogs have a hard time with this command. So let’s jump in!
Imagine your dog off leash and following his nose down a path at your favorite walking trail. Lots of great smells that he normally doesn't smell while at home, and only gets to smell while on your once a week, maybe twice a week, hike. There are birds and squirrels, as well as wildlife scents everywhere. Imagine the overwhelming but interesting smells a canine can pick up on. Their nose can smell 40 times greater than a humans nose!
Now imagine that dog walking the trail and the owner deciding to stop and call their dog back. To a dog stopping means the fun ends, their options are weighed during this time. It". During this time your dog is thinking what option is the most enjoyable for them, the dog. What is in it for them if they come back to you and ignore all the wonderful smells of nature? This is the moment that you will see how well your dog listens to their recall command.
In the moments of recall when your dog is distracted and you are calling them back we seem to not understand the way they think, thus fustrating us when all we need is a little more knowledge and training between the two species.
Understanding how dog’s think will help us uncover why dogs have such a hard time deciding if their recall command will bring good or bad.
A simple way of explaining how a dog learns is by association learning. Meaning when a dog finds something rewarding or fun to them, they are more willing to listen and repeat the same action over and over again. If they find something negative they will stop repeating the action that gave the undesired feelings. It depends on the experience for the dog. Let's talk about some training terms and learn how to train a reliable recall.
Marker words or sounds would be your “Good Boy” or “Yes” or Clicker said to your dog once they are doing the action you desire. “Rover, Come!”, the dog starts to run to you, “Yes!”, followed by a reward, which would be their treats or toys. Creating such a simple reward based training encourages your dog to want to continue this action more than once. Dogs do need consistency in their training, so make sure to be consistent with the wording of the command and to make the first time said count.
Say the command “Come” loud and clear, in the same tone every time, “Rover”, pause and wait for the dog to turn back to you, then the command “Come”.Once your dog gets halfway to you start praising him and cheering him on, reward once he arrives by your feet. During the recall clapping your hands, bending down and making smoochy noises or whistling noises helps to distract the dog from all the distractions around your environment and zone in on what you are doing and saying. The more distractions you have in the training environment the more animated you need to be.
Important rule to follow is to not repeat too many times or the meaning of the command gets delayed and the dog will choose if he will come the first time or the fourth, tenth, one millionth time or maybe not come at all. You don't want the dog to learn they can get away with ignoring recall. Always encourage the dog to come to you the first time you called.
Now that we covered the way of saying the command, teaching it will be easy, while reinforcing it will be time consuming but rewarding.
Teaching the first steps of recall, first teach the basics:
1. Find a treat or dog friendly food your dog enjoys and you can use for your training sessions, referred to as your dogs reward
2. Decide what Marker word, otherwise known as a Praise word, you want to condition your dog to. (Good, Yes, or Clicker)
3. Call your dog over to you and start conditioning the Marker word with a reward. Say “Good” and feed a treat about 3 seconds later. Repeat until you see your dog perking up each time they hear the Marker word
4. After your dog associates your Marker word is paired with a reward, make them work for the reward. Work through some of their commands saying “Good” after each command and rewarding shortly after. If your dog does not know a lot of commands, use food luring to get them into easy positions. (Some easy positions are sit- food lure over the dog's head until the dog's back end touches the ground. Another command is getting eye contact after the dog's name is said- move the treat to dogs nose and bring the treat up to your nose, saying dogs name as you make this motion)
After your dog is showing signs of understanding your Marker word and how to get a reward from their Owners it is time to teach “Come”. Phase 1.
Steps to teach recall:
1. Start with you standing up and your dog in front of you
2. Put a treat in your hand and let your dog get a sniff of it
3. Walk backwards, away from your dog, and say the command “Come”
If the dog follows you Mark and Reward excitedly. If your dog does not follow restart step one but with a more potent, high value, treat
4. Repeat steps 1-4 until your dog is very eager to follow and shows signs of understanding
When the basics of recall have been taught it is time to move to phase two of their training. This step you introduce distance to the command. You will train the dog to understand recall when the dog is any distance from you. Try to train in a familiar, non distracting environment and continue using treats.
Training and tips for Phase 2 Distance:
1. Items you will need: Minimum 15foot leash, treat pouch or pocket of treats- use treats your dog finds desirable, a toy your dog enjoys chasing, and a energized attitude
2. Clip your dog's long leash on and have treats hidden in a treat pouch or pocket. Allow the dog to get distracted so you will have a chance to call them back
3. Once your dog is a good 6 feet away from you say the dog's name followed by your “Come” command. Stay where you are at, no walking backwards in this step. If he turns and comes right to you Mark the moment he is half way from you and cheer him on. Followed by reward that comes from your hidden treat pouch.
4. The way I would say it is “Rover!” said excitedly, maybe add some smoochy noises if he is distracted, once he looks I would say “Come!” in a slightly deeper tone. (Command tone is always an octave lower for my dogs) As soon as Rover starts running towards me I will Mark it with “Good!” and cheer him on with “Woohoo! Yay! Good!”, once he reaches my feet, I say the Marking word again “Good!”, and grab a treat from my treat pouch and feed
Repeat steps 1-4 while increasing the distance every time your dog completes each distance a minimum of three times. Give extra practice to distances that your dog struggles with. Never extend the distance if your dog could not listen at the current distance
5. Try not to over do your training sessions, keep them short and simple. 5-10 minutes max per session, multiple times in a day. The more you practice the faster your dog will understand the association of the command “Come” and the positive meaning behind it
6. If you have a hard time with step 5 and you feel like you have spent weeks on one distance, Here is an example how to get to that next step: Let’s say every time your dog was 20 feet away from you, and your dog just refuses to listen, go down to 15 feet for the distance between you and the dog. Use a higher value treat that your dog goes wild for. Now you will go back to the very first training methods you used to teach recall. Add motion- walk backwards, be more animated and excited when your dog is in the process of looking at you from name being called.
7. Wait for your dog to go out about 15 feet. Call the dog's name and command “Come”, walk/jog backwards with your hand and extend the treat in front of you, your other hand is holding the end of the dog's leash, your dog will do 1 of 2 things: Either they will find it fun to run after you and you will reinforce “Come” and “Good” followed by stopping and feeding the treat. Or the dog will not move until the leash gets taunt and you are still continuously walking backwards causing the dog to eventually give into the tightness of the leash. (Never yank or tug the leash, the tension will coax the dog to move towards you) That is when you will reinforce “Come”, “Good”, and treat. Whichever option your dog does, be patient and assess if you are training too quickly and need to go back a step in your dog’s training. Only extend distance if you have trained in 5-8 feet intervals to the desired maximum distance you will want your dog to learn.
Getting up to 20 feet away from you and having a 99% success on recall may take a month worth of training. Take your time, go at your dogs pace. You got this!
Like our earlier said example, the dog may be weighing their options when they are called. They are deciding if they want to keep sniffing where they are at or to come to you. It is important no stress, frustration, or anger shows in the tone of your voice. Stay confident and cheerful. After saying the command keep with some noises that interest your dog. Smoochy noises, etc. This will help your dog be excited to come to you and ignore distractions.
Adding distractions can be difficult but if you have trained well in the steps of recall written above, you will succeed in this challenging step.
1. With distractions I would recommend a 6 foot leash on your dog. Go places that have minor distractions. Keep at least 20 feet away from big distractions like dogs and kids.
2. Locations, animals, people, smells, and new things all count as a distraction. Use a very high value treat during your training sessions.
3. Follow every step we have covered in the previous paragraphs, starting at the very beginning if distractions are new for your dog and their training environment. The distance away from the distraction is important. I recommend starting 20 feet away, with the exception that some dogs are more reactive than others. For those dogs I recommend a distance where they hear the distraction but do not see it.
4. Your goal is to work around distractions and get closer and closer as you continue to train. For some owner and dog teams it will take a week to finally have a good Recall within 3 feet of the distraction.
If at any time your dog starts to refuse Recall, and you are continuously reinforcing it by using the taunt, pressure on leash technique, you are training your dog too fast and need to go back to the last step or distance of success and continue to practice there for a few more sessions. You want your dog to be 100% listening to your Recall.
5. Add distance in 3-5 feet intervals as your dog succeeds until finally your are close to your distraction and your dog is still listening
The most important thing for that bullet proof Recall is a term called generalizing. Generalizing is introducing your dog to all sorts of different environments, locations, floor textures, surroundings, and distractions. This is the Golden Ticket for that perfectly trained dog.
Think about how your dog only responds to commands at home but almost never listens at a pet store or park. That is because we never took our dog out to those locations and trained them like we did at the house. We have to make sure with every new command we are teaching, we take the time to teach them the same command in new places. Sometimes going back to the very first step, food luring the command and progressing from there when the dog is understanding it.
Food luring quickly goes away when the dog has a strong understanding of the commands. When your dog starts to advance in their obedience, start keeping the treats and toys out of sight until your dog hears the command and performs the command. Using verbal commands and hand signals help your dog quickly pick up the commands, even with no food present.
Always use your Marker word/ praise word when he does what you ask.
For example: “Sit”, your dog sat with no food lure you praise with “Good”, and then bring out the treat and give it to your dog. Same can be done with toys. Once your dog sits on command, you praise and then bring a toy out and go into playing fetch for 10-30 seconds and repeat.
Finally we talk about reinforcement of the commands. I am a trainer that believes in corrective noises like “Eh, Eh”, or some people speak verbal corrections like “No”. I would express my disapproval to my dogs if I asked for a “Sit” and they decided to walk away from me. Once they stop the action of walking away, I would call them back, being positive with the command ‘‘Come” and still praising once they do their recall but not giving any reward. I then will ask for the command “Sit” again changing my tone to be in a tone that can be expressed as monotone. Once they sit my tone changes to a happier tone “Good!” followed by a reward.
With Recall your reinforcement would be the taunt, pressure on leash technique. Or continuously going over to them with a treat and food luring them back to the spot you originally called them from. Reinforce the command by saying it and give praise. Allow the dog to go back to the same spot they were previously distracted at, and repeat the command being more energized and excited, if that doesn't work go over to them once again and repeat the sequence of bringing them back.
Training is never easy and it takes a lot of practice and dedication. Remember to stay positive and keep training sessions short to avoid exhaustion, frustration, and too much repetition leading to the dog being bored and eventually shutting down for the training sessions.
Understanding a dog's mind is extremely important to getting a well behaved dog that wants to listen and work for you. When a command is said their mind remembers a positive feeling to doing the command and motivates them to work for you because something good is coming out of it. Eventually the consistency you put forth in training and that positive feeling your dog experiences sitting, laying down, and coming to you will lead to your dog listening without treats and just listening to get your approval or a belly rub. Keep up all the hard work and stay positive!
Until next time,
Ashlee Lamb with Fields of Fun Pet Services
