Dog Training: How to teach your dog to come back when called (Recall)

Recall training is simply about teaching a dog to come to you on command from wherever he is, at home or in the park. While it is possible to teach this to a dog of any age, recall training ideally should begin with a new puppy as soon as he comes home. This is because he has a very strong urge at a few weeks of age to follow his mother and her owner, and will willingly transfer this to his new parent figures.

First teach your puppy or new dog his name. Whenever he hears his name he should look towards you to see what you want him to do, but, of course, there will always be a lot of interesting distractions. The aim of teaching him his name is to make you the most important thing in his life and to show that it is always worth listening to you in case he may hear you call his name.

• Sit on a chair with a bag of tasty treats with your puppy or dog close up to you, say his name and immediately give him a treat when he looks up. Within a few repetitions he will look expectantly at you as soon as he hears his name.
  
• Say his name and encourage him to take one or two paces towards you before giving him the treat. Build up the distance between you and him gradually and practice in all rooms of the house and the garden. We are not ready yet to tell him to 'come', we are just teaching him that whenever he hears his name, irrespective of where he is at the time, there is always a pleasant outcome for responding to it.
  
• Within the house and garden you can now call the puppy from one family member to the next with each member giving him a treat for responding to his name. The word 'come' can be added after the dog's name as he is moving towards you. Remember his name gets his attention, 'come' tells him what it is that you want him to do. Wait until he's actually moving towards you before saying 'come' to ensure that he makes the correct association between word and action. When he's got the hang of this new 'game', don't give him a treat every time, but instead reward him on a random basis, and then only for the very quickest and direct responses to being asked to 'come'.

Here are a couple of videos. Each one describes a different technique you can try when teaching your dog to come back.





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