Dogs who have a great recall can safely be allowed more freedom. I talked on Wednesday about why you must never, ever let your dog run up to other dogs. So many owners who come to use for help with a reactive dog mention a bad experience with off lead dogs.
If you can’t call your dog back they should not be off lead.
Training a great recall is something we teach in our classes – the next two week Perfect Pet Primer course starts on 5th December if you want help with teaching recall.
Like anything worthwhile, teaching and proofing a great recall is all about practice.
Practice produces progress.
Training a great recall starts at home. Use your dog’s dinner to practice, every day, playing one of our recall games. Then start to take it out and about, aiming for that 95% success target.
Find what your dog loves best – the pre-course audit shows you how – then use those great rewards when your dog responds, gradually increasing the difficulty and practising in lots of places and voila! You’ve got a great recall.
Sounds simple? Well, it is. But it’s not necessarily easy.
There are so many variables you need to train for – practising in lots of different places, teaching your dog to come back at varying distances away from you and training with many different distractions.
If you want to know how, come along to our two week Perfect Pet Primer course in December.
Training a great recall it is so worthwhile.
And your dog will thank you – because they’ll be able to enjoy so much more freedom. Because they can be off lead safely, with you confident in the knowledge that they will come back when you call.
Other people will thank you too, for preventing your dog from pestering them and their dogs.
Training your dog to come back whenever and wherever you call is the best present you can give. For your dog and for everyone you will meet when out walking your dog.
Keep believing and stay safe,
Carol