Teaching a great recall in real life is a challenge. At home, a primary school level recall is fine, but out and about you need a university degree level response. You need to take account of the big D – distractions.
Having your concentration interrupted
I’ve been very busy this weekend. On Friday I was typing away, trying to get various tasks done before I left home. I had my head down, concentrating hard.
Gradually I became aware of Himself talking to me, “Sorry what did you say?” I answered, slightly flustered and annoyed at being disturbed. “I wanted to know what’s for tea, ” he replied. I bit down the snide comment that tried to burst through my lips. “Whatever you want, ” I muttered, “I’m away.” “Oh yes”, he said, “I forgot.”
And with that, he wandered off, having destroyed my concentration and leaving me gritting my teeth and trying to work out what I’d been doing before the interruption.
This short, and dare I say typical, exchange reminded me of one of the big mistakes people make in training dogs.
Let me tell you about a common dog training mistake
Imagine teaching your dog to come when called. You diligently practice all the recall games we teach you – and your dog comes running quickly, every time. When you are in your house.
You take the training into the garden. Your dog still comes, most times, quite quickly – and this lulls you into a sense of false security.
Because when you get to the park or the beach your dog acts as if they have never been trained to come back. All those other people walking, running and talking, other dogs running about, playing and sniffing, birds fluttering and swooping, squirrels bouncing along and running up trees, or waves rearing up and crashing down are just too much for your dog.
Teaching a great recall in real life is a challenge. At home, a primary school level recall is fine, but out and about you need a university degree level response.
The big D – Distractions!
And that brings me to dog training mistake number 5 which is that you forget to take account of the big D – distractions. Distractions are anything that might attract your dog’s attention. Which may be movement, noise, another person, dog or other animal, a fascinating smell, or an interesting looking object.
In the house there are few distractions. Some dogs may check their food bowl as they wander past, but everything your home is familiar and known, so your dog can happily ignore anything but your call to come.
It’s a little harder in the garden, because there are more smells, noises and birds, but it is still a familiar environment and your dog has probably done their sniffing during their morning ablutions.
But in the park or on the beach it’s a different story. Distractions abound, so recall is far more difficult for your dog.
Dealing with distractions and training your dog to come no matter what else is going on is the bit of training that takes the most time, care, thought and planning. We help you with that in our Perfect Pet course and focus on it during the follow on PiiP course (for those who have completed Perfect Pet).
Don’t make this common mistake – work hard on training with distractions.
Why not start on your walk today?
Keep training and stay safe,
Carol
