And only returns to you sometimes?
Don’t worry. Your dog is normal.
Like walking right beside a person, coming when called is not natural when you’re a dog. Here is this riveting environment with new things to discover and known experiences to relive—and then there is you: a boring, slow-moving, scent-dense biped the dog has around all the time. You are a fixture; environmental stimuli magnets. Unless you have a clingy cause insecure pooch, or a what-do-we-do-now working dog, you’ll have to put some effort into recall training.
Dogs come when called when:
They understand the cue and heard it. Both.
It’s rehearsed in a variety of contexts.
It predicts an awesome consequence.
They are bonded with their people.
All of this is in place with the Australian shepherd you see in the clip. Lucy, our occasional guest dog, has a perfect recall.
You can have that too, but it’ll take time. Until then, don’t let your dog off the leash. Would you give a 16-year-old who has a number of speeding tickets and rarely heeds the curfew the keys to your car?
Here are the steps
You might have to start with a new word if your dog, literally, has learned that when you say “come” it means to return to you—or not. Any word will do. One of my friend’s used “leash”, because her dogs had such a great association to the word. “Leash” predicted a walk and fun time—it was a classical conditioned feel-good trigger for her dogs.
Attach the new word when your dog already is on his way to you: when it’s feeding time, you’re cooking and he is hopeful for a snack, social interaction. It is then when your dog wants to be with you anyway and this new word will evoke a positive association. Chances are your dog offers to join you numerous times a day. Why would you ignore that? Don’t. Capture and reinforce it. When your dog has make the link between word and the action of joining you, and does so enthusiastically, invest in a long line, about 30 feet, and start calling your dog. A long line allows you to enforce the cue. Your dog should never get away with NOT coming when you call him. If you can’t enforce it and you are not entirely certain that he comes when you call him, don’t call him—or you mess up your new signal word.
Before you completely let your dog off the leash, let her drag the long line. It is much easier to step on a 30-foot leash than to get a hold of a dog.
Begin practicing this in a familiar setting where there are no distractions. Coax your dog with an upbeat voice, and be congruent with your body. Move away. That catches your dog’s eye more than you standing still. Sometimes walk backwards: that, too, provokes quick attention to you—like any expectation contradiction does with our dogs.
Why does your dog come when called when you reach for the leash or car keys? When you open the cheese container? Because he has learned that the consequence matters a whole lot. Why doesn’t he come when he is off the leash outside? Because he has learned that the consequence matters a whole lot. Fabulous behavioral scientist and author Rise Van Fleet said it perfectly: ”When people say that their dog only comes when he wants to, my answer is that we need to create situations where the dog wants to!”.
Reinforce your dog each time upon return. Still reinforce when he comes on his own and when you call him inside the house, but reserve higher valued rewards for outside. Reinforce even if you have to reel your dog in. You want to make it very clear what the cue means: returning to you has pleasant consequences. If you have to reel him in a lot, you proceeded too quickly.
Equip yourself with a variety of things your dog loves. Around distractions your dog has to work harder and his payoff should reflect that. Use food but not only food. Think toys: a ball, tug toy, and check out flirt poles—something most dogs can’t resist. Think interaction, use yourself, your exuberant attention, praise, and if your dog likes being stroked, do that as well. Never underrate the value of interacting with you. If you do it right, it matters.
Call your dog not only when he has a destination, but also when he is bored, and reinforce with a sequence of things for a good 30 seconds to prevent that he learns to run in, snatch the food, and take off again. Sometimes release him with a verbal cue, for example “free dog”, to do his own thing again, sometimes leash him but continue to do fun stuff so that being back on the leash is never perceived as a punishment.
Vary both the sequence and intervals of reinforcements. For example, feed a bunch of treats right away, then pause 3 seconds and toss one out, then play tug or throw a ball, then wait 2 seconds and feed a treat. The next time run away and invite him to play tag, wait 4 seconds and toss a treat, followed by one in his mouth, then wait a second and softly stroke him, and so on. You get the gist. This approach keeps him guessing what you have up your sleeve = curious, and connected.
Raise the bar incrementally. With each new setup your dog should be back on the long line. That is setting her up for success—you then build on. If your dog doesn’t come when there are no distractions, she will certainly not return to you when called at the dog park. At one time she will, but you have to build up to that, step-by-step.
Start with stationary objects and the barely moving: adults strolling afar, calm dogs minding their own business, garbage bins on the side of the road. Gradually practice with stimuli that are more animated: children and dogs playing, wildlife, people who pay attention to your dog, and dogs who bark at him. There is a gradient from least challenging to most difficult to resist for every dog. With our Davie cats topped the hierarchy, with Baywolf it was greeting people, and for Will it was a certain type of dog = boisterous young ones she felt needed a lesson in “how one behaves on the trail”. Know your dog’s gradient. Calling your dog away from an intrinsic drive is possible, but only after you practiced in every other way. There isn’t much you can come up with that overrides watching sheep or following fresh animal tracks with dogs bred to have a one-track mind—and that’s when you again need the long line.
Always check whether your expectations are reasonable. Regardless of age, take your dog’s training level and present ability into account. Like, don’t expect your new rescue dog to come when called just because she is an adult and “should know it”. Treat her as if she were a pup, and don’t let her off the leash until she is off-leash ready—and until you know more about her social behaviors with people and dogs. Also understand developmental stages: a 10-week-old pup might come every time, but at 10 months has teenage-brain.
Recall Games
Bring a deliciously filled Kong and let your dog lick a little, then have an assistant hold her back. Egg your dog on, and if she can’t stand it any longer call her, at which point the assistant releases. Hand over the Kong (or play with a toy).
Caveat: your assistant must be someone your dog knows and likes. We don’t want to create frustration toward people. Along that line, I am against the still popular exercise where the owner tosses a treat or toy, then calls the dog back, and the assistant either steps on it or removes it if the dog doesn’t obey they recall. In that scenario the dog learns to compete. Trying to beat a person to a desirable resource is not a good idea, and especially not with a dog who already feels resource insecure.
If your dog is toy driven, carry one openly but conceal another. With your dog on the long line, throw one out of reach and recall when he wants to go after it. When he comes, or you have to reel him in, bring out the surprise toy and play excitedly.
Play tag: I pointed out that moving catches your dog’s eye, and moving away makes your body signal congruent with what you say. You can take this a step further. Tag is my favorite recall game.
When it is safe to do, move a few steps toward your dog, pause, lower your body like a bow—that appears to be one of the few communication signals a dog understands even when a human does it—turn, and run. Be animated, excited. Unless your dog is fearful of you, she’ll accept the invitation and chase you. As soon as your dog catches up, move toward her, bow, move toward her more speedily. Chances are she will understand again and run. Chase her for a bit. Then turn the game around and have her chase you, and back and forth it goes. Sometimes drop a few treats in front of you when your dog catches up, periodically clip her on the leash and invite her to a different game, then return to the off-leash tag for a few more minutes.
You moving toward your dog becomes the cue for the whole sequence, you always end up with your dog, and even putting the leash on is nothing new but part of the game.
When an off leash outing ends, make the walk (on leash) back to the car or home fun as well. With Will we played “find the car” (or house). Your dog might love to find a food toy in his toy box or the car.
What about hiding to teach your dog that if he is not attentive he might lose you? That is still widely recommended and, admittedly, was once in my repertoire. But not anymore. Abandonment is distressing, and I don’t want my dog to only want to be with me because she is afraid that I am leaving her behind.
For families:
Dog is on the long line, family members form a wide circle and take turns calling the dog. Each person has a different reinforcement they hand over. Dogs love that fast-paced game and learn to heed to each member’s recall. If the dog goes to someone who hadn’t called, they must completely ignore him while the one who did reels him in—and rewards.
Caveat: Be careful that the arousal level of children and dog is not rising so high that the dog becomes jumpy and mouthy.
Recall Spoilers
Practice, but don’t overdo it calling your dog. Even with reinforcements, constantly being interrupted from exploring or playing is irritating. My rule of thumb no more than 10% of an off-leash outing.
Don’t wait until your dog is fully engaged in an activity or transfixed on a stimulus before you call. Also, a dog surprised by something that moves fast flash reacts and tunes everything else out. In the moments the dog isn’t stubborn when he doesn’t recall; he just doesn’t hear you anymore.
Along that line, don’t call your dog away from something that is very important to her, for instance when she needs to poop. There are trainers that insist that you should be able to call your dog away from anything, but it’s neither fair nor fostering a feel-good to the signal cue. That much pressure put on a dog compelled to do something damages the relationship--and all the great associations she has formed so far returning to you.
Being angry with your dog when he does finally join you is a classic recall spoiler. Even if you are frustrated because your dog just dug up your flower bed or barked at the passersby, if your voice and body language conveys “how much trouble he is in” he will not want to come to you. He won’t trust you now, and not completely in the future. If your dog hesitates, curves out and away from you, change your posturing and intonation of voice. Be inviting.
And…. don’t do something bad when your dog returns to you, and that is from her point of view. That can include being put in the crate because you have to go to work or being groomed. Here is the dilemma: don’t always go to your dog either or she’ll learn to shy away from you. Solution: in the interim do something fantastic and prolonged first, for a good 10 minutes, and then the bad thing. Longterm goal: take measures to change your dog’s emotional response to what feels bad now with the help of an experienced behavior expert.
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