© 2009 Who Paws Wins

Recall Points for Success

· Always make recalls rewarding

· Use the highest value rewards you have

· Practice calling your dog away from something she wants,  give her a high-value reward and then let her go back to what she was doing.  Practice that a lot!

· Do lots of short-distance recalls to get more reps and build the habit faster.  Grab you dogs collar before you give the reward every time so that your dog gets used to you having hold of them.

· Call your dog one time.  If she does not respond go and get her.  If in a training scenario this is viewed as an error so ignore that behaviour.  Ignoring a behaviour soon leads to extinction.

· Don’t call your dog when they are not going to respond as this only weakens your cue.

· Practice in distracting situations gradually increasing the distractions.

· Do not call your dog for something she doesn’t like such as a bath.

· If your dog is doing something you don’t want her to do, don’t call her and scold her or ignore her.  Always reward a recall.

· If your dog is doing something she enjoys, don’t call her away without rewarding her. Balance the times when fun ends with several “practice” recalls after which she is allowed to go back to what she was doing.