Hello ALL
I hear this time and again. It is probably the most common naughty behavior that I see in the dogs that I come in contact with. So if this is something you find yourself saying them maybe this will help… My Dog Doesn’t Come When I Call Training the recall can be one of the more trying dog-training exercises we do, and many people do it completely wrong! Let me explain. This is what we want to achieve: When we call our dog “here Bella” we want Bella to come running as fast as she can to us. In order to achieve this we must make “here Bella” the best command in the world. With the best result and rewards at the end! So here are some tips! Never call your dog and then scold it! Even if you just spent the last half hour trying to get your dog to come to you you don‘t scold. You can undo a lot of hard work training your dog to come by having come to you be a bad experience and it only has to happen just once. Positive and Negative experiences are quickly imprinted in canines Don’t ever make coming to you a negative experience. Again, as in all dog training you need to be consistent as far as teaching the recall. Use the same command each time. The words, here, come, come on, let’s go, etc are not the same sound to your dog. Commands are just sounds that have conditioned responses associated with them. I use the word “here” you can use whatever you want, just use the same thing every time. If your dog has a decent recall and you are trying to make it better. The following technique should work well to strengthen the command your dog already knows. CALL your dog to you, then
REWARD your dog within 2 seconds and then immediately
RELEASE your dog. You can make kind of a game out of this. One thing to keep in mind is to mix up the time you wait in between recalls. Dogs have a good internal clock. If you recall them on a regularly timed basis you might have a dog that starts to come at that time before it’s been called. Also, mix the reward up. Don’t click every time, or give a food reward, or however you reward. Mix it up. The other thing you need to decide in your mind, in your training program, is what “here” means. To me it means, come all the way to me until I can touch you, period. You don’t want your dog to get in the habit of “checking in” and then off they go again. If you are just starting to teach the recall, the method is not much different, we are just going to add some insurance. A long line. A long line is a piece of line or rope ( I like the rubber coated clothes line ) preferably around 50 feet long. You’ll take your dog out with the long line on and let it do what it wants. If your dog tends to stay by you then do your best to ignore it. Then when you dog has found something it is interested in call your dog. I prefer that we just use the command just once but in the early stages you want to entice your dog as much as possible. When you call your dog if he/she does not come then reel them in, gently while repeating the recall command and then when the dog gets to you, reward and praise. Just keep repeating this and in time your dog will start to respond. Don’t make the training sessions too long, maybe 10 or 15 minutes should be fine, and maybe 3 or 4 times a week. Once they get the hang of it you can try this without the line. If you have a confined area all the better. If you dog recalls pretty well without the lead then continue to work on it off lead. If it does not go well, then go back to the lead until you think your dog is ready and try off lead once again. again the formula to any good recall training is: CALL your dog to you, then
REWARD your dog within 2 seconds and then immediately
RELEASE your dog. Again it consistency and patience and you will get there if you put in the required time. Till next time… Happy Tails! Jeff – The DogMan | 
I agree with you on the recall
I see so many people calling their dogs and when they come they tell them off, a big NO NO!