How to Teach Your Dog Recall With Distractions
Have you ever recalled your dog to come to you outside and never felt so ignored? Good news: That "failure" or slow recall simply tells you where your gaps are, and lucky for you, recall training is a lot of fun! We thought it would be fun to show you a session TOC Co-Founder, Christie Catan, did with her dog, Otis, to work through a gap she recently found in their recall training. Keep reading for some behind the scenes context from Christie and Otis’s training session and all of the steps written out for how to teach your dog recall with distractions.
Are there any gaps in your dog’s recall that you are currently working through? If you did the TOC Challenge or Camp TOC, you probably know by now that Otis is one of those dogs who could convince a stranger that I never feed him. He LOVES to eat. Recently, I saw him going for something on the ground and tried recalling him when he was almost to the food. Instead of flipping around to me, he moved even faster to get to the thing he wanted to eat 😜. While I wasn't thrilled, I also wasn't mad. It is my responsibility to teach Otis how to recall, and by not giving me the behavior when I cued it there, Otis simply showed me an area where he wasn't able to do what I was asking. Then comes the fun part: How do I create some training sessions that mimic my real life "failed" recall, so I can start showing Otis how to recall in that situation?
Step by Step: How to Teach Your Dog Recall With Distractions
Above, Christie and Otis train in front of an x-pen that has a bowl of chicken inside of it as part of a training session for how to teach your dog to recall distractions.
Step One (Figure Out Your Gap): I knew my gap was in recalling Otis away from something he wanted to eat when he was close to it (let’s say less than eight feet away from it for now) and off leash.
Step Two (Select Your Distraction): For our training session, I decided to use chicken as the distraction (it is high value but not the highest value possible) and chose to work in a relatively small and clear space (I wanted to be close enough to him to make this recall feasible to start). I also used chicken I had on me as my reinforcer.
Step Three (Make the Distraction Easier For Your Dog to Recall From): I put some chicken into a bowl and then put that bowl inside of an x-pen (Otis knew the chicken was there but had no way to get it). This allowed me to build up a bit of a reinforcement history with Otis for recalling away from that chicken while off leash without having to worry about him failing a recall (management for the win!).
Step Four (Start to Take Off the Training Wheels): This started to look too easy in a hurry, so I removed the x-pen. Now, I could have put a leash on Otis at this point, but I chose not to (mostly because I knew it would force me to really think through my training and how to progress without lumping criteria - aka asking for too much from Otis before he is ready). I knew this would be hard, so I focused on recalling him early in his approach to the chicken (aka not waiting for him to be two inches away from it), marking behavior quickly (I was marking him the moment he turned instead of waiting for him to get all the way to me), and using some of my own body movement after the recall cue to help him out. At some point, I want him to recall off chicken when he is about to eat it, but I know that day is not today. So I am starting where we are and will work up to that.
Step Five (Release to that Reward): At the very end of the clip, you will notice that I release him to go eat the distraction chicken as his reward. I ran out of chicken, but if I were a betting gal, I would bet that that release as a reward will be an even greater reinforcer of recall here, so I may try that more in the next session we do (remember, the dog's behavior tells us what is reinforcing). You can play around with your rewards to see what is most reinforcing! For example, a treat tossed away that your dog gets to chase may be much more motivating than simply handing your dog a treat.
How to Improve Your Dog’s Recall (It Takes More Than This!)
Recall has to be fun! Think about it for a second. There are emotions tied to everything your dog does. What type of emotion will work in your favor with a recall behavior? In our experience, it tends to be enthusiastic, happy, and optimistic. So if you are viewing recall training as a chore, ask yourself what kind of emotions you might be bringing.
Recall involves relationship. It just does. There is more to it than that, but it is so important not to forget or downplay this piece. Simply doing fun things with your dog will improve your recall — especially playing with them! I can do a lot to strengthen a recall using food, but I have found that I actually need toys and play to really really build that crazy speed with recall (it makes sense when you think about prey drive).
There is a lot that goes into recall and building it up looks different for different dogs. The video and steps in this article are certainly not a recall protocol. This is just an example of how I started working through a gap I found. Hopefully this can give you some ideas on how to work through areas where your dog is not able to recall.
That is all for now! We would love to know if you’re working on how to improve your dog’s recall and what distractions you are working through or want to work through. Tag us on Instagram or Facebook (@Tailsofconnection) and use the hashtag #tailsofconnection.
PS: Pin this article for later!
