When it comes to recall, in dog training it’s a topic that can strike fear, joy, and pride in people’s hearts! Truth: It can take years to really solidify recall (e.g. your dog comes to you when called) and it requires a lot of (systematic) training. In this guide, we share simple things you can do right now in everyday life to improve your dog’s recall and troubleshoot your training (note: there is much more that goes into recall, but these tips are easy and will help).

Some Simple Tips To Get Started With Recall in Dog Training

• Capture attention: While this phrase may sound mysterious, it is quite simple in practice! When your dog chooses to look at you (aka you aren’t asking them to), mark that exact moment (e.g. say “yes”) and then reinforce them (e.g. give them a treat). In the video above, you will notice that it actually looks a whole lot like recall -- just without the actual recall cue (“come”). This lets you start to build a reinforcement history for orienting and moving to you (hey, that is what you need for recall!).     

• Warm up with easy recalls! If your first recall of the outing is when you dog is 20 yards away rolling in poop, you are asking a lot of them. Try doing a few quick recalls out of the gate when they are close to you and not really distracted! Set them up for success early and help them remember that reinforcement history.     

• Mark the moment your dog flips around to you (rather than waiting until they come all the way to you). The first piece of the recall behavior is turning to orient to you!       

• Be intentional with WHEN you say “come.” If your dog is an intense sniffer, try waiting for them to disengage from that scent just a little bit before you recall. If your dog is rolling in poop, maybe you just have to accept the bath that’s coming and recall in one of the moments when they stand up. If you constantly use the recall cue when they aren’t able to respond, the cue can actually become irrelevant to them (it is an actual science thing that happens!).     

• Use higher value treats! Often, we just aren’t using something that is actually reinforcing! Your dog decides what is reinforcing - not you. The only way to know if you are actually reinforcing the behavior is if you see more of it. If recall isn’t increasing, the reinforcer isn’t strong enough.  

Watch What Happens When I Recall My Dogs off of a Deer

This video above is from a recent encounter with deer on our trail walk.

Here’s what we observe in the video: 

• Is this video perfect? No. But there’s a whole lot to celebrate. So I’ll celebrate, and take notes about the things we can keep working on. Sully’s (little dog) recall is not as good as my other dog, Otis’s. Sully only gets to be off leash sometimes. I am intentional about finding empty trails and make sure she seems like she is able to respond to me on that day before I unclip her lead. I ALWAYS have something high value if I let Sully off leash, & I immediately do an easy recall after unclipping her to make sure she knows I have the good stuff. I’d done all of those things on the day of this video.

• When we ran into a family of deer and I saw my dogs start to chase, I actually only recalled Otis. Why? I didn’t think Sully could recall at that moment, so why teach her that my cue is irrelevant. Otis recalls quickly, which I expected but that still makes me happy. He has a strong chase instinct, so we’ve worked HARD on being able to recall out of chase (we’ve worked for years on this in a variety of ways).

• What I like even more is that I didn’t have to ask him to hang near me after the recall - he just did! There is plenty that went into that behavior, but it's a story for another time.

• When I saw Sully paused instead of disappearing into the woods (🤯), I tried recalling her. I had to help her out by repeating her name, but given the conditions, I will take it!

• Sully used to never even eat outside, much less look at us. Simple, imperfect, but still awesome moments like this have years of work behind them and lots of pre-unclipping-the-leash prep that make them possible.

Troubleshooting: What To Do if Your Dog Doesn’t Come When Called

Let’s chat about what happens in real life when your dog doesn’t respond to your recall cue. If your dog is like Sully, they may return to you two minutes after you call them covered in poop! What do you do?! 

Here are some ideas to get started with troubleshooting:     

• Remember, your dog isn’t giving you the metaphorical middle finger (even if it feels like it). They’re behaving based on their genetics and learning history. 

• When you unclip their leash, you’re making an agreement to hold yourself accountable for whatever happens (not your dog). Unclipping the leash means you’re comfortable that your dog can realistically offer the behaviors you need in those conditions, or you’re in a safe environment where you’re okay with the consequences if they can’t.

• Pause and think about whether you want to use (or repeat) your recall cue. If you don’t think it is realistic for your dog to respond, don’t use it (or repeat it) because you’ll just teach them that it’s irrelevant. 

• Just wait. (Depending on your dog and the situation, you may actually want to run away from them.)

• As they move towards you, talk to them in a happy voice! Even if you’re saying “you naughty little thing, I can smell you from here,” say it in the voice/tone you praise them with! A “come OR ELSE” tone isn’t inviting.

• When they do show up, keep praising them (or at least talking in a happy tone) and give them a treat!  

If you are wondering iwhy I would reinforce Sully for “ignoring me and rolling in poop,” (in the video above) it’s important to recognize that isn’t the behavior we’re really looking at. She already made the choice to ignore my cue and go find the poop (a choice which has ALREADY been reinforced by getting to roll in it) -- that ship has sailed. If I were to scold her when she showed up, the behavior that I’d most likely punish is walking towards me. That’s definitely not what I want. So I remember the agreement I made when I unclipped. Then I talk happily, give a treat, and plan a training session to work on the recall gap I just found. 

When You Recall Your Dog, Are They Coming Just Because You Asked

When you call “come” out to your dog and they run to you, did they come just because you taught them to listen to you? We thought it might be fun to peek under the hood of what goes on when we “ask our dogs to do things” (believe us, this is the smallest peek under the hood possible -- behavior is a complex topic LOL).

Let's look at these things we call “cues.” Some people call them commands -- we don’t for a number of a reasons, but we aren’t gonna get distracted by that shiny object right now 🤣. Have you ever heard someone say, “I said sit, so my dog should sit.” Why should saying “sit” lead to your dog sitting? What should your dog do if you say “pancake”? Or “starfish”? Perhaps you’re thinking that your dog doesn’t know what those words mean but does know what “sit” means. If we’re in the behavioral level of analysis, the meaning of words is a funny thing. What does it look like when your dog “knows what a word means”? And even if we say your dog “knows what a word means,” why would that lead to a specific behavior? If this feels like a jumbled mess, you’ll be glad to know we’re about to untangle it!

According to Dr. Susan Friedman, a cue is an “antecedent stimulus that signals the availability of reinforcement, contingent on the appropriate behavior.” A cue does not tell your dog to do something (per se). A cue tells your dog that a reinforcer is now available IF they do a specific behavior. in other words, a cue tells them that a behavior-consequence contingency is now in play.

So if the cue is not what’s “getting them” to do the behavior, what is?! Past consequences for performing that behavior in those conditions! This is why people say “reinforcement drives behavior.” If you want to understand current behavior, look at past consequences (in those conditions).

Why Breaking Down Recall Into Components Can Help You Strengthen It

The recall end goal for many people is likely that their dog runs to them and stations (hangs out). But did you know recall is actually multiple behaviors linked together that occur after a single cue (e.g. “come”)? Thinking about those components is quite helpful because we can train the parts separately and then chain them all together! And for a bit of nuance, even as your dog’s recall strengthens, you may choose to lower criteria by only looking for the first part of the recall behavior if the environment is really tough!

Recall takes consistent work. There are so many recall games you can play, and even within those games, you can adjust which component of behavior you focus on. I can play the same cookie tossing pattern game and mark and toss the moment my dog turns to me or mark and toss when they get all the way to me -- two very different things. I find getting a super strong whip around when my dog hears the cue to be incredibly helpful to the larger recall behavior, so I spend a fair bit of time there! When you intro tougher distractions in training, marking for just turning away from the distraction can set your dog up for future success!

The conditions you recall your dog in change. Asking your dog to come from ten feet away in your living room vs. asking them to come (when you’re 40 yards away) as they’re chasing their dog friends are two wildly different asks. For harder recalls (they could be harder for any number of reasons), I tend to mark earlier in the recall chain and use my reinforcers to bring them the rest of the way in.

There is SO much more we could get into, but we’re going to leave it here. We will keep adding to this little recall guide from time to time and we hope that it’s helpful!