(My dog, Ripley, doing recall)

When I’m at the dog park, I hear the same complaint every single time from at least two different people. Fido tends to have selective hearing when he’s called. The owner will wax poetical on all the methods they’ve used to attempt to train, convince, connive, or bribe their dog in an attempt at a reliable recall.

After lamenting that their dog won’t come when called (and usually various other bratty behaviors once they get warmed up), the owner tends to do two or three things that explain to me exactly how they’ve taught their dog to ignore them.

Are you guilty of any of these?

1. Giving a command and following it by unpleasant consequences after compliance. for example, you call Fido, then give him a bath. You call Rover and then leave the dog park. You’re punishing your dog for complying! Of course he won’t want to.
2. Giving the command when you cannot enforce it, multiple times. The more he gets away with not being made to listen, the more he will do exactly that. If you wait until the 5th time to force him to comply, he will wait 5 times. After awhile, he may even forget what the command actually meant. His coming to you will be mere coincidence after you’ve made noise for awhile.
3. Never rewarding compliance. Once you teach it, you still need to reward it. For life. Not every time. In fact, it’s better to not reward every time once a behavior is learned — that’s called Intermittent Variable Rewards. It works on the same principle as gambling. If you don’t know when you’re going to win, you are likely to play more often for longer periods.

Click here to read a great article by Vickie Buchanan on teaching a reliable recall, step by step, using rewards and a long line to ensure compliance.

Happy training!