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Writer's pictureBarry Harris

Training a dog to come when called!

In this blog post we’ll share the ways you can start to teach your dog a really reliable recall, can you imagine how satisfying it will be to see your dog charge across a field when called to return?





Does your dog lead the way?

We get into a habit of walking behind our dog as they lead the way, if this is your dog then a good idea is to start practicing changing direction.

By changing direction on walks and teaching them to start paying attention to us (because we have become unpredictable), then we call the dog less often.

This means that when we do need to call them back, they are more likely to listen.


Do you still reward your dog?

Too often I see people stop rewarding their dog, they do this because they don't want to keep taking food on a walk with them.

This is fine if you are the most exciting thing in the dogs environment, but guess what...we often aren't. Are you sexier than a squirrel? No then how can you compete with that distraction?

Instead of food what about using toys to reward your dog for an amazing recall.


My dog is not toy or food motivated?

Are you sure? Did your dog eat anything today? Then YES they are food motivated haha, often we use food that is not rewarding enough in the presence of a distracting stimulus.

Food is a primary source of reinforcement for dogs.

My dog doesn't play with toys? They often are but the toys we try and use when out on a walk is the same toys they play with all of the time at home...boring.

Find a toy that your dog loves and use that on your walks but, not constantly, 2 or 3 times and then put the toy/ball away, save that motivation.



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