Dog Recall.

This year, the sweltering summer heat has got everyone’s goat. They say summer brings out the worst in people to do crazy things, and I got sucked in. We stacked our Jeep and headed to the Nilgiri Mountains taking a steeper route with sharp hairpin bends for an adrenaline rush. From the corner of my eyes, I could see my wife sitting stiff and our Buddy, a Doberman, going all bonkers and excited at every turn.

Reaching the wooded plains we stopped to stretch out, and that’s when Buddy took off chasing a wild rabbit that disappeared into an underground burrow at a visible distance. We tried every type of ‘Recall’ but Buddy was plopped quite comfortably stalking the burrow’s entrance. How can I blame a city bred dog exploring the wilderness for the first time?

  

Desperate times calls for desperate measures.

My knowledge for this Trick-recall was from a book, and keeping my fingers crossed,  I yelled at Buddy to catch his attention and pretended to collapse on the ground lying motionless. And bingo, in a few moments he was slobbering all over me.         

Our further drive had Buddy sitting beside me as my navigator for saving my life, and he quite enjoyed his new role as a heroic dobe.

My drop-down recall might sound silly, but dogs find this behavior odd. After all he is your best friend and protector. When you don’t give a chase and instead lie still all curled up, with your hands closely wrapped around your head, his curious instincts kicks in. They will come to you to see if you are okay or to see what you are doing.

Play-act your recovery well and appreciate his check-in on you.

WHAT IS RECALL?

What does Recall mean in dog training?

Don’t worry, ‘Recall’ is just a fancy word dog trainers use to explain the behavior of coming when called.

Teaching your dog to come when called is very important, in fact it could be the most important cue you teach your dog.  This cue could save your dog’s life, end a possible dog fight and especially bring you peace of mind when you are in an appropriate place to have your dog off leash.

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS.

Let’s be reasonable and get down to reality. Let’s check our human recall.

If your child, friends, co-workers, or significant other calls you, do you drop what you’re doing and run to them? If you’re engrossed in watching your favorite TV show or in some other task, you may ignore them or call out, ‘Just a minute’ or ‘what?’!  What would it take to increase your reliability?         

And what if your furry friend gives you the doggy equivalent of “Just a Minute”!

No matter how much effort you put into training, no dog is ever going to be 100% reliable at coming when called.

Dogs are not machines.  They’re like people in that they have their good days and their bad days. Sometime they don’t hear you call, sometimes they’re more engrossed in their play, sometimes they misunderstand what you want, and sometimes they would rather do something else.

And, let’s face it, are we also giving them the right training?

                   

Whether you’re teaching a young puppy or an older dog, the first step is always to establish that coming to you is the best thing your dog can do.

Recall should be a happy and exciting activity. Use a bright clear voice and look happy.

Admit it, if you run into a person with a frown on his face, you wouldn’t like to engage with him, and dogs too, never seem to respond well to scowling or boring people either.

It’s important to remember, Recall should never mean ‘If I run back to my owner, he’ll put me back on a leash’ – but always – ‘If I run back to my owner, it’s usually worth my while’

Always treat your dog or puppy nicely every time he comes to you – kind words, smiles, praise, affection, play or treats. This consistent reinforcement will ensure his motivation to come to you whenever called.

WHAT NOT TO DO:

Never call your dog and do something she doesn’t enjoy, like bathing her, clipping her nails, scolding her, a vet visit, confine her when she comes or even ignoring her. 

When you have to do something your dog doesn’t like, simply go and get her from wherever she is.  She should always trust that something wonderful happens whenever you call her.

Avoid calling your dog to you when you know she’s unlikely to comply.  If she’s playing with another dog, running to greet a friend, chasing a squirrel or a cat, checking out strange smells and sounds, chomping down on a discarded pizza crust - certainly, she’s not going to come running when called, most dogs wouldn’t.

Even if the owner’s planned activity is not unpleasant for the dog, just the fact that it isn’t as much fun as the activity the dog is currently engaged in, is enough for the dog to choose not to obey.

Every time you call your dog and she doesn’t come, she learns to ignore your call.  Instead, set her up to succeed by progressing through baby steps so that she gets the habit of always coming when you call.

 

BEHAVIORAL AND OBEDIENCE:

Before your young pup or an elder dog ventures outdoors for his ‘Recall training’, a simple ‘Behavioral training’ to correct bad habits that your dog may develop or already has developed like jumping, car chasing, begging, climbing on furniture and chewing are just a few, and an ‘Obedience training’ to obey certain commands such as Sit, Stay and Heel will help your dog graduate with flying colors to train in Recall commands.

WHISTLE RECALL:

Dog whistles were traditionally considered the domain of the gun dog and herding dog handlers. They are now increasingly popular with the wider dog training community as well as many pet dog owners who want to achieve better distance control of their dogs.

Training a dog to respond to a whistle does not have to be a complex or costly process.  For starters, any whistle is adequate to get the job done.

But if your dog is like Harry Houdini, an escape artist, silent dog whistle is practical.  Instead of having to walk the neighborhood yelling for your dog, simply blow the silent whistle and your dog will hear it better than your voice.

Teaching your dog to respond to a whistle has several advantages over relying on your voice alone.

ADVANTAGES:

§  The sound of a whistle carries further than your voice, especially in windy or noisy conditions.

§  A whistle does not convey emotions e.g. frustration, anger or fear.

§  A whistle is transferable between handlers, ensuring the dog returns to whoever is walking him/her.

§  Sitting the dog at a distance.

§  Calling the dog to you without straining your vocal cords.

§  To redirect the dog in another direction.

§  Training with dog whistle can be very effective during obedience training, as it provides a better cue for a dog to stop doing something that is not desired by the owner.

§  You can customize your whistle commands and tactics, so you can create your “own language’ that only you and your dog can understand.

§  You can combine whistle training with hand commands to create an even more complex command language set. You can do the same with spoken commands, followed by the whistle command.

e.g.

Action:

Sitting the dog at a distance:

Verbal command:

Sit.

Whistle command:

One long whistle blast with your hand raised and open.

                                      Sit Signal...

HAND SIGNALS:

Teaching a dog silent hand signals is really not so very different from training with voice commands, you just ‘talk’ in a different language.  It doesn’t require any more time, effort, or necessarily different methods, just different cues

Many dog owners prefer to teach both verbal and non-verbal dog training commands.  This may be advantageous in many ways. Should the dog be elderly and go deaf one day, it will be able to read sign language with no need to train new hand signals.

The benefits are you can train dogs on a windy/noisy conditions or from a distance. It can be used as a secret hand signal to protect you when in danger, or used against an intruder. In medical emergency, and in many other situations.

Dogs pay more attention to hand gestures than to a voice command. A good part of this may be attributed to the fact that canines do not use verbal communication but through body language first, then by scent. Barking, growling, or whining is an additional form of communication with their own species and humans.

HUMAN SOUND RECALL:

This is my favorite recall which is handy, convenient and a reliable method in any circumstances.

Our four-legged friends have little patch of their brain devoted to deciphering emotions in humans and dog voices.

                                                                    

MRI Scan.

An experiment was done in Hungary on dogs by putting them into a MRI scanner and found that the canine brain reacts to voices in the same way that human brain does.

Once in the scanner, the dogs heard nearly 200 different sounds, including dog vocalizations (whining, playful barking, aggressive barking), Human Vocalizations (crying, cooing, laughing), and non-voice environmental sounds (cars, ringing phones).

22 people were also scanned, and researchers found some notable difference between dog and human brain response.  In people, just 3 percent of our auditory cortex responds more strongly to non-voice sounds that to voice sounds. In dogs, it’s 48 percent!

SOUND RECALL:

In “Sound Recall”, we train the dog to come to us, not by calling his/her name or any particular word, but a sound.

 The reason I also recommend a sound and not a word is because, words carry emotions which are easily recognized by your pet.  They betray us when we are in panic mode, irritated, angry or frightened.

When our words betray us, our dog’s natural instinct is to act as per our emotions and might run away from us, not towards us.

One might suggest a mechanical device in this instance, but you might not have a whistle or a clicker on you when you need it the most.

You can pick any sound like kissing, clucking, or something like psst.  Make ‘any sound’ that you are comfortable with, make it loud and clear.

HYPER DOGS AND TRICK RECALL:

Is your dog crazy? Hyper? A total nut who never listens to you? Well, you’re not alone. Once in a while dogs do go a little naughty and might ignore you when called. Try a few fake tricks?

Run in the opposite direction:

What? Run away from the dog? That’s right. Some dogs love a good chase. Instead of you chasing them, let them chase you. Even if the dog is not up for a good chase, he may be curious about your odd behavior and follow long until you can get him into a building or car or someplace where it is easier to corral him.

            

 

Open a car door:

Pretend you’re going for a ride. It almost seems too simplistic and silly to be true, but many a dog has been fooled into hopping into a car because they wanted to go for a ride.  It makes sense, especially if the dog has learned to associate the car with good things, like the Dog Park or playground.

Sit down with your back or side to the dog and wait:

Again dogs are thrown off by this odd behavior and will become curios and approach.  The other advantage is that by sitting down with your side or back to them, you appear less threatening and they are more likely to approach.  If you have good treats, place a few around you to draw them near.

Stop, Drop and Curl into a Ball:

This is also a curious behavior for a dog. You are not moving and your hands are closely wrapped around your head, they see you as less of a threat and will come to check you out.

SMARTY PANTS -THE DOGGONE TRUTH:

Watch out, don’t overdo it, your dog is onto you when you are fibbing – and will stop falling for misleading gestures. A study by Akiko Takaoka of Kyoto University reveals, a dog will decide whether to follow human commands by reading the reliability of the person.

This experiment could alter the sacred human-dog bond forever – centered on whether dogs can be betrayed by humans.

SIMPLE TIPS ON CALLING:

1)  Your dog’s recall depends on consistency. Use one command only for Recall. The command you’re using must only be associated with positive things. When they successfully come when called, praise them, reward them or a quick game.

2)  Switch the Command if it’s Unreliable: If you’ve been using ‘come here’ for negative things for leaving the park, giving a bath, trimming nails, then it’s time to come up with a new command.

3)  Take Baby Steps:  A reliable recall is best taught in small steps. You’ll want to start with short distances on a lead until you achieve a good recall. Once your dog is reliably coming when called, increase the distance. If you notice your dog not obeying at a certain distance or with distractions, go back to your previous step. Like many great things a reliable recall is built over time. Don’t expect success overnight.

4)  Make it Rewarding: Dog’s learn well when they’re rewarded for making their own choices.  When your dog recalls on command make sure they know that choice was the best decision they could have made. If you forget to praise them, they might wonder whether they’ve done something wrong or just decide it’s simply not worth it to listen next time. Whether you’re using a clicker or verbal praise let the dog know they’re on the right track while they’re heading back you.

Switch up the rewards to keep it interesting for your dog.  Instead of just using the same old treats, try playing a nice game of tug.  In most instances, a dog can be more 'play-driven' than 'food-driven'.

      

5)  Train Step by Step:  Build up the level of distractions that are around when you’re training a dog to come back. If you were training someone to drive, you wouldn’t head straight into a heavy traffic route, would you? In the same way you should build up the level of difficulty for your dog whenever he/she is learning something new – including recall.

6)  Don’t Set Your Dog for Failure: Give them choices to avoid setting them up for failure.  If you can’t reliably get your dog to come to you from 5 feet away at home, don’t try it at the dog park.  Success comes in small steps and your dog needs to be trained in many different situations before you can expect them to come to you.  If you find your dog is not listening to you, go and retrieve them, don’t yell or make him/her stressful.

7)  Don’t Keep Repeating Yourself:  Only use your recall command once, maybe twice.  Don’t keep repeating it. If your dog is ignoring you they’re going to associate not listening as an option to keep on doing whatever they’re doing.  It will reinforce in them ‘selective hearing’ and you’ll end up with a much less reliable recall in the long run.  Probably your dog is too distracted, bored or wasn’t ready for that level of training. Take a break, stop training.

8)  Don’t Punish Them When They Fail:  Sometimes failures will happen and that’s OK.  If you give in to your anger and yell or scold your dog, they’re going to associate coming back to you as a negative consequence. Dogs that are trained with negative consequences or punishment get stressed out, which can lead to other behavioral issues such as fearfulness or aggression.  The extra stress can interfere with their further training and ability to learn new behaviors.

9)   Get Your Family Involved: Getting other people involved is a great way to enforce positive behaviors.  Have everyone in the family practice the recall command. Everyone should use the same positive training methods to maintain consistency or obviously, the dog will only listen to one person.

10)              Stop Training When They Lose Interest…  Some dogs love training – but even the most enthusiastic learners do best with breaks. A 5 to 10 minute session should be sufficient.  If you go on much longer than that you run the risk of your dog becoming bored and/or distracted.  Keep it short and sweet by ending on a high note so they’ll look forward to the next session.

                       

BASIC GUIDELINES:

§  Don’t be a nag.

§  Don’t try to train your dog right after he eats. If he’s full, he won’t be as interested.

§  Don’t train when either you or your dog are sick or upset. You will only make each other unhappier.

§  Try to keep your training sessions short and often, ideally, 5 to 10 minutes, 3 times a day.

§  Always end on a positive note. If you are trying something new, and your dog just isn’t getting it, go back to something he knows well.

§  When the dog is first learning, reward every time he performs the behavior.

§  When the dog gets it completely right, big reward. Call it a ‘jackpot’. Make it a fair sized handful. Lots of praise, and quit training for that session.

§  Don’t try to rush your dog. All dogs learn at different rates, so go at your dog’s pace.

§  Start training where there are no distractions, and gradually build up the difficulty. For instance, go from inside, to back yard, to front yard, to quite street, to busy sidewalk, to crowded dog show. Your dog needs to learn that he can do what you ask, no matter what else is happening around him.

If you stick to these basic guidelines, you’ll slowly redefine yourself as a good trainer, and not just your dog’s guide. Practice, succeed, be confident, and have fun with your four-legged student.