fido come come come here fido please come here you come here right now
yeah that's not working is it the come cue also called recall it's one of the hardest ones for
humans and puppies to master after all you're asking the dog to stop paying attention to
something that they probably find very interesting and return to you instead it's going to take a lot
of training to help vital learn to do that on cue michelle here with how to train a dream dog
before we work on recall go ahead and hit that subscribe button so you don't miss another
important safety lesson like this one in today's video i'm going to share a story with you about an
owner working on recall or the come q with his dog i'm going to give you some questions about what
this owner did and then you can guess what would be the correct way to handle the situation now by
the end of this video you're going to leave with a couple of recall games to play with your pup
and tips in case your dog gets loose and your recall isn't rock solid just yet and then in the
comments you're going to tell us how many answers you got right after we go through the questions
okay here's the story it's about a dog named winston now winston has been home for about
two weeks he's about 10 weeks old now for the last two weeks winston has come every time
bob called his name bob's been super pleased with this now on a recent walk bob felt pretty
comfortable taking off winston's leash because he's become so compliant well that day winston
met up with a deer on the trail can you guess what happened next winston actually started chasing the
deer he would not respond when bob yelled for him to come panicked bob started chasing after winston
and became really upset probably a little scared too now when bob finally caught up to winston
the exhausted winston he was so upset that he reprimanded winston the whole way back to the car
all right here are some questions for you do you think winston really knows the come q a yes
he knew it but the deer was just too exciting b no he didn't really know what [ __ ] meant c
winston knew but he was too scared of bob's tone of voice well the answer is b and a and c all
right there's some combination here of all three it's really hard to know exactly what winston was
feeling but from many years of experience with puppies i can tell you that many owners mistake
compliance in puppies that young puppies are naturally compliant when they're really
young they come when called because you are their favorite person and you are very exciting to them
but as the puppy grows so does their confidence we often see this early compliance disappear in
favor of other more interesting things like deer so answer a is almost somewhat correct and that
the deer was likely more interesting than bob and although we don't know bob's tone of voice
for sure it was probably pretty stressed and not very happy to a dog the choice between an
interesting smelling deer and an angry human is clear go for the deer now another question
i have about this story is if winston was ready to be off leash what do you think when is it okay
to let a dog off a leash a when they're five months old b when they are in an enclosed area
or c when recall was successful 10 out of 10 times during practice the answer is it's gonna actually
depend on your puppy in the case of my dogs they're recall not so strong not strong enough
for me to trust them off leash in all situations and i'm a dog trainer who doesn't use aversives to
scare my dog back into coming now i've certainly owned dogs who i could trust off leash but i am
very conservative in giving my dogs off leash time because the risk is so high pickles my cavalier
he's so impulsive if he sees a squirrel he might run right out into traffic and wesley he's so full
of energy if he sees another dog he's a goner that other dog might be too they would be going
off together forever bffs and well i mean really wesley just wants to be friends with everybody and
every animal he meets and harper well she's an old lady now so she probably wouldn't even go very far
pickles is three and wesley's two so they're still really young with more time and training i know i
could get them both to a point where they could be off leash but frankly they don't need to be we do
go out with a long leash and i just let them sniff and wander and explore and they love it sometimes
we'll go to an enclosed area and i'll let them just run and be free but they're still safe in an
enclosed area and they do come when i call to me it's just not worth risking them being off leash
now if you want to know more about these long leash walks and why they're so good go ahead and
check out this video here but what should bob do instead so when he sees the winston is not going
to follow his request to come what should he do a run after him b go wait for him in the car winston
will smell his way back eventually or c stay in the exact spot so winston will know where to find
him and the answer is none of the above sorry that was actually a tricky one honestly the best thing
to do when your dog is taking off and you need them to return to you follow these steps number
one drop your body posture number two always reward with high reinforcements like high value
treats and or a toy number three move away from the puppy while still facing him number four be
more exciting than the distraction with an excited happy tone of voice and number five and finally
make a plan to add in a lot of pre-training for recall this means that you're going to
be working on the queue while the puppy is on a long leash leading up to letting them off leash
in an enclosed area while continuing to work on this it's going to also be important not to use
the word come until you've really taught your dog what it means and he complies if you use the word
a lot and the dog doesn't respond you are actually weakening the word if you already used [ __ ] too
much pick a different word some students in my online course have shared all different words
like cheese and bananas here approach and aki it doesn't really matter what the word is that
you choose it just matters that you train the dog to know what it means every time you call
it what about the idea of chasing your dog what does chasing your dog do hey tells him
that running is fun and he should do it more b the spatial pressure pushes him further away
see it gets you into better shape okay well c might be true but b is definitely the answer
when you get close to your dog they have a natural instinct to create more space unless you've taught
them good things will happen near you now if your nearness means that fun ends or he will
be picked up against his will or he's going to be deprived of what he really wants he's just going
to learn to avoid you now this becomes a game of chase and then reinforces running away from you
now at the end of this video i'm going to teach you a game to play with your dog but teaches him
that it's a good idea to stay when the owner comes near and good things happen when he comes to you
so stick around for that and be sure to subscribe to the channel for more great videos like this one
now if you're looking for another one with more fun games this one here is going to be a great one
to check out after you're done with this video now what do you think about bob's demeanor and tone of
his voice what happens when you drop your tone of voice to one that is stern and angry and upsetting
does your dog a immediately respond and return b go into a down or c run the other way well
the answer is going to depend on your training now if you've done none or not enough training
he's probably going to run the other way if you've taught him that good things happen when he returns
or you've taught him to drop into a down he's gonna do it if he's not doing it it means that
you've got more training to do not that he's a stubborn dog keep in mind that no one wants to
come back to an angry person that angry or upset tone of voice creates a negative association with
coming to you it breaks down the trust between you and the dog and it breaks down your relationship
yelling at a dog for running away does not teach the dog what to do instead and does not
make the dog feel comfortable to return the dog won't understand that running away was not good
only that the angry person is someone to fear dogs live in the moment not in the future but they
definitely remember the way they felt in the past now it might be hard to keep an upbeat positive
tone when you're scared and upset that your dog might get hurt but remember that your positive
tone will create a higher chance of him returning i think you can do that now if you're also
wondering what else you can do to create a strong relationship with your dog which will help with
the recall check out this great video here now i want to teach you a fun game you can play with
your puppy to help him learn that coming to you when you call him is a good thing now i call this
game puppy ping pong the game involves sending the puppy back and forth between two people and
he gets rewarded every time now you can play with two people or more at the end i'll give you a tip
on how to play with just one person you're going to want to first start inside in a small area with
no distractions this means no other animals moving or no children playing the kids can possibly play
along but they might want to watch you do it first to get the hang of it before you add
them into the mix now i want you to find a moment when your dog isn't paying attention to you but
is still pretty close by maybe within a few feet grab a few treats and hold them behind your back
then you're going to drop down with your posture into kind of a crouched position you're going to
tap your thighs and you're going to make an exciting noise maybe even a kissy noise the
dog will likely naturally perk up look at you and come back to you because you were so interesting
and exciting in that moment the minute your dog arrives give him the tasty treat now someone else
a few feet away can then do the same thing and call the dog over to them with a kissy noise
remember that at this point we're not actually using the word come practice just being excited
with body language and sounds that's just one way dogs communicate so that's how we're gonna have
you communicate at first as well now once the dog is getting the hang of this game you can start to
add distance between each of you then after a few training sessions inside and he's doing great take
it outside you can do it on a long leash in an enclosed area whatever you do don't play the game
off leash we are far from ready for off-leash work outside just yet this is very similar to
a game we have in our course called collar grab in this game we are actually teaching our dog
to feel good about humans reaching for their collar this is an excellent game for safety
after all your dog gets lost what's the first thing someone's gonna do when they find them
reach for the caller now you don't want your dog to pull away and make the finder unable to read
his tag or be able to catch him one additional note on this you can practice this puppy ping
pong game even if you don't have a partner the way i like to do it is put a dog on a long leash
loop it over the doorknob on the opposite side of the door so that you can close the door
this keeps the leash secure and the closed door keeps from moving or possibly slamming and scaring
the dog then you can graduate to a long leash outside the leash is used so your puck can't
run away from you remember the whole purpose of recall games is to teach your pup to come to you
not run away from you you're gonna want to wait until your dog is distracted or not looking at you
you can then use your excited happy tones or kissy noise to catch your pup's attention don't forget
to reward when your dog gets to you remember anytime your dog comes to you even if you're not
actually asking him to give them a reward i always use high value rewards when we're working on
this skill i want to send the message home that coming to me will always be handsomely rewarded
now above all you want the dog to feel like good things happen when he approaches humans you can
reinforce that all day long every day recall is a hard one to master i really get it this is one
reason we focus on it so much in my online course also if you're not ready for the cucumb yet just
hold off on saying that verbally don't say it yet the more you call come without getting the
response you're looking for the more you're muddying up what the cue is gonna mean we're
actually working with several students at our pro level who needed to change the recall word because
the original word got muddied up they continued to call calm and their dog didn't respond so it's
going to be a lot harder for you to memorize that new word and use it consistently than it's going
to be for your dog to actually learn the cue in the first place so for that reason hold off on
using the come verbal cue until you've played all the other games inside our course with your dog i
can't teach you everything you're going to need to know about dog training and recall in this
short youtube video these other games though are going to include the fred flintstone the slingshot
come and go which has multiple parts and more games that we suggest that you can play outdoors
recall is such an important skill we really loaded up the course with games to teach it now
that we've really dissected the recall queue with our friend bob and his pup winston tell me what's
one actionable thing you can do to teach your puppy this skill after you've watched this video