Ki's K-9 Virginia Beach Dog Training

Reliable recall

What is Reliable Recall?

Getting your dog to come to you every time you call is called "Reliable recall". This might be the most important behavior for your dog to learn. There are so many situations where it is critical that your dog comes to you when you call. Your dog might be heading toward traffic or other hazard that cause you must intervene before your dog suffers injury. By nature, dog's become distracted and focused easily. Sometimes they are focused on the wrong thing or become unaware of trouble coming their way. When we call our dog to us, we are asking our dog to stop what comes naturally to them and what they were focused on. Sometimes when we call our dogs, they might be experiencing something really interesting. So, the foundation of reliable recall training is teaching our dog that coming on command will be reliably rewarding to our dog. Our goal of "reliable" means 99 times out of 100, your dog will come to you when you call. This is live-saving training so it is very important to be very reliable.

Train in the right setting

It is important when doing any off-leash training that you respect the local leash laws. We like to start recall training inside the dog's home so there are few distractions for the dog. after training this way for the amount of time needed, we can then move the training outside, such as in a fenced yard. As with other training, we need to figure out what motivates your dog such as toys, treats, or praise. Lets's say for your dog, treats are a strong motivator.

Start with the motivator

So if your dog likes treats, from a distance, show your dog the treat. As your dog moves toward you, say the command cue like "come". After many repetitions, your should start to become reliable to come to you on command. You should expect a lot of repetitions. We have found it takes dozens and dozens of repetitions to achieve the reliability we want. It also takes several training sessions, since this training will eventually become tedious to your dog and your dog will, at some point lose interest and we need to be aware of that since it is a sign that we need to end the training session or at least break-up the recall training with some playtime.

Move outside

After your dog is showing very good reliability for recall inside, we can move the training outside. This is a big step in the training since there is often a lot of distractions to be found outside. Squirrels, people, and other dogs and usually of great interest to your dog. We continue the training and repetitions as before. Again, we should expect many repetitions and maybe several training sessions. For the outside training, especially, we consider distance. We start close in and then work toward a greater and greater distance. between us and your dog. It is important for your dog that we commit the time toward reliable recall training. It will take time to establish reliable recall in your dog and usually, periodic refresher training is needed.