6 Tips to Teach Your Dog a Reliable Recall

If you’re part of the dog community in person or on social media you probably hear the word “recall” being thrown around a lot. Teaching your dog recall, otherwise known as “coming when they’re called”, is so important for their safety but can be a tricky command for them to master. Today, I’m sharing 6 tips for teaching your dog reliable recall.

What is a Reliable Recall and Why is it So Important?

Reliable recall refers to your dog consistently coming to you when you call them. In short, if you call for your dog to come and know that they always will, they have a reliable recall. If your dog only comes occasionally when you call them, their recall is not reliable and if they almost never respond to being called, they have no recall at all. 

Having a reliable recall is so important in order to keep your dog safe. There are many cases in which knowing that your dog will come when called could save their life such as:

• Recalling to you before running into the road and being hit by a car
• Recalling to you on a hike when there is a wild animal on the path
• Recalling to you before running off after a squirrel and getting lost
• Recalling to you before running up to an unfriendly or aggressive dog

Your dog should only ever be permitted off leash if they have a reliable recall. Unleashed dogs without recall are putting themselves and those around them at an extreme risk.

6 Tips to Teach Your Dog a Reliable Recall

Teaching your dog a reliable recall can be really difficult. Unfortunately, the freedom they have while running free is often too great of a reward for your dog to care about coming back to you when called. Working on a reliable recall should be a priority from day one of bringing your pup home and you should be aware that your dog may not ever get to the point of it being 100% reliable. Here are 6 tips to teach your dog a reliable recall:

1. Use Recall Games

Recall games are great for engraining the command into your dog. Games like “catch me” are perfect for dogs who wouldn’t otherwise pay you any attention. To play “catch me”, while on a walk with your dog, turn around and run in the opposite direction. As they follow you yell out “come!” And reward them heavily for following.

Another game you could play involves you and a couple of friends standing in a circle around your dog with high value treats. Take turns calling your dog and using the command “come” and then praising and rewarding them as they go to the person who calls them. 

The goal here is to show your dog that coming to you is always the “fun” and “rewarding” option compared to running away from you. 

2. Don’t Repeat Yourself

As with any command, you don’t want to have to repeat yourself in order for your dog to listen. The goal should be for your dog to recall to you as soon as they hear the word “come”. If you repeat the word over and over you’ll just teach them that they don’t have to come as soon as they hear you call. 

3. Never Punish Your Dog for Coming to You

You should be heavily praising your dog every single time they choose to come to you (even if they ran for 3 miles and chased a bunch of squirrels before doing so). Scolding your dog when they come to you will teach them that they could possibly get in trouble for it, and may deter them from doing so in the future. 

4. Never Chase Them

In an emergency situation, when your dog is refusing to recall to you, do not chase them. Dogs think of chase as a game and it’s likely that they will continue to run in the opposite direction. Instead, stay firmly in one spot and call them. As long as you can see them, you don’t need to panic. In most cases they will eventually recall back to you.

If you really need your dog to come to you ASAP, start running in the opposite direction of them. In most cases they will follow right after you, thinking it’s a game. Remember to praise them once they do come back to you!

5. Practice Daily

Recall is one of those commands that needs to be practiced consistently for the remainder of your dogs life, even once you think they’ve mastered it. Be sure to practice in new environments all the time, and as they get better at it, make the environments more tricky. 

If your dog has perfect recall in the field you’ve been practicing in, move to a location with more to distract them. You want them to have reliable recall in every situation so that you don’t have to worry in an emergency. 

6. Make Yourself the Reward

When a dog is running away, it’s always because the animal they’re chasing, dog they are running towards, or in general freedom they have in that moment is a much better reward than you are. In order to perfect your dogs recall you’ll want to make yourself the ultimate reward.

Work with your dog constantly to form a close bond so that they feel immense joy when doing what you ask of them and making you happy. The better bond you have with your dog, the more likely they are to want to please you. 

What are some steps you’ve taken to teach your dog a reliable recall?