Stotfold Puppy and Dog Training Club

Recall

 

Teaching your dog to come when you call them is a very important exercise to teach your new puppy.

 

When puppies are very small, they naturally want to be with you, so it is the perfect time to introduce this type of training:

 

• Call your puppy to you in and around the house and garden, praise them with your voice and tiny tasty treats when they come back to you. Once your puppy is coming back to you when you call their name reliably, you can then introduce a word such as 'come' or 'here'.

 

• It is important when teaching a recall to only call your puppy when it is very likely that they will come to you and not to call them when they are not likely to, i.e. don't call them when they are eating a tasty snack or busy sniffing something exciting!

 

• Once they are reliably coming to you in the home and garden, you can start in an outside location, but ensure you start in an area without distractions.

 

• I would recommend that you use a long line attached to your puppy's harness (not your puppy's collar!), so that you have some control as we do not want to set our puppy up to fail. Remember to be encouraging when your puppy is returning to you and praise and reward with a tasty treat for when they come back to you.

 

• Once your puppy comes back to you without distractions, then you can try in areas with some type of distraction, but not things which your puppy really gets excited by, remember set your puppy up to succeed!

 

Things won't always go to plan, but remember don't chastise your puppy if it takes longer than you would like for them to come back to you!

This is where you often see some dog owners go wrong, they tell their dog off when it finally comes back to them, so what does that teach your puppy?: Why it's a good idea NOT to come back to you!