Among the proudest moments of dog owners are moments where their dogs have shown exemplary performances as results of their trainings. Imagine your dog running after a squirrel, then stops at mid-run to after you have called him or her. The amount of recall their dogs have is astounding. And yes, as a regular dog owner, it is possible.
A dog’s recall is achievable. It is usually achieved after months of hard work. The trick is this: no matter what surrounds your dog during training, you should always emerge as the most interesting thing. You can do this by initiating games, giving loads of treat and giving your pet loads of compliments and praises. It requires a lot of hard work, and it will be disappointing at times. But once achieved, you will feel nothing but contentment and pride.
So What Are the Simple Ways to Improve Your Dog’s Recall?
Do not be frustrated when your dogs refuse to come to you after some beck and call. Also, you are not the only who has pets with the mantra “run like there is a gate left open” or one who chases almost after everything that moves. Most dog owners go through these ordeals. This problem is even viewed as normal—for we all experience these doggie problems, most especially during the rebellious stage or dog adolescent stage.
Here are some tips to help your dogs in the improvement of their recall:
We All Start as Amateurs
Dog owners often admire other dog owners for their ability to catch the attention and recall of their pets. Truth is, these dog owners also started as amateurs, not knowing what to do, shouting angrily after their dogs at the dog park, not knowing this trick simply won’t cut it. Probably we haven’t thought about what our dogs feel when we call them that way. They would rather wonder and sniff around more than return to their seemingly ballistic owners. Remember that yelling and showing frustration is not a very good strategy in improving your dog’s recall. They wouldn’t like to return to an angry owner. That is basically the reason why they don’t come back at once. Once a dog owner realizes this, then they can go ahead and research about positive training sessions and rewards based methods. Eventually we also motivate our dogs to do good in training.
Recall is perhaps the most important part of every dog training there is. It is considered the most basic command, and also one of the most difficult to ace. Again, hard work is needed to achieve dog’s recall. Take for example your dog chases after a squirrel. Learn to understand that your dog will be highly awarded if he gets the chance to catch the squirrel. This is explained through the idea that is called the “high prey drive”. This is also the reason why they wouldn’t chose coming back to you after a negative and angry beck.
Always remember: you have to be more interesting and rewarding than the chase. If not, your dog will just continue disobeying you and continue finding other distractions. So make sure you make yourself interesting and fun and worth the distraction
Be Consistent and Be Patient
In everything endeavor, we need to be consistent. Patience is also key in learning new things and in teaching others new things. Similarly, when we train our dogs, we should know that they won’t perfect it the first few tries. In teaching your dogs to come to you, make sure your rewards are ready (and will be given with praise and enthusiasm)
Also consider the time period of your recall training. Dogs have short attention span. Od not expect their attention for a three-hour long session. With this, dog owners are advised to do trainings for a limited time only. If you see them getting bored, call it a day and continue again tomorrow.
Put in mid: you can never train your dog and achieve 100% reliability. You can come close though. Do not pour your frustrations to your pets, it is not their fault that so many things are distracting them. It may be hard (for both dogs and dog owners) but continue trying. Tell your dogs how happy you are with their progress and make sure you let them know that following them is the right choice.
