Wondering how to teach a dog recall? As part of our incredible partnership, our friends at Battersea have shared with us this helpful guide to dog recall training. As a dog owner, ensuring your dog has good recall – in other words, has been taught to come back when called – is one of the most important things you and your dog can learn. It’s vital that all dogs have a strong and reliable recall before you let them off the lead in a public place so that you know they will come back to you.
This is even more important when taking your dog to a new place, on holiday for example, as they may be unsure of their surroundings. We would recommend keeping your dog on a lead, or a long-line lead in any new, open spaces, and test out their recall in any new places in a secure environment like a back garden or even in a lounge or kitchen area.
Teaching your dog a strong recall whilst on holiday also means that you will be able to call them back to you, get their lead back on with ease, and take control of any situation if needed. We recommend that the key to teaching a recall is to stay positive and make sure that the prospect of returning to you is always appealing to your dog.
Paw through these steps to begin your recall training:
Step 1 – Getting started
You will need to start recall training in a secure area in your house or garden before you go on holiday, where your dog is comfortable and doesn't have too many distractions. If you don’t have access to a safe, enclosed area at home, you can use a long-line training lead with a harness in a quiet area of a park. Make sure that you keep an eye out for people and other dogs and stop frequently to call your dog back to you.
First, you will need to work out what type of reward motivates your dog the most. For many dogs, it’s food. However, when they’re excited and running around, they may prefer to come back for a game with a particular toy.
Whatever the reward, it should be something your dog really wants and something that is special, that they don’t get all the time, or ideally that you only use for recall.
Step 2 – Introduce the cue word
Begin by teaching your dog your chosen cue word for the recall. Some useful recall words for dogs could include, ‘Come’, ‘Here’, or you can even use a whistle, just make sure you choose your word and stick to it.
To introduce the word, stand near your dog and call them to you with lots of enthusiasm, using your chosen cue word and their name. When they come to you, give them a treat, or play with a toy for just a few seconds before stopping and moving away. Keep repeating this throughout the day, around your house, and your garden if you have one, until you’re happy that your dog understands the word.
Once you’re happy they understand, try calling them when they’re in a different area of the house – making sure you reward them as soon as they appear. Once they are comfortable doing it in familiar surroundings, they'll be much more likely to do it on holiday.
Step 3 – Practice, practice, practice
Wondering how to improve your dog's recall on holiday? It's simple, keep practising the recall as much as possible, at home and in your garden, if you have one. Your dog needs to be reliably coming back to you before you progress to adding distractions or trying this outside of your home.
If you find your dog isn’t reliably coming back, it’s because they either don’t understand the cue yet, or the reward you are offering isn’t motivating enough. Go back to the beginning and be patient – it will be worth it.
Step 4 – Introduce distractions
Once your dog is happy with the cue word and is responding to it from different distances, you can start to introduce distractions. We would recommend asking a friend or family member to help you out with this.
Set up a situation with one person engaging your dog, either by playing with them or doing some different training, while the other person is somewhere nearby. When you’re ready, stop the distraction and have the second person call your dog, and reward them as soon as they respond.
The second person will need to entice them with another equally fun toy or treat. Practice this back and forth a few times, over a few short sessions. Make sure that the person calling your dog away is always more appealing than whatever they are currently doing. This will show them that recall doesn’t mean the end of fun.
Step 5 – Work up to practising on walks
Once your dog is confident with being recalled from one fun, engaging thing to another, you can start to practice during their holiday walks. We’d recommend using a long-line lead and a harness while they’re still learning.
To begin with, try to only call them at times when you think they’re going to come back to you, so not when they are playing with another dog or intently sniffing something. You can build up to these situations and bigger distractions as they improve.
When they come back, collect the long-line lead up, lure them into you and hold their collar or harness as you reward them. It’s important to practice this throughout the walk, and not only at the end when the walk is over.
If they’re struggling with this, try gently reeling them in using the long line, calling them as you do it and then rewarding them.
Training your dog to have good recall is an essential skill and one that can only be acquired with time, patience and consistency. Once you’ve mastered good recall, you can go walking on holiday with the satisfaction of knowing that your dog will return to you when you need them to.
Canine Cottages and Battersea
Canine Cottages and Battersea are teaming up to form a partnership built on shared values, allowing Canine Cottages to support Battersea in its incredible work, ensuring our beloved dogs have all the love and attention they deserve. You can sign up for The Battersea Way, Battersea's pet advice email, to receive more expert advice.
Dog-friendly holiday cottages
Planning a trip? Practice recalling your dog in a beautiful destination by browsing through the Canine Cottages collection of dog-friendly UK retreats.
Disclaimer: Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information at the time of writing,
please ensure you check carefully before making any decisions based on the contents within this article.