Come: From Selective Hearing to Super Recall

One of the most common concerns people have is wanting their dog to come when called.  It makes sense that this is the case because our dogs have their own interests, and often the world has many fun interests to compete with our call.  To compete with that, we need a plan to first teach our dogs that coming to us when we call is an a great thing to do, and to then challenge them with achievable challenges to improve their ability to respond even when distracted.  

Foundation

The biggest tip I can give you is to make coming to you amazing.  Make it fun and enjoyable for your dog, and do so repeatedly so that your dog develops a strong history of responding to you being a great deal for them.  This foundation creates an almost automatic response because your dog doesn't need to think about what comes next, they know it will great.  And that is what causes them to return even when there is something else they are interested in.  There are a variety of games that you can play with your dog to establish this foundation, and in private lessons I can help you choose and tailor games to your dog's specific preferences, but here are some common ones you can try.

Orientation Game
​I love this game, and find it foundational to many other things.  This core version encourages your dog to choose to check in with you, rather than run off and check out other things after they eat the treat.  

• Cue your dog to “Get it” and toss a treat away from you to one side
• Once they eat the treat, they will likely look back to you, at which point you can say “get it” again and toss a treat away in the other direction
• “Get it” marks the moment your dog checks in with you, and tells them that you are going to toss the reward.
• Tossing back and forth creates a pattern and keeps you as the center, the key to the next treat.

Orientation + Come
In this variation we are practicing having your dog respond to the cue to come, by putting it in a framework they know.  Practicing coming when called this way allows us to move your dog away from you, so they're not facing you allowing you to notice the moment they turn back to you without creating conflict or using a distraction that may be a bit too challenging for them to turn away from while they're learning because they're allowed to eat the tossed treat.  This is a win-win for your dog.  They get the tossed treat, get to run back to you for another one, and they doesn’t lose out on anything.  The trouble with practicing coming when called away from distractions that a dog can’t have is that there is always an opportunity loss in that setting – they don’t get to do what they were planning on.  Even if you reward them for returning, they miss out on their original plan and too much of that type of practice can irritate a dog and cause them to not respond (just think about when you’re trying to get a task done and someone keeps calling for your attention).   Therefore I like to play this game to create a great foundation of happy feelings when being called to come and an almost reflexive response to the cue.

• Cue your dog to “Get it” and toss a treat away from you
• As your dog picks up the treat, call your dog to come
• When your dog turns their head and looks at you, say your marker word “yes” to mark the moment of choice when they choose to reorient to you
• Reward them close to you once they reach you.
• Then repeat by giving the “Get it” cue and tossing a treat away.

Touch
This is a very versatile cue that can be used as an alternative cue to come to you.

• Hold out an open hand to your dog, as soon as they touch it with their nose, say your marker word then reward them.
• Once your dog can do that reliably, introduce the “touch” cue prior to presenting your hand.
• Once that is going well, you can start to ask for multiple touches in a row, moving your hand between touches to make it a fun game.
• Tip: if your dog knows shake a paw, try presenting the hand slightly differently, in a different shape or held a bit higher and tipped slightly downward to encourage nose touch rather than paw.  Also, playing this game with your dog standing rather than sitting will help encourage them to use their nose vs. their paw.

Safety First

Something that I think is very important to keep in mind is that our dogs are not robots.  They are living beings with their own personalities, interests and free will.  This means that there will always be an element of risk when they are off leash that they may choose not to respond.  Good training will reduce that risk, but especially while dogs are learning they may not respond the way you wish.  Therefore, I think it is important to also discuss some management options.

• practicing in safe spaces - indoors, in fenced areas, well away from roads
• utilizing long lines (20-30 foot leashes) under supervision that allow your dog to practice coming when called with more freedom while you still have the ability to stop them running off if something unexpected happens.
• considering a GPS tracker such as Tractive that can let you know where your dog is if they do take off.  Unless you are only in urban areas where there are lots of iphones, airtags tend not to work well as they utilize signals from iphones to tell you where your dog is, vs gps.  If you routinely hike in areas with limited cell service, you may wish to look into other more robust gps collars as well.

Introducing Distractions

Come - Adding Distractions
Once your dog is coming to you quickly when you practice where there are no to low distractions, we want to start purposefully including some distractions into training.  It is idea for us to plan to do this so that we have some control over how close and how difficult the distractions are.  This is very helpful in the learning stage, because we want to work our way up the ladder of difficult distractions starting with easy ones, then mildly difficult, then moderately difficult so that your dog builds their ability to disengage from distractions and return to you, rather than being consistently over faced with distractions that are too difficult at this time.

• Consider what types of things your dog finds interesting.  i.e. Stuffed toys, balls, squeaky toys, food (kibble, treats, people food) and rank some of those things from easy to hard.
• Usually adding motion makes a distraction more difficult, so a stationary ball is usually easier than a ball being tossed in the air by someone.
• If you have a helper, they can be responsible for holding the distraction so that your dog doesn't take it and run off.  If you don't, you can potentially place the distraction out of reach, or confine it in a see through plastic tote or small wire dog crate.
• If you have a helper, please tell them that while they can make noises to catch your dog's attention, they can't use their name, or the cue word to come, or they are just calling your dog.
• When your dog is interested in the distraction, give your cue to come.
• If your dog responds, say your marker word the moment you see their head turn, and reward them for reaching you.
• If you call a couple of times and your dog doesn't come, you can utilize some other "booster" cues or behaviours such as moving back/away, calling "puppy puppy", whistling, etc.
• When your dog responds,  say your marker word the moment you see their head turn, and reward them for reaching you.  But, if you needed to use some "booster" cues, set up your next repetition to be a bit easier.

Come Boosters
What if *Dog* doesn’t come when you call?

• For now, don’t call if you know they won’t come
• If you have called 2-3 times with no response, then you should add a “boost”, something that will increase the likelihood that your dog will come.  We don’t want to have to use these boosters frequently, because we don’t want them to become a required part of your cue to come, however, if your dog hasn't responded to you calling 2 or 3 times, the odds won’t get better if you just continue to call.
  • Movement – movement can draw your dog’s attention to you
  • Walking away – moving away in the opposite direction can cause your dog to run over to see where you are going.
  • Standing directly behind your dog.  If your dog can watch you and whatever they are interested in at the same time, they have less reason to turn to you.  By stepping into their blind spot, you create a choice situation in which your dog cannot watch both you and the other thing at the same time. 
  • Changing how you call – sometimes  “puppy puppy” in a happy voice will cause your dog to run over.  Some people can whistle, which would be another option.
  • Adding clapping, patting your leg, etc.
  • In an emergency situation, shaking a treat bag or treat jar.  Don’t over use this!

Catch and Keep

One common challenge I see is a dog that will come back to their person, but won't come within arm's reach.  Usually, this is because the dog doesn't want to be caught and is avoiding the end of their freedom.  If your dog is doing this, or you want to prevent this from becoming an issue, read on.

Taking hold of the Collar
Some dogs dislike the feeling or the human posture that accompanies reaching to take hold of their collar or leash.  Before we can practice this piece of the coming when called routine, we want to make sure your dog is not only comfortable with you getting a hold of them, but actually is happy for you to do so because of the pleasant associations we’re going to create.

• Gently take a hold of your dog’s collar/harness
  
• Say your marker work "yes"
  
• Give them a treat
• Then let go and release them

Goal: your dog looks relaxed and happy when you reach for their collar and doesn't move away.

Come - Catch & Release
Once your dog is happy for you to take hold of their collar or harness, we can start to practice this as part of the coming when called sequence.

• With your dog looking away from you, but not overly interested in something say their name and watch their head.  
• Say your marker word as soon as you see their head start to turn towards you.  Don’t wait for them to be facing you or looking at you.  Mark the earliest movement you can see. 
• When they arrives at you, reach with an empty hand and take a hold of their collar or harness.
• Then reach for a treat and reward your dog with your other hand

Special Case - Time to go inside

Another common recall issue is not wanting to go in the house, and wanting to remain outside instead.  This can be a very frustrating problem to have!  To turn things around, I recommend the following:

• First, management so that you can ensure that your dog will go inside with you.  This may mean practicing going in and out on a leash, or utilizing a long line or leash you can pick up when it is time to go in.
• Go outside, then give a cue such as "Time to go in"
• Go inside with your dog
• Get a really yummy treat or several, and give them to your dog
• Ideally, go back outside for a bit again.

What you are looking for is that your dog hears your time to go in cue and starts eagerly moving toward the door.   If your dog prefers toys to treats, you can switch out the treat reward for a good toy and a game if you wish, the goal is to make going inside more appealing.

Going back outside can be the biggest reward of all, and teaches your dog that not only is going inside a good deal, but it doesn't necessarily mean the end of outside time, which will dramatically reduce their resistance to going inside.

I prefer to have the reward show up once your dog is inside so that you don't get stuck trying to lure your dog in by showing them what you have.  It also makes it easier to reduce the treats later on once your dog is consistently going inside on cue if you wish.