Pooch and Mutt's expert trainer, Jon, is here to take us through how to teach your puppy good recall.
In our training video, Jon takes us through, step by step, how to go about training your puppy to have good recall - a command that will not only benefit further puppy training, but will come in handy as the pup gets older, especially whilst out on walks and trying new things.
Teaching your puppy recall
- As a strong recall is one of the harder obedience skills to achieve, it’s best to start laying the foundations as early as possible.
- The first thing you need to do as an owner or family is decide on a command or word to associate with recall. Consistency is important in dog training, so you all need to be using the same word.
- The first part of recall training doesn’t involve formal training. It’s simply opportunity and association. So, whenever your puppy comes close to you, walks or runs towards you, you say your command and give them a treat.
- Do this repeatedly, crouching down and encouraging reward through calm praise and body language, repeating your chosen command.
- You can also instil this when cuddling with your pup. Whilst being affectionate, calmly and quietly repeat your command.
- Once your puppy is older, you can start formal recall training.
- The secret to successful recall training is repetition. Ideally, you need to be using your puppy’s food to train. This way you can get lots of training in, where you're limited with treats, which should only be used in small amounts.
- Your pup will quickly learn that contact with your hand means food, and this is crucial when taking your recall training to the next step, where you use your command to make your puppy come over to you.
- Try to keep training sessions short and interesting. Mix up how the game works but always the aim is for the puppy to get his nose on your hands.
- When calling your puppy back, start to use an inflexion in your voice to create a ‘corridor’ for your puppy to travel down. Use a positive, happy vibe whilst they're heading directly to you, and more seriously if they veer off or get distracted.
- You can also train puppies to recall using their toys. This is a good option for pups that aren't foodies.
- Save their favourite toy for recall training. A tug toy is perfect for this. You can train with the same scenarios just substitute the food for the tug.
- Remember, don’t exhaust your puppy in play. Keep the sessions short but do lots of them during the day.
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