Exercises to Improve Your Dog’s Recall

Here are a few easy exercises you can do to improve your dog’s recall around distractions, and in particular prey.

➡️ Something we call the triangle game! Put the dog in a stay, put either a toy on the ground or a bowl with some food, step a few meters away. Ask your dog for a behaviour where they need to choose to come to you instead of the toy/bowl (recall, touch, middle, heel…). Reward by releasing the dog to the toy/bowl. With time, start to chain behaviours, maybe a recall into a heel and then make a circle around the toy/bowl before releasing. Teach them that pushing deeper into the behaviour gives them access to the thing they want. You can use this on walks around things like scent, water, dogs they know etc.

➡️ Have a person lure the dog away from you with food. Recall your dog away from them. Use a long line to prompt your dog if needed, and at the start, have the person go still and lift the food up after you call the dog. 

➡️ Have a second person play tug with your dog. Start asking your dog to drop/out and release back to toy from person when you are right next to them.  Advance to standing further away and recalling your dog off playing tug. If your dog can’t do this in a controlled set up, you can’t really expect them to recall mid play with other dogs.

➡️ Recall off a thrown toy. Start when the dog is far from the toy, and reward with a second (identical) toy. Progress to calling the dog when it is close to the thrown toy, and reward by releasing to the same toy. If your dog can’t do this, can you really expect them to recall off chasing squirrels? 

I hope you found these exercises helpful! Let us know if you try any of them!