Your dog may be quite brilliant all the time, except when they are not.
One way they sometimes rebel is to refuse to return to you when called when they know that they’ll be stopped doing what they are enjoying.
This is what happens
For example: You are at the park with your dog. You’re having fun together, but when it’s time to go your dog refuses to come back to you. No matter how frequently you call them they refuse to return. What should you do to make this stop?
Think like your dog thinks
The first thing is to understand what your dog is thinking. It knows you want to leave, and it is negotiating with you because it is having a good time and it is likely genuinely thinks it can convince you to stay on strength of that.
Now there’s no point getting angry with the dog for doing this – that is only likely to make your animal stay away from you for fear of punishment.
Plus, if you do punish the animal – well, would you go to your best friend if it beat you up for having a good time?
Don’t make it a game
The other option is to try to chase the dog, catch it, stick it on the leash and take it home. But you know what happens then, right? Your dog will either be scared thinking you will punish it, or thrilled thinking it’s a new game of chase. Either way you’ll be racing round the park yelling, shouting, and having a bad time.
There must be a better way.
So, if your dog tends to negotiate when you want it to return to you then try a little training trick – after all – you have nothing to lose.
5 steps to solving poor recall
The first thing to do is think.
You will eventually get your dog to return to you, but no matter how frustrated you became attempting to do so, don’t get angry, don’t punish the dog, and don’t simply slip the creature on the leash and take it home.
You see, any of those actions are negative to the dog. It will simply associate returning to you with some form of punishment, and in this case given it has returned to you what you are actually punishing is the recall.
Here are the tips
So, in future try it this way.
- When your dog does return to you, don’t show how stressed/cross you have become, just say “good dog, come” and make a big fuss of the creature – give it one of those training treats you should always have with you.
- Don’t just go home. If you are late, you can be a few minutes later as you want to train the behaviour out of your pet.
- Instead, make a fuss of your canine and take it for a happy walk (a little run is best) for five or ten minutes, have a game of tug, make the association of returning to you a fun thing.
- Then, next time you take your dog to the park, deliberately end the game five or ten minutes early, and work with your dog until it does eventually come to you. When it does, reward your pet, make a happy fuss, and take them for a short walk around the park during which you shower them with praise.
- It may take a few goes, but eventually your dog won’t associate the command to return after the end of off leash park time with a negative idea and will instead see it as a route to even more fun. And, let’s face it, you’ll be overjoyed with your lovely dog that does what he or she is told.
The big take away when doing any kind of work with your dog is to stay positive and always reward the good behaviour. Because dogs love that reward, and most will eventually learn how to achieve it.
Now learn more commands for happier walks with your canine companion.
Photo by Atanas Teodosiev on Unsplash
