4 simple tips that can be utilised to improve your dogs recall
Use a long line!
Have a 10m long line on your dog any time you’re planning to work on recall, so if they don’t come you can simply guide them back to you physically with the line and reward heavily anyway. By doing this your still conditioning the recall cue to mean “I went to them”! Biothane lines from wildhunde.com are my favourite.
Magnet training!
You should reward your dog EVERY time they’re in your vicinity. Not just when you call them. Any time they check it with you, walk up etc, food treat praise. You want to build a very positive association for you and not just for the word come! This will make their overall value for Recall even higher as by building value for yourself, you’re making the very act of coming near you rewarding. It’s a pleasant little circle of positive rewards!
Use their daily food!
Food is currency for a dog so Instead of feeding out of a bowl, put their daily food in a treat pouch and reward them for coming to you every time. Or keep the very best parts for recall training and only give them boring stuff in a engagement toy later. You can even practice a recall for that engagement toy too!
Reward with play!
Especially dogs like GSD, they often grow to value play far more than food. Teach them some fun games of tug and retrieval, and use that as a reward for recall too!
