Recall: Helping Your Dog Want to Come Back to You

by Bailey Coldwell

It’s 7 AM on a Sunday morning, and you are letting the dog outside. Before you know it, the dog sees, smells, or hears something and is gone faster than you can keep up. If you weren’t fully awake before, you are now, as you run around the neighborhood in your slippers, calling Buddy’s name about 86 times. While I don’t quite believe in a 100% recall, I do believe that we can get to a 95–99% success rate. I don’t say 100% because we can't know whether a distraction might someday be tempting enough to cause a delay in coming back, even for the best-trained dogs.

Recall is one of the most important cues in dog training. If a dog escapes the front door, slips their collar, or gets freaked out by the dog sitter and sneaks off, a solid recall truly can be the difference between a life-and-death situation.

Recall is a time-consuming part of dog training; there is no denying that. A three-month-old puppy might excel at coming back to their handler on the first try. That same puppy at eight months (hello, teenager!) might decide one day that rolling in the neighbor’s chicken poop is more fun than coming back to their handler. Don’t be discouraged if you are doing everything I list below and still not having great results. The answer might simply be more time to mature and get in repetitions.

Anytime that you start to see a delay in your dog wanting to come back to you, it is important to put them back on a long line so that the chase around the neighborhood is not possible. Recall is a behavior that I continue to reward sporadically throughout a dog’s life. It’s so important that they stay responsive, so I want to keep motivating them to want to come back to me.

My main recommendation for helping create a successful recall with your dog is to practice as much as possible, in as many different places as possible, making the experience as positive as possible.

Buying a long line is the first step when going to a larger, outdoor space. We must first have an option to guide our dogs back to us to help them learn that recall is mandatory. I enjoy long lines that are biothane material or similar, as they are weatherproof and dogs are less likely to be able to chew through them. I do not often recommend retractable leashes (here is a blog post on that for more: https://www.baxterandbella.com/post/are-retractable-leashes-helpful-or-harmful). The length of a long line is dependent on the space you have to work with. Personally, I like 25–30-foot long lines. I have used a 50-foot long line, and it was a lot to manage, especially if there are any trees or other obstacles around. However, I can surely see the benefit if the dog is simply in a large, empty field.

While waiting for your long line to arrive, you will want to be working on recall work inside. We have a few recall games in our “Games and Activities Program” that are fun, such as “Hide and Seek,” “Four Corner Recall,” and “Round Robin.” You want to succeed with your dog being able to come back to you inside from any room. Just like how we teach basic cues inside first, where it is less stimulating—such as down, stay, and sit—we want to do the same with recall.

Now that you have your long line, consider areas to work with your dog. Think of places that are fairly wide open to prevent the long line from getting tangled while you and the dog get used to using one. Right outside your home, the local park, or a fairly empty parking lot are good options. Use a properly fitted harness versus a collar in case the dog sprints to the end of the long line. When outside, allow your dog to be a dog. Let them sniff around, run a bit, and simply explore. Frequently, make yourself fun to encourage them to come back to you. Make a goofy noise, show them a toy, get lower to the ground, jog diagonally away from them, etc. Once you grab the pup’s attention, say “come” in a happy and fun voice. When the dog comes back to you, take a moment to reward. Treat, play, praise, or whatever else your dog likes. Then, allow them to go sniff around again.

Anytime that your dog looks at you, mark and reward them. If they come close to you, mark and reward. We are getting the dog used to this environment while making ourselves really great. As the dog becomes used to the environment, they usually start to hang out with us a bit more. When dogs get older, they tend to start learning that “come” means they go back inside or the fun otherwise ends. Help them learn that most of the time, “come” means they come back to you and then they get to go explore again. This will increase the likelihood of your dog wanting to come back.

If your dog doesn’t readily come back, this is where we can use the long line. If you cannot get the dog’s attention, walk closer to them while gathering more of the long line into your arms. Once you do get closer, the dog is also more capable of checking in with you because they are less distracted. If the dog is super distracted, you can even move in a different direction, using your momentum and peppiness to encourage them to move with you. This is all showing the dog that it’s not optional and they will come closer to you regardless. Even though you might be annoyed that they didn’t respond, whenever they do look at you, STILL reward. Even if you had to get pretty close. Remember that even with frustrating moments, we still want to be our dog’s friend and make them want to hang out with us.

Keep them on the long line until they are coming back to you enthusiastically, nine out of ten times on the first try. If you have an adolescent puppy who has been in the habit of not coming back to you, it isn’t a bad idea to just plan to keep them on a long line until they seem to be moving past adolescence. Once you feel they are doing well on the long line while you are holding it, try to let the long line drag around behind them when you are nearby. This way, you are more likely to be able to grab the leash as needed, they still have the sensation of the leash being on them, and they can create more distance away from you. If the dog is doing well with this, start attempting off-leash recall in familiar outdoor spaces first. Slowly experiment with off-leash scenarios in environments that are more and more stimulating as the dog is successful. Again, anytime that you start to notice a decrease in successful off-leash recall, putting them back on the long line and reminding them it is great to come back to you is going to be the answer.

Be familiar with leash laws in the area that you are in and stick with them. It is also just good to mention that ultimately, a long line is going to be the safest and most reliable form of recall. If the dog is not on a long line, there is always going to be an increased risk of an accident occurring, such as the dog running off, an unwanted encounter with a person or wildlife, or the dog getting injured. With all of that being said, do I trust my eight-year-old Lab to be off-leash in areas I am comfortable with? Yes. We spent a lot of time on the above advice since she was a young puppy, and ultimately, she does very well. She has recalled back to me when she has seen porcupines, deer, and turkeys, which has made the hard work worth it. I don’t, however, always let her off-leash when I am hiking if someone could be coming around a corner quickly. This is because she can sometimes react briefly, and I don’t want the person to think I don’t have her in control.

Do I trust my rescue Mini Poodle off-leash, whom I have only had for a portion of his life? No. He will continue to be on a long line because he had many years of living in fear and trying to escape. Therefore, we are not at a point where his positive experiences with recall have outweighed the negative in his life. There are also some breeds that simply don’t do well off-leash. For example, my best friend has a sighthound (Greyhound). When she rescued her, she had to sign a contract that she would never purposely let her off-leash due to the dog’s instincts of high drive and high speed.

When deciding if you should let your dog off the leash, use your best judgment and educate yourself on the environment to set everyone up for success. Have a good relationship with your dog and a lot of great long-line experiences to increase the chances of your dog coming back to you. Reach out to us anytime for extra support.