Recall is one of the most difficult things to teach your canine companion reliably, but it could save his life. When teaching recall, we want to communicate as simply and effectively as possible so we don't have any miscommunications. As we all know, dogs don’t understand English, French, Spanish, or any other language for that matter. Dogs associate sounds with behaviors. It is helpful if the word you use for recall is unique to only the recall behavior. One thing to remember when teaching this behavior is to make sure your dog is cueing off your word or sound you want to trigger recall and not some other unintended cue. Sometimes our dogs are not cueing on the word or sound but, instead are cueing on the sound of the cookie jar opening, or the sound of the treat bag, or another closely associated sound made while teaching recall. While that may seem to work well in some circumstances, what do you think will happen if you don’t have the cookie jar with you and there is a rattlesnake or a car coming? When you teach your dog recall, make sure that your canine is pairing the recall word or sound to the behavior and not something else. It could be a matter of life or death.
Another aspect of having superior recall is teaching your canine companion to think a moment before acting. That is why we have a new class that teaches our dogs Recall and Impulse Control in the same 5-week course that starts on August 28th. Registration and more information are at this link.
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