Why Your Recall Is Failing?

One of the most common things I hear from dog owners is:

"My dog's recall is great, unless there's another dog."

Or:

"My dog's recall is brilliant, unless there's a squirrel."

Or:

"My dog comes back every time, unless he finds food."

Here's the uncomfortable truth.

If your dog only recalls when there is nothing interesting around, you don't have a recall problem. You have a disengagement problem.

Most recall failures happen long before you call your dog. They happen the moment your dog decides that whatever they are looking at, sniffing, chasing, eating, or interacting with is more rewarding than listening to you.

By the time you're shouting their name across the park, the battle has often already been lost. Because your dog isn't choosing between coming back to you and staying where they are. They're choosing between leaving something rewarding and staying with it.

And leaving something rewarding is a skill. A skill that many dogs have never actually been taught.

Think about it for a moment.

Most people spend hours teaching their dog to come when called.

·       They practise in the kitchen.

·       They practise in the garden.

·       They practise in quiet fields.

The dog learns that hearing their name means running towards their owner.

But what many owners don't teach is how to walk away from something they want.

·       The squirrel.

·       The football.

·       The other dog.

·       The discarded chicken bone.

·       The picnic.

·       The rabbit.

·       The jogger.

·       The fox.

The problem isn't the recall itself. Truth is, I spend little time teaching owners how to recall their dogs. The problem is the dog's ability to disengage from whatever has captured their attention.

Imagine trying to recall a child away from a theme park. You can stand at the gate calling their name all day. But if they have never learnt how to leave something exciting, your chances of success are pretty slim.

Dogs are the same, but more….

This is why I spend so much time teaching dog’s things like:

·       Leave it

·       Out

·       Disengagement

·       Impulse control

·       Neutrality

Because these exercises teach a dog how to walk away from something they want.

And that skill transfers directly into recall. Many of the dogs I work with don't need a better recall cue.

They need to become better at leaving things.

Let's take another dog as an example. Your dog sees another dog across the park. You call them. Nothing happens. Most people assume the recall has failed.

But what has actually happened?

Your dog has decided that interacting with the other dog is more rewarding than responding to you.

The solution isn't endlessly repeating the recall cue. The solution is teaching your dog how to disengage from the other dog before the interaction takes place.

Because a dog that can leave something can usually be recalled away from it. A dog that cannot leave something will often ignore even the strongest recall cue.

This is also why recall training should never happen exclusively in boring environments. Your dog doesn't get bonus points for recalling away from nothing.

The real test comes when something interesting appears.

·       Can they leave the squirrel?

·       Can they leave the dog?

·       Can they leave the food?

·       Can they leave the smell?

Can they leave the thing they want most? That's where recall lives. Not in an empty field, not in your living room, not in your kitchen. Recall lives in distraction.

The mistake many owners make is jumping straight to high-level distractions before building the skills required to cope with them.

Your dog shouldn't go from recalling in the garden to recalling away from a deer. Just like you wouldn't expect a child to go from riding stabilisers to competing in the Tour de France.

Skills are built in layers.

·       Small distractions become bigger distractions.

·       Easy wins become harder wins.

·       Confidence grows.

·       Understanding grows.

·       Reliability grows.

And eventually your dog starts making better decisions because they have learnt how.

So, if your recall is failing, stop asking yourself: "Why won't my dog come back?"

And start asking: "Has my dog learnt how to leave the thing they're interested in?"

Because most recall problems are not recall problems at all. They're disengagement problems.

And once you start training the ability to leave things, you'll often find your recall improves faster than you ever expected.