Come when called
A fresh word, a game at short distance, a long line outside and a record of distance and distraction. No recall is certain, so the line and the fence stay part of the plan.
- Start here: the essentials
- Understand: why dogs come, and why they stop
- The word and the game
- Distance, distraction and the record
- The long line and where a dog is off leash
- Adolescence and the shock-collar question
- Emergency recall, whistles and other dogs
- See it: Moose and the field
- Practice
- Your dog
- Check your work
- Knowledge check and scenario
Start here Essentials
At minimum, teach one new recall word indoors, play it as a game, take it outside on a line in a quiet place, and write down how far the dog came from.
- Choose a fresh recall word. Pick a word nobody has used while the dog ignored it, and agree on it with everyone at home (the word and the game).
- Charge it indoors. Say the word once from a few feet away; when the dog arrives, feed three treats in a row and touch the collar (the word and the game).
- Play the back-and-forth game. Two people, or two rooms, take turns calling once each (the word and the game).
- Take it outside on a line. Use a quiet place and a long line, or a 6-foot leash until you have one (the long line).
- Record the longest distance. Write the word, the place and the distance in the cue inventory (the record).
Minimum time: about five sessions of 2 to 3 minutes over several days. Done when: the cue inventory carries the recall word and the longest distance the dog came from on the first call.
Why dogs come, and why they stop Understand
A recall is a dog coming to you when you call it, all the way, on the first call. Trainers judge it on three things: whether the dog comes on one call, how quickly it starts (its latency, the time from the word to the first step), and whether it arrives close enough to be held. A dog that comes halfway, circles at arm's length or arrives after the third call has a recall that is still being built.
The recall follows the same rule as every other behavior in this manual: a behavior that pays off gets repeated, and one that costs the dog something fades (How dogs learn). What makes the recall harder than a sit is the competition. A sit in the kitchen competes with nothing much. A recall in a field competes with a smell, a rabbit, another dog or a game of chase, and the dog has to choose your call over the thing it is already doing. Every recall is a trade: the dog gives up whatever it was doing for whatever you offer. If what you offer is worth less than what it gave up, the trade gets worse each time, and the dog learns that the word means the fun ends.
That is why most recalls fail in a predictable order. They work in the kitchen, where there is little to give up. They work in the yard on a quiet day. They fail the first time the dog is outside, off leash, with something interesting nearby, because the word was not practiced there. The dog is not refusing out of character. Nobody taught it that the word applies in that place, against that distraction, and the reward was too small to compete.
What teaches a dog to stop coming
Owners teach most recall problems without meaning to. The usual causes:
- The word predicted something the dog dislikes. The dog is called in from the yard and put in the crate, called for a bath, called to have its nails cut, called so the walk can end. Karen Pryor Clicker Training's recall page tells owners not to call the dog and then do something it does not like, and names crating and confinement as examples. Preference
- The word was repeated while the dog ignored it. "Come. Come. Come here. COME." The dog hears the word four times while it keeps sniffing, and learns that the word is background noise. A word used this way is called a poisoned cue: it now predicts nothing, or predicts something unpleasant.
- The dog was scolded when it arrived. If the dog finally comes after five minutes and gets shouted at, the last thing it did was come to you. That is the behavior that just cost it something. The same page's advice is plain: do not punish a recall, and reward the dog when it arrives, even after misbehaving. Preference
- Chasing became a game. A dog that runs off and gets chased has found a game it likes. VCA's play and exercise page advises avoiding games in which you chase the dog, because they teach dogs to avoid coming when called. Convention
- The reward was small or slow. One piece of dry kibble, delivered after a fumble in a pocket, does not compete with a squirrel.
What a good recall is made of
Each part of this chapter answers one of those causes. A fresh word starts with a clean history. A game at short distance makes the word predict good things before it is ever tested. A long line outside means the dog cannot learn that ignoring the word works. A record of distance and distraction shows you which situations the dog has practiced and which it has not, so you stop guessing. And the rewards are sized to the trade: the better the distraction the dog gives up, the better the payoff.
Rewards for a recall do not have to be food. A short game of tug, a thrown toy, or a release back to the thing the dog left can be worth more to some dogs than any treat. Releasing the dog back to sniffing after it comes teaches it that coming to you does not end the fun; it is a short visit, and then the fun resumes. That single habit changes how many dogs feel about the word.
| Cause of a weak recall | What it teaches the dog | What this chapter does instead |
|---|---|---|
| Calling for a bath, the crate or the end of play | The word means the fun ends | Go and get the dog for anything it dislikes; save the word for good news |
| Repeating the word | The word is background noise | Call once; if the dog does not come, go and get it, then make the next one easier |
| Scolding on arrival | Coming to you is risky | Reward every arrival, even a slow one |
| Chasing the dog | Running away starts a game | Run away from the dog, or wait; let the long line prevent the escape |
| Small, slow rewards | Coming is a poor trade | Several pieces of the best food, or play, delivered at once |
| Testing off leash before practicing outside | Ignoring the word sometimes pays | Practice outside on a long line, and record each step |
The word and the game
Choose a fresh word
If "come" has been shouted at a dog that ignored it, the simplest fix is a different word. Pick one the dog has not heard paired with anything bad: "here", "touch", "front", the dog's name plus "now", or a word from another language. It should be short, easy to call loudly without sounding angry, and different from every other cue the household uses. Write it on the household agreement in the training log, so every person uses the same word and nobody uses it casually. Preference
If the old word has a clean history (the dog comes to it every time it is used, in the places where it is used), keep it. A fresh word is a tool for a poisoned cue, not a rule. The test is your own record: if the cue inventory shows the word working only in one room, the word is fine and the practice is narrow. If the dog turns away when it hears the word, the word is poisoned.
Charge the word
Charging a cue means pairing it with good things until the word alone makes the dog turn toward you. You did the same with the marker in How dogs learn. For the recall, stand a few feet from the dog in a quiet room, say the word once in a cheerful voice, and when the dog arrives, feed three treats in a row, one after another, from your hand at your body. Then let the dog go back to what it was doing. Repeat five or six times, spread through a day. Preference
Three treats in a row matter for two reasons. They make the arrival clearly better than one treat, and they keep the dog close to you for a few seconds, which is where you want it. Feed at your knees or your belt, not at arm's length; the place you feed is the place the dog learns to stop.
The AKC's recall page starts in the same place: with the dog only a few feet away, say the name and the cue, and encourage the dog to come to you. The page also says a dog should know a few other words first, such as its name and a marker. If your dog does not yet turn to its name, play the name game from How dogs learn for a day before you start.
The collar grab, or "gotcha"
Many recalls fail at the last step. The dog comes in, sees a hand reaching for the collar, and dodges, because a hand on the collar has meant the leash goes on and the fun ends. The AKC's recall page describes a short game to fix this: say "gotcha", then slowly and gently take hold of the dog's collar, and give a treat. Repeat until the dog leans into the hand. The page notes that a dog that likes collar grabs is easy to hold after a recall. Preference
Make the touch part of every practice recall: the dog arrives, your hand touches the collar or harness, the treats arrive, and most of the time the dog is released to go again. If your dog flinches, ducks or freezes when a hand comes toward its neck, stop the collar grab and read the stop-and-call list in Read your dog; a dog that is uncomfortable with handling is telling you something a game will not fix.
The back-and-forth game
Once the dog turns to the word, make it a game. Two people stand eight or ten feet apart, which is the distance Karen Pryor Clicker Training's recall page uses, and take turns calling the dog. Each person calls once. When the dog arrives, that person touches the collar and feeds, then stands still and quiet while the other person calls. Preference
With one person, use two rooms: call from the next room, reward, then walk to a third spot while the dog is busy and call again. With three or more people, the AKC page mentions a version it calls round robin, in which a group takes turns calling the dog. Children can be callers in this game if an adult is beside them and the dog is calm with them; no child should be pulled by a dog on a line.
Increase the distance only when the dog comes quickly every time at the current one. The Karen Pryor Clicker Training page puts it as a rule of the method: do not add distance or distractions until the dog responds immediately and enthusiastically. Preference Across a room, then from one room to another, then from upstairs, then from the yard to the door.
Call once
Call once. If the dog does not come, do not call again. Go to the dog calmly, take the collar or the line, lead it a few steps away from the distraction, and then make the next attempt easier: closer, quieter, or with a better reward ready. The Karen Pryor Clicker Training page gives the same instruction: call once, and if the dog does not come, go and get it. The AKC page says that a dog that ignores you means it is time to take several steps back in training. Preference
This feels slow. It protects the word. Every time you repeat the word while the dog ignores it, you teach the dog that the first call is optional. Every time you go and get the dog, you lose one repetition but keep the word clean.
Go and get the dog for anything it dislikes
Ear drops, a bath, the car to the veterinarian, the crate when you leave for work, the end of play at the park: for all of these, walk over and get the dog. Do not use the recall word, and do not use the dog's name as a summons either if the name has started to mean "something bad is coming". This is the rule that most people break first, because calling is easier than walking. It is also the rule that keeps a recall working for years. Preference
Running away from the dog. Dogs often follow movement. If the dog hesitates, turn and jog a few steps away from it while you call, instead of stepping toward it. Moving toward a dog can look like the start of a chase. Moving away invites it to follow. Preference Use this indoors and on the long line; it is not a way to catch a loose dog near a road.
Distance, distraction and the record
A recall has three settings you can change: how far away the dog is (distance), what else is going on (distraction), and how long the dog has been away from you or busy with something (duration). The three Ds come back in Settle, stay and leave it for the stay. For a recall, the rule is the same: raise one setting at a time, and when you raise one, lower the others. A dog that comes from 30 feet in an empty field may not come from 10 feet with another dog in view. Those are two different exercises. Convention
The record is how you see which exercises the dog has practiced. Without it, you remember the best recall of the week and plan from that. With it, you see that the dog came 5 of 5 times at 20 feet with no distraction and 2 of 5 at 10 feet with a jogger passing, and plan from that.
A recall ladder
The ladder below is one way to order the steps. It follows the AKC page's progression (a few feet, then a 6-foot leash outside, then a 20- or 30-foot long line) and the Karen Pryor Clicker Training rule about moving on only when the response is immediate. The distraction levels match the ones in the sessions sheet. Treat every line as a starting point that your dog's record will correct. Test it
| Rung | Where | Distance | Distraction | Move on when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quiet room | A few feet | None | The dog turns at the word and arrives 5 of 5 times |
| 2 | Across a room, then room to room | 8 to 10 feet, then out of sight | None to mild (someone moving about) | 5 of 5, starting within a second or two |
| 3 | Yard, hallway or quiet outdoor spot, on a 6-foot leash | End of the leash | Mild (smells, wind) | 5 of 5 outside |
| 4 | Quiet open space on a long line | 10 feet, then 20, then 30 (up to the line's length) | Mild | 5 of 5 at each distance |
| 5 | Same place on the long line | Back to 10 feet | Moderate (a toy on the ground, a person walking at a distance) | 5 of 5; then raise distance again |
| 6 | New places on the long line | Short again in each new place | Mild, then moderate | The same ladder, repeated in each place |
| 7 | Heavy distraction (another dog, wildlife at a distance) | Short, on the long line | Heavy | Only after the earlier rungs hold in that place |
Notice that the distance drops each time something else rises. Notice also that a new place starts the ladder again near the bottom. Dogs do not carry a cue from one place to another as well as people expect, which is why the cue inventory has a "three places" stage, and Proof it and keep going turns that into a proofing plan.
What to record
Two sheets in the training log hold the recall. Each session gets one row in the sessions sheet: the date, skill "Come", the place, minutes, attempts (each call is one), successful responses, the distraction level and the reward. Put the longest distance the dog came from on the first call in the notes column ("longest first-call recall: 20 ft"). The cue inventory carries one row for the recall: the word, the hand signal if you use one, the stage the dog reaches five times out of five, and the places proofed, with distances.
Count only first-call responses as successful responses. A dog that came after the second call did not succeed at the first, and counting it hides the problem the record exists to show. If the dog took more than a few seconds to start, note it; latency is often the first thing to change when a recall is getting weaker. Test it
Rewards worth the trade
Use the best food the dog gets all week for recalls outside: small soft pieces of cooked chicken, cheese, or whatever your dog values most. Give several pieces in a row. These are calories, and they come out of the daily treat allowance you set in Set up to train with the treat calculator. A dog that gets cheese for recalls and kibble for everything else learns that the recall is the best-paid job it has. Cut the cheese into pieces the size of a pea, so the allowance lasts a whole session. Convention
The long line and where a dog is off leash
A long line is a light leash, much longer than a walking leash, that lets the dog move away from you while you keep the option to stop it. It is the safety tool for this whole chapter. It lets the dog practice recalls at a distance without ever learning that it can run off, ignore you and get away with it.
Two sources give two lengths. The AKC's recall page says to graduate to a 20-foot or 30-foot long line and give the dog more and more of that distance during training. VCA's play and exercise page, written by veterinary behaviorists, suggests an extra-long leash that lets a dog explore up to 50 feet away, and advises avoiding off-leash walks with a dog not trained to respond promptly to a call. Convention The two figures answer different questions. Twenty or 30 feet is a training length: short enough to handle, long enough to practice distance. Fifty feet is an exploring length for open, rural places where the dog can sniff at a distance and still be stopped.
| Source | Length | What it is for | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| AKC recall page | 6-foot leash first, then a 20- or 30-foot long line | Recall training outside, distance added gradually | The page says the line is for controlling the situation, not for reeling the dog in |
| VCA play and exercise page | Up to 50 feet | Letting a dog explore while you keep it safe, until its recall is reliable | Shorter leashes for urban areas; long ones for trails and rural areas |
| AKC Canine Good Citizen test, item 7 | A 20-foot line; the handler walks 10 feet away and calls | A benchmark test, not a training plan | The same line is used for the sit, down and stay item before it |
Handling the line
The AKC page makes the key point about handling: the line is there to control the situation, not to reel the dog in when it ignores you. If you call and the dog does not come, do not drag it. Walk up the line to the dog, hand over hand, take the collar or harness, and lead it a few steps away from the distraction. Then try an easier recall. The line prevents the dog from learning that ignoring you leads to freedom; it does not do the teaching.
Some practical points, most of them physics: Physical principle
- Attach the line to a back-clip harness, not a collar. A dog that reaches the end of 20 or 30 feet at a run puts its whole momentum into the attachment point, and a harness spreads that load across the chest instead of the neck. Loose-leash walking covers harness fit.
- Hold the line in an open hand or let it trail on the ground. A line wrapped around fingers or a wrist tightens under load and can injure the handler.
- Let the line drag on the ground in open space if your dog is steady; step on it if you need to stop the dog. Keep a hand near it near anything the dog might chase.
- Keep the line out of tangles with legs (yours, the dog's, a child's). A long line moving fast can knock a person over or burn skin.
- Choose a person who can hold the dog's weight. Someone who finds pulling or bending hard can be the caller while another person holds the line.
Use a long line in open space away from roads. Do not tie it to a person, a child or a fixed object. VCA's head halter page says not to use a head halter with a long line or a retractable leash: the halter turns the dog's head when the line goes tight, and a long line lets the dog build speed first. Check that the line and harness are fastened before every session.
Where a dog is off leash
The other half of this chapter's outcome is a rule your household writes down: where your dog may be off leash, and where it stays on a leash or a long line. Three questions decide it.
- Is it legal? Off-leash rules are set locally and differ by city, county, park and state. A city may require a leash everywhere outside private property; a county park may have an off-leash area with its own posted rules; a state park may have different rules again. The AVMA's responsible pet ownership page tells owners to obey local ordinances, including leash rules, and does not state any rule itself. Ask your city or county animal control office, and read the posted rules at the park you plan to use. We do not quote any rule here, because none would be right for every reader. Ask the authority
- Is it fenced? A fenced yard or a fenced off-leash area means a missed recall ends at the fence. Check the fence line and the gate before you rely on it.
- Is it away from roads, wildlife and other dogs? A missed recall near a road can end very differently from one in a closed field.
Your record answers a fourth question: has the dog practiced recalls in this kind of place, against this kind of distraction, on the long line, and does the log show it coming on the first call? If the answer is no, the dog stays on the line there. Write the rule on the household agreement in the training log, in plain words that everyone can follow: "Off leash only in the fenced yard and the fenced dog park on Elm Street. Long line in the field. Leash everywhere else."
No recall is certain. A dog that has come every time for a year can still bolt after a deer, panic at a firework or follow another dog into a road. Practice raises the odds; it does not remove the risk. The long line and the fence are the plan for roads, wildlife and other dogs, and the off-leash rule your household writes is a rule about places, not a reward for good behavior. Where a dog may legally be off leash is a question for your animal control office and the park's posted rules.
Adolescence and the shock-collar question
Adolescence
Many owners report that a dog that came beautifully at four months stops coming at eight or nine. One study measured something like it. Asher and colleagues, writing in Biology Letters in 2020, followed guide-dog candidates (golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers, German shepherds and crosses) through puberty. In the trainability questionnaire, completed for 285 dogs, the dogs' carers rated trainability lower at 8 months than at 5 months or 12 months. One of the questionnaire's trainability items is whether the dog responds immediately to the recall command when off lead. In a separate test, dogs responded less to a "sit" from their carer at 8 months than at 5 months, while their response to a stranger improved over the same period. The dip was specific to the dog's main person.
The authors are careful about limits. The dogs were a few breeds bred and raised for guide work, not a cross-section of pet dogs. Puberty was assumed from breed timing for many dogs rather than measured in each. The study shows an average dip in a group, not what any one dog will do. Still, it gives owners of an adolescent dog a useful way to read a weaker recall: it may be a stage, it may be a recall that was not practiced outside, and it may be both. Neither reading says "give up", and neither says "get tougher". Both say: go back down the ladder, use the long line, raise the rewards, and keep the record. Test it
This manual's setup uses about 6 to 18 months for adolescence, and the calendar marks it for a puppy with a birth date. A recall that is solid before adolescence is a better starting point; it is not insurance.
The shock-collar question
Recall is the reason most often given for using a remote electronic collar, which delivers a shock or vibration at the press of a button. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior's 2021 position statement on humane dog training says recall training is the most common reason owners use these collars, and that even with experienced trainers, studies found no difference in effectiveness between shock collars and reward-based methods for teaching recall. AVSAB recommends reward-based methods only, for all training. Convention
The study behind that line is worth knowing in detail, because it is the one people argue about. China, Mills and Cooper (2020, Frontiers in Veterinary Science) analyzed video from 63 dogs referred for problems that included poor recall and chasing livestock. The dogs were split into three groups of 21:
- dogs trained by trainers nominated by the collar industry, using remote electronic collars;
- dogs trained by the same trainers, without electric stimulation;
- dogs trained by independent trainers who focused on rewards.
Each dog had up to 150 minutes of recorded training over 5 days. Coders who did not know which group a dog was in scored each "come": obeyed on the first command, obeyed after more commands, or did not obey within 10 seconds. The reward-focused group obeyed the first "come" about 82.5 percent of the time, against about 71 percent for the electronic-collar group and 72 percent for the same trainers without the collar. The reward group also started moving sooner. The share of outright failures did not differ between the groups. The authors concluded there was no evidence that electronic-collar training is necessary, even for recall.
The authors also state the study's weaknesses, and they matter. The reward group had different trainers and was trained about four months later, in spring instead of winter. Those trainers used much more food and focused more on recall, so the result may reflect trainer style as much as the collar. The trainers chose their own methods. The researchers could not reliably tell when a shock was delivered, because the vibration and shock buttons were on the same handset. And the electronic-collar trainers were chosen as industry examples of good practice, so the results may not describe what happens when an owner uses a collar alone.
What the study supports is narrow and still useful: in these dogs, over these five days, reward-focused training got at least as many first-call recalls, with no evidence that the collar was needed. It does not prove that shock collars cause harm in every case, and this manual does not claim that. This manual does not use or instruct them for three reasons together: the veterinary position statements recommend against them, the best comparison we have found no advantage, and a recall built on avoiding pain is the opposite of what this chapter builds. A dog that comes because coming is the best trade it knows is the goal. How dogs learn covers the position statements in full.
Emergency recall, whistles and other dogs Go deeper
This section is optional on a first pass. It covers a second recall word for emergencies, whistles, recalls away from other dogs, long-line handling in more detail, and the study numbers in a table.
The emergency recall
An emergency recall is a second recall word, kept apart from everyday use, that has been paired only with the best thing the dog ever gets. Many trainers teach one as a backup for the moment the ordinary recall fails: a gate left open, a dog heading for a road. It is a practitioner habit rather than a researched method, and we found no study of it. Preference
The shape is simple. Pick a word you would not say by accident ("biscuits", "pizza", a two-note call). Charge it the way you charged the everyday word, but with a jackpot each time: a handful of the best food, scattered or fed one piece at a time for 15 or 20 seconds. Practice it rarely, in easy places, and only when you are sure the dog will come, so the word keeps its history of working. Use it for real only in an emergency. If you use it and the dog comes, pay it as if the dog had saved your week, because it may have.
An emergency recall is not a reason to let a dog off leash near a road. It is a second chance, not a first plan.
Whistles
A whistle carries further than a voice and sounds the same whoever blows it and however they feel. Some households use one so that every person's recall sounds identical. Charge a whistle signal the same way as a word: whistle, dog arrives, three treats. Keep the signal unique (for example, three short blasts) and use it only for the recall. A dog with fading hearing may hear a whistle better than a voice, or may not; test it at a distance, as in First behaviors, and use a hand signal (both arms opening wide is easy to see) as well. Test it
Recall away from other dogs
Calling a dog away from another dog is one of the hardest recalls there is. Practice it last, on the long line, with a calm dog that you know, at a distance where your dog can still eat and look away (the threshold from Read your dog). Call once, reward heavily, and then, if both owners agree and the dogs are relaxed, release your dog to go and greet. The release is the reward that makes the next recall easier. If your dog lunges, barks or stiffens at other dogs on leash, this is not a recall exercise; it is the threshold problem described in Loose-leash walking and Read your dog, with the professional route those chapters give.
Long-line handling in more detail
- Coil or loop the spare line loosely in one hand and let it feed out as the dog moves away; keep the handle end in your other hand.
- Before the line runs out, slow the dog with a word or by gathering line, so it does not hit the end at a run.
- On a recall, gather the line as the dog comes, so it does not loop around the dog's legs or yours.
- Wet, muddy lines are heavy and slip; a dry, light line is easier on the hands and the dog.
- Practice the handling without the dog first if you have not used a long line before. It is a skill, and the first sessions go better if the handler is not learning it at the same time.
The recall study in a table
The figures below are from China, Mills and Cooper (2020), for the "come" command. Percentages are of all "come" commands given in each group.
| Group (21 dogs each) | Obeyed first "come" | Obeyed after more commands | Did not obey within 10 seconds | Average time to respond |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic-collar trainers, with the collar | 71.0% | 26.3% | 2.7% | 1.35 s |
| Same trainers, no electric stimulation | 72.4% | 24.4% | 3.2% | 1.24 s |
| Reward-focused trainers | 82.5% | 15.4% | 2.1% | 1.13 s |
The first-command difference was statistically significant; the failure rates were not different. The reward group also obeyed the first "sit" more often. Read the table with the confounds in mind: different trainers, a different season and more food in the reward group.
See it: Moose and the field See it
Moose and the field behind the house. Dayo Oyelaran and Lena Becker live in a house without a fence on a rural road with traffic. Moose is their Bernese mountain dog and shepherd cross, 8 months old and 70 lb, still growing. Their goals include coming when called, and one of their concerns is that Moose "ignores me outside". They have about 20 minutes a day. Lena has a shoulder injury and cannot hold a pulling dog.
Known. The cue inventory shows the recall row: behavior "Come", word "here", signal both arms open, stage "on word", places proofed: kitchen and living room. Nothing outside. Moose's extras budget from the calculator is 187 kcal a day. They had been using cheese, and one ounce of cheddar (120 kcal) is 64 percent of that budget.
Assumed. Dayo and Lena say "here" has been used only indoors, when Moose was likely to come; on that assumption its history is clean, so they keep it and stop saying it outside until the line is on. Under these assumptions (the household's choices, which the veterinarian can confirm), they set aside a quarter ounce of cheddar, about 30 kcal, cut into pea-sized pieces for outdoor recalls, and use kibble for indoor games. That leaves about 157 kcal, roughly 44 pieces of kibble at 3.5 kcal each.
Open, and who settles it. Whether "ignores me outside" is adolescence or a recall that was not practiced beyond the house is open. Both are provisional, because Moose is 8 months old, the age at which Asher and colleagues measured a dip in responsiveness to the main carer, and his inventory shows no practice outside. The cue inventory and the next three months of the log settle it. Which place is safe for long-line work was open too; Dayo settled it by walking the roadside route and choosing the field behind the house instead, well away from the road.
The plan. Lena is the caller in the indoor back-and-forth game; Dayo handles the 30-foot line, clipped to a back-clip harness, in the field. Session one: 10 feet, no distraction, cheese for each first-call recall, collar touch, release back to sniffing. Their household rule reads: "Moose is on a leash or the long line everywhere outside the house. The field is the only long-line place for now. No off-leash time until the log shows recalls in the field with distraction, and we check the county's rules before any change." The rule is about places and the record, not about Moose being good or bad.
- AKC: How to Train Your Dog to Come When Called: the staged recall from a few feet to a long line, the collar-grab game and round robin, from one trainer.
- Karen Pryor Clicker Training: Training a Steadfast Recall: the two-person game, calling once, and why a recall should be something the dog is glad it did.
- China, Mills and Cooper (2020): the open-access recall study, with its design and limits in the authors' own words.
- Asher and colleagues (2020): the adolescence study, open access, for owners of a dog between 6 and 18 months.
Practice Practice
Minimum: charge the word indoors, play the back-and-forth game, take it outside once on a line in a quiet place, and write the longest first-call distance in the cue inventory. Time: about five sessions of 2 to 3 minutes over several days, then 2 to 3 minutes a day for as long as you keep the recall. Materials: the best treats the dog gets, cut small and counted against the allowance; a 6-foot leash; a 20- or 30-foot long line and a back-clip harness once you go outside; a pen or the log.
- Write the word down. Choose the recall word and enter it on the household agreement and in a new row of the cue inventory, stage "not started". Tell everyone at home: this word is for good news only; for anything the dog dislikes, go and get it.
- Charge it. In a quiet room, from a few feet away: word once, dog arrives, collar touch, three treats in a row, release. Five or six times, spread over a day.
- Play the game. Two people 8 to 10 feet apart, or two rooms. Each person calls once; the other stays still. Stop while the dog still wants more. Log the session with skill "Come".
- Go outside on a leash, then a line. In the quietest outdoor place you have, start at the end of a 6-foot leash. When that works 5 of 5, change to the long line and start at 10 feet. Raise the distance one step at a time.
- Record and decide. After each session, write the place, the distraction level, the number of calls, the first-call successful responses and the longest first-call distance in the sessions sheet. Update the cue inventory when a place reaches 5 of 5.
- Write the off-leash rule. On the household agreement, write where the dog may be off leash, where the long line is used, and where it stays leashed. Before you name any public place, check the posted rules there and ask your animal control office.
A week of field sessions. Once the line work starts, a practical pattern is two or three short sessions a day, each with five to eight recalls, and the rest of the session spent letting the dog sniff on the line. Most of the time the dog spends on the line should be free time; the recalls are short interruptions that end in a reward and a release. On days the dog is distracted or the place is busy, go back a rung rather than pushing. Raise distraction only in a place where the dog already comes from the full length of the line with no distraction, and drop the distance back to 10 feet when you do.
Adding the hand signal. Open both arms wide as you call. Over time the signal can carry a recall where the word is hard to hear (wind, distance, a dog with fading hearing). Record the signal in the cue inventory beside the word.
Your dog Your dog
Check your work Check your work
Criteria
- Is the recall word written down, and does everyone at home use the same one?
- Has the word been used only for good news since you chose it, with the dog fetched instead for baths, crates and the end of play?
- Does every session row count first-call responses only, with the place, distraction level and longest first-call distance?
- Does the cue inventory show the places the recall works in, rather than the best recall you remember?
- Has every outdoor recall happened on a leash or long line, unless the place is fenced?
- Is there a written off-leash rule naming places, with local rules checked before any public place is named?
Worked example
Fictional example. Moose's household has the word "here" on the household agreement and in the cue inventory, with both arms open as the signal. Dayo and Lena agreed that Moose is fetched, not called, for his crate and the car. Their first field session row reads: field behind the house, 6 minutes, 8 attempts, 6 first-call successful responses (75 percent), distraction mild, cheese; notes "longest first-call recall 20 ft; at 30 ft he stopped to sniff, so we walked up the line and went back to 20". The inventory row for "Come" now adds "field, 20 ft, mild distraction" to the kitchen and living room. Against the criteria, the word, the record and the line are in place. The off-leash rule is written and names only the house and the field. What the record does not yet show is any recall with moderate or heavy distraction outside, so the open fact (adolescence, an unpracticed recall, or both) stays open.
Common mistakes
- Calling twice and counting it. If the session row shows 10 successful responses out of 10 attempts but you remember saying the word more than once, recount first-call responses only.
- Using the word to end the fun. If the dog slows down when called at the park but not at home, check whether the word has been ending park visits.
- Raising distance and distraction together. If the record jumps from 30 feet with no distraction to 30 feet with other dogs, split it: drop to 10 feet for the new distraction.
- Testing off leash to see if it works. A failed test teaches the dog that ignoring the word pays. Test on the long line.
- Reeling in the line. Walk up the line and lead the dog; dragging teaches nothing about the word.
- Small rewards for big trades. One piece of kibble for leaving a rabbit trail is a poor trade. Raise the reward as the distraction rises, within the allowance.
What is still unresolved
This chapter cannot tell you whether your dog's recall will hold in a situation it has not met, and nothing can; that is why the long line and the fence stay in the plan. It cannot tell you where your dog may legally be off leash; your animal control office and the park's posted rules decide that. Whether a weaker recall in an adolescent dog is a stage or a gap in practice is settled by your own record over the following months. Proof it and keep going turns the record into a proofing plan across places.