October 16, 2019

How To Train Your Dog To Come: One Game To Transform Your Recall!

Training a recall is one of the most valuable lessons any dog trainer can teach you – not only does it make walking and exercising your dog so much easier… but it’s a vital behaviour your dog needs to understand, in order for you to keep them, and everybody around them, safe at all times. And learning how to train your dog to come when called is so much easier, once you learn this one simple trick!

Unfortunately for us dog lovers, the recall can be one of the most frustrating behaviours to try and train. Why? Because it can be so difficult to control your dog’s environment, and prevent him from ever being rewarded when he chooses NOT to return when you call him.

A lot of the alternatives to returning when you’re called are incredibly rewarding… and the more times your dog self-rewards by ignoring that recall cue, the less likely they are to pay any attention to it at all.

But what if there were a clever way to circumvent training a recall cue… or at least what your dog perceives to be a recall cue? What if we could ask your dog to do something else entirely – something fun… something exciting… and something that gets them to perform a top-notch, bombproof recall every time… without them even realising it?

The good news is… THERE IS!

In concept training, we call this cue ‘Middle,’ and put simply, it is training your dog to place himself in a safe position, standing directly between your legs, on cue. And why is this so much more effective than training them to come when we call their name? Because 99% of dog owners are sabotaging their recall training without even realising it…

How To RUIN Your Recall Cue

If you’ve read anything about how to train your dog to come already, you probably have a grasp of the basics; begin in a totally plain environment when you already have your puppy’s attention, give your verbal cue as excitingly as you can, and dole out the rewards when your puppy bounds dutifully towards you. Sounds straightforward, right? But what do we do when their environment gets a little more challenging? When our puppies are tempted by other people, dogs, food, or smells out there? And more importantly, what do we immediately do when it all goes WRONG?

We give that recall cue again.

Picture the scene: you are in your quiet, distraction-free garden, practising recall. All is going well, until your pup spies the neighbour’s cat that’s just crawled under the fence. Your puppy ignores you, and immediately dashes for the cat. Nooo! You bellow his name again in a mad panic that he’s about to have cat for lunch… but it’s no good, he’s getting a fantastic game of chase as a reward for abandoning you… but you can’t stop calling him back because he’s not on lead and it’s all you’ve got! Within 3 minutes, you’ve trained your puppy good and proper to pay absolutely no heed to that call whatsoever.

Unfortunately, we are all incredibly quick to resort to our recall cues before they’re reliable. And in doing so, we undo all of the hard work put in so far! If the dog is off-lead and spots another dog, or chases after a cyclist, or jumps up at a house guest… our first recourse is more often than not our recall cue!

‘Fido, COME HERE! FIDOOO!’

Of course, right now, there’s no way Fido’s going to abandon whatever it is that’s caught his eye. You’ve never proofed your recall against anything as exciting as cats/toddlers carrying food/house guests who LOVE puppies… and now you’re trying to use it in just those situations.

Bye-bye recall.

How To Train Your Dog To Come

So how about training something we won’t instantly ruin, the first time our puppy panics us? Enter the ‘Middle’ cue. ‘Middle’ is not your go-to phrase in a panic, when you want to avert disaster quickly – which is why it’s PERFECT for training with. You can’t accidentally sabotage it! Instead, you can easily save it for controlled training sessions only, which will allow you to slowly but surely build all the value in the world into it, gradually proof it step-by-step against any and all exciting distractions, and introduce it to real-world scenarios in a controlled and well thought-out way. Now THAT’S a recall cue that’s worth having up your sleeve!

What’s more, ‘Middle’ is not just any old recall – by teaching your dog a very specifically defined position which earns them their reward, you are preventing all the usual bad habits from ever cropping up – your dog can’t recall in and then immediately run past you, or only recall in to a perimeter of 5 feet so you still can’t ever get that lead back on – ‘Middle’ teaches your dog that only absolutely maximum proximity counts as a success… only the best will do!

Step-by-Step Middle Training:

Step 1:

Begin by standing with your legs apart, just a couple of inches in front of your dog’s nose (with your dog behind you) and lure him to take a step forwards with a piece of food, or his favourite toy.

Step 2:

Take a step forward yourself, whilst applying a tiny amount of pressure to your dog’s chest with your free hand – his natural reflex will be to move forward against the pressure. When he does step into middle position, reward again!

Remember to keep this game fast and fun – lots of repetitions and lots of high value reward in the CORRECT position (dog standing between your legs).

Step 3:

Once your dog gets the hang of stepping forward for their reward, place a piece of their food behind you, and see if they naturally offer returning to Middle to earn the next piece – if they do: jackpot!

Step 4:

After plenty of successful repetitions, mix up where you put out that first piece of food, to teach your dog how to get into the correct Middle position from anywhere. You could throw food out to your left, to your right, further away… then wait for your dog to offer ‘Middle’ before you give then that awesome jackpot reward.

Step 5:

A few sessions playing this game, and you can add the verbal cue ‘Middle,’ once you are confident they know what the behaviour is that you’re looking for. Then you can begin proofing it all around the home, out in the garden, and eventually out in the real world!

And that’s how to train your dog to come… in a quick, fun, and easy way – that you can’t sabotage at the first sign of trouble. Remember to keep sessions short, sweet and fun; your dog will never realise they’re training!

Bonus Tip: Check out our article on ditching the bowl, and discover how you can build even more enthusiasm for training games like these, without having to fill your dog up with unhealthy dog treats!