Using 'Play' to Teach Recall

Recall (aka come when called) is vital for your dog's safety. Unfortunately, it can be one of the most difficult behaviors for dogs to really understand and grasp. One often under-used trick for teaching recall is to teach it with play. Yup, good old fun and games! Scout (my Lab) is EXTREMELY ball-motivated. She loves all toys, but the ball is truly her life.  We struggled for years (honestly) to help her learn a solid recall because she just isn't that food motivated and we couldn't get her that interested in treats (no matter the treat) in high-distraction environments. The only thing she would focus on consistently while outside... her ball.  So, we decided to practice recall every single time we played fetch! Here is what we did... We started indoors. There's no getting around that. We would do a couple of fun throws with her ball, then we would take 1-2 steps away from her (after she dropped her ball) and call her to us (Scout, come). At first, she was slightly confused about that 'cue word' being introduced during play, but after a couple attempts she caught on. So, again... 1-2 steps back, call her to us. Once she came to us it was a very quick mark (we use 'yes') and then throwing her ball. After practice inside, we took it to our backyard. Practicing this fetch-recall-training, every time we played fetch. Then, the same thing but at a park while on a 100-foot lead. Every 1-2 throws, she had to do a come when called to get the ball. And guess what, it didn't magically improve overnight. Nope. It took about 6 months of practicing that almost every single day. And now, she is almost perfect with recall.  The moral of the story... well there are 2. 1. Make recall (and all training) fun. 2. Find your dog's highest reinforcer, and use that ALL THE TIME. Need more ideas for recall training? Check out the Recall Mastery course part of Pupford Academy here: https://pfrd.site/recall-game Please review and subscribe!! Thanks for listening 🐾 Download the free Pupford app here: https://pfrd.site/aapp-free Subscribe on YouTube here: https://pfrd.site/subscribe-youtube Check out all podcast episodes here: anchor.fm/perfect-pup Intro music cred to Kevin May: https://soundcloud.com/kevin_may