01/10/2026
1. It may sound counterintuitive, but avoid using your recall as much as possible unless in training sessions! Some people teach ‘emergency recalls’, but I don’t train with a plan B in mind - if I’m recalling my dog outside of training purposes, it IS an emergency🙏🏼
2. Don’t call your dog to end a walk/playtime/fun. They will quickly learn that obeying is actually punishing, which can quickly spiral into 1) ‘catch me if you can’, and 2) lack of trust in you. Simply let them drag a long line that you can reel them in with, no fuss or struggle introduced🥳
3. Always pay your dog for coming. Always. The times my dogs have peeled off of chasing deer or other prey, it’s not because the raw meat in my treat pouch was more worth it to them than the thrill of that chase… it was because of the reinforcement history I had built up, the ‘piggy bank’ of deposits I had made each and every time I had paid them before. Recall is a trust behavior - be trustworthy to your dog!
Bonus tip: encourage check-ins! Every time your dog looks at you, mark and reward - soon you’ll barely have to recall them at all because they’ll be coming back to you frequently✨
