Getting the Perfect Recall

A frequent behavior I am asked about in class and private training alike, even for day train, is training a dog to have a strong recall (AKA coming when called). This behavior is nearly on every owner's top 5 list. Why wouldn't it be? We all want to be able to call our dogs back from danger and the better the recall, the more places they can go and remain safe and happy.

However, training a recall isn't really about training a recall. You see the keys to a "perfect recall" (I put that in quotes because dogs aren't robots and until we as humans are perfect, dogs won't be either!), are relationship and impulse control. Due to this, I always have a cloudy answer when asked if a dog will have a great recall after one round of class. The answer is, "I don't know." This is because the matter depends greatly on the relationship the dog has with it's owner and the owner putting in the work to create a dog that has great impulse control.

Can a dog that has zero relationship with someone be called to that person? Yes. But the circumstances would be such that the person would either have a massive reward to entice the dog OR on the flip side, the dog would be heavily punished for not obeying. If there was zero external reward from this person with no positive relationship to the dog and no known punisher greater than the environment, the dog simply wouldn't come, because it would be more rewarding not to come.

So if recalls depend on relationship and impulse control, where do we start?

Relationship is being built every moment spent with the dog. It doesn't matter if the dog is an adopted dog, bought from a breeder, age, breed, size, temperament. You can build a relationship with that dog by finding things the dog enjoys and creating a positive association that you are the giver of those things. It goes deeper than that, but a good start is writing out a list of things your dog likes and being the keeper of the gate to those coveted things. Does your dog like toys? Great, play tug! Make sure you have rules like a nice drop (there is that impulse control!), letting the dog win is of course fine, but a drop is a good thing to have. Keep a few special toys hidden for just you and your dog to play with together that aren't in the toy box. Throw in some obedience cues for the added impulse control like sit, down, stay etc.

Does your dog enjoy food? Of course he does! Use his meals for training, reward well and happily for behaviors you like. Always keep training positive and never with punishment so your dog knows training is awesome! You will be working on a formal "come" and doing it with a reward leaves a lasting positive tone when you need it for real (even when you are empty handed).

Does your dog like to lay with you perhaps? Get cuddles? Go for walks? Play with brain toys? Do all those things! Be your dog's best buddy and he will love spending time with you away from home alike.

The impulse control part, can be boring for some owners. I love it though. Impulse control is basically the ability for the dog to stop itself from doing what it wants and looking to you for permission instead. Yes, dogs exist that can do just that (mine do and so do many clients dogs that have reached this stage!). This means if I am out with my dog off leash and he sees a giant hole with a gopher's head in it, he won't just go try to eat that gopher, he will pause and look at me for permission. Sometimes I tell him that he sure can dig up a hole and sometimes I don't. The power in that is that my dog realizes I MIGHT let him do the thing he wants, so he might as well ask versus if he takes what he wants, he will be prevented from gaining that "joy." In the case of the gopher, if he decided to take off, I better be super quick to block that hole or get him back so he doesn't get reinforced! That is where a long line comes in handy for younger untrained dogs.

This impulse control takes place anytime a handler calls their dog. The dog balances the idea of continuing what it was doing, or coming to the handler. In order to have a dog that comes to the handler MOST of the time, it is imperative to have a dog that has learned turning AWAY from food, gets me the food OR laying on the mat when there are distractions gets me a reward OR dropping the tug means we continue the game OR sitting for guests means I get pet. The list can go on and there are plenty of games and exercises that start at square one and advance to teach a dog (and owner) this vital information on how to put listening to the handler ABOVE the natural rewards of the environment.

Let It Go

I am sure by now, we have all heard the popular Frozen song, Let it Go. But today we aren't talking about Queen Elsa, but the need to let it go when your dog has an off day.

I am not sure when the idea came about that dogs are furry little creatures that do our bidding. This idea of master and subordinate, all empowering dominating human over the dumb, small minded dog that WANTS to please us and is eager to obey doesn't exist. Anyone that has had a puppy KNOWS that puppy didn't come pre-programmed with a "Obey Human" button! They have to be trained of course! 

Puppies and dogs are sentient beings. They feel, they have emotions, needs, wants, desires. They go through developmental periods like any animal and they create associations, relationships and bonds. Being feeling creatures, they can have OFF days. Just like you and me, your dog can have a day that he feels crumby and his behavior may be crumby too.

The reasons WE as humans may have a hard time with something can range from being tired, hungry, in pain, unfocused, traumatized by an event, cold, hot, etc. Dogs can have the exact same things going on that can throw them off.

I once wrote in a blog post that Lucy was not laying down on cue when I worked at a pet store long ago. She had me fuming that I was putting a lot of verbal pressure on her to lay down. She knew the cue, and I was frustrated and embarrassed that she effused. She would pin her ears back, lay down and pop back up and I would repeat the cue with louder tones and feverish hand signal. Then by accident, I saw the reason. She found a dog bed on the floor, laid on it and looked at me. We experimented and I saw all the signs pointing to the fact it was the hard surface that prevented her from taking the down cue. At the time, she was 7 years old and was having a hard time up stairs and getting into the car. I took her to the vet that week and they diagnosed her with arthritis. She went on some medication and didn't have an issue with her down cue after that. Yelling and gesticulating only hurt our relationship. Her having that off moment should have brought out the empathy in me, had me be a detective to figure out what was wrong, not be punitive.

I have witnessed owners in frustration jerk their dog's collar for not taking a sit when it was plain to see the dog didn't even realize it was being told to sit! I have seen trainers mouth off at their dogs and drag them away from competitions because the dog wasn't performing to it's normal standards that day. We all have tempers, we all have them flare. 

Let this be a reminder to seek empathy for the wonderful dog in front of you. Figure out the WHY of the situation and rectify it. The dog being jerked around to sit isn't likely going to sit willingly after that or happily continue that training session. The dog drug away from the agility trial in anger isn't getting anything out of that other than perhaps a negative association with trials and a hurt relationship with the handler. 

How do you fix this things? I put more answer based scenarios in the blog post "Ignoring Commands" if you wish to read more. Resign yourself to the fact that there will be a time where your dog will have a bad day, just like you and me and do your best to Let it Go....

Millie Part 2

Millie is now 10 months old. A lot has changed since the last I wrote about her;

We purchased our first home at the end of December and Lucy moved in with my dad for a multitude of reasons (trouble with my hardwood floors, issues with the stairs at our new place, my dad feeling in need of a companion). It was supposed to be temporary but Lucy has made her choice very clear when we visit that she wants to stay with my dad! We are fine with that and Millie and Lex have become much closer without Lucy in the mix.

Millie hasn't had a single potty accident in our new house. We have no gates, no pens or need to close doors. She is entirley crate trained and can be sent to her crate on cue from any part of our 3 level home. This was a dog that hated crates! She sleeps all night and can be a perfectly chill dog if nothing is going on. No more high needs puppy! She knows how to play with her toys alone, play with Lex and enjoy the outdoors with no demand barking or clawing of the back door.

She did go through a fear period and we are still in it a bit, where people had her barking at them. We got through it in public by using our "look at that" game from Control Unleashed and treating her for looking at triggers. Once we were over the public side, she began having an issue with guests in our home. It was quite awful, with 20 minutes plus barking in fear no matter if she was confined or not or if there were treats being given or not or what the distance. With some solid mat work and practicing door greetings, it is very tolerable now and within normal range of intial barking, a few sniffs, a bark and then it is over. It is getting better each time, but I really don't have a ton of visitors that she isn't already familar with to practice with.

She is still good friends with the kids but had a bout of resource guarding. My husband or myself can issue a drop cue and she follows it well or a "can I have that?" with no issue. But most dogs don't comply to the kid's commands because kids don't have the same timing or hand gestures etc. So when she began growling at them while chewing a bone if they sat next to her on the bean bag or if they tried to take something from her, we immediatley took action. We didn't scold the dog, we told the kids their behavior was not acceptable! We reminded them to walk away when dogs chew or eat or sleep and to give Millie space just as they do Lex or Lucy. They had gotten a lot more comfortable with her than the border collies. Once they gave her space, it became a non-issue. Even if they forget and sit near her, she is no longer threatened because I was able to stop their threatening actions toward her and build up her confidence again.

Last month we started off leash hikes and she is doing fabulous with her recall. Her heel is still great most of the time and her wait and all her manners are excellent. We even taught her not to ever take food from the kid table even if we aren't in the room (that took a few weeks!).

She gets her dinner in a brain toy each night, goes to work with Lex and I and goes on countless car rides per week to the kid's school and other destinations. We are working on some new fun tricks and hope to get her Canine Good Citizen award when I can find an evaluator that isn't myself!

Chewing

I have to say, I am really lucky in the fact that Border Collies don't tend to be avid chewers. Obsessed about movement, yes. Crazy fanatical tug playing, fetch playing and cat stalking, check. Bite holes in your pants and shirt sleeves because you moved too fast, yep. But not destroy your couch, eat the drywall, flood the house with eating a pipe chewers like some other breeds I have seen! What breeds you ask? Usually the dogs bred to use their mouth like retrievers, or the powerful working breed dogs like pits, bully breeds, rotties, huskies, malamutes. With these breeds you MUST have a plan in place in puppy hood or you will lose your mind and perhaps quite a bit of your stuff too!

First thing first, crate train your puppy! All dogs benefit immensely from crate training. Take at look at my crate training blog to read why and HOW to do this. Now that your puppy is crate trained, use it! Use it when you are gone, use it when you sleep and use it when you are home even but can't do anything with the puppy because you just have to get dinner on the stove and the kids are climbing the walls or you have to take that important conference call and pace around the house while you listen in.

Next step, be sure you know what to do when your dog is out of the crate! This means having a rough routine like potty time, play time, training time, chew on your bone, race around the house a bit and then nap time back in the crate. As your puppy grows, those times out of the crate for training and playing will get longer and you will start to do free-play after the potty outside where he can be loosely supervised for 40 minutes or more and not get into trouble, provided he has plenty of dog stuff to play with.

Training time is more than just obedience cues. It can be teaching tug and drop, tricks, how to go to the crate on cue, fetching a toy on command or doing fun brain games like 101 things to do with a box or in my case, a laundry basket. YouTube has great videos for these things.

Play time can be fetch, chase games, hide and seek, tugging, laser light (with minimal use), playing with a water hose, catch, toy discrimination and DIY agility.

As for the "stuff"....most dog owners have a toy box. And in this toy box is lots of dog stuff. Toys, chews, nylabones, kongs. I encourage clients to have a toybox but also highly encourage them to rotate what is in this toy box to keep it exciting! Don't leave bones out after they have been abandoned. Also, I personally keep tugs for play time with the dog and not in the toy box. Banned from our toy boxes are bones, kongs, tugs and tennis balls. Those are all operated by me when I give it to the dog, which creates more value for the dog and they use the item much much longer and are happier with it.

Finally, if you catch your dog chewing on an item, you can spray it with a no-chew spray. Never ever punish the dog. This teaches them to run away from you and can turn into epic games of keep away. Your dog is just being developmentally normal. We all get frustrated as humans, so if yelling happens, it happens. Do your best to keep your cool and use the info that you forgot to crate the dog or you didn't pick up your shoes so you can do better next time!