Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Training Tip - The Recall Command
Of all the obedience commands, all commands for that matter, recall is the most important of all the commands. Whether your Boykin Spaniel Puppy is going to be a family pet or raised as a hunting dog, recall is vital. There are too many situations where recall is paramount for the safety of the pup or in order to get them in position to take a cast to a downed bird.
Teaching recall early on is the best time to start, the day you get the pup home. I start this right away. Remember, raising a pup is more about forming habits than it is training, so we want pup in the habit of coming all the way back to us when called. What word to use. The word you use is not important, but being consistent is. Keep it limited to a single word command: Here or Come. NOTE: If you are going to be using a professional trainer, I suggest you get a list of commands from the trainer so that when the day comes, the trainer does not have to teach a new command to the dog, making the transition into training better. Also, do not use the word HEEL, to get the dog to come back to you. Heel means to sit or walk at your side. If pup is a distance from you (10 feet or 100 yards), the correct command would be “HERE” then right as pup gets to you, then you tell pup “HEEL”, which tells pup to rotate into the Heel position. I will discuss this in greater detail when we talk about Heeling in a later article.
So we have established now that “HERE or COME” is the recall command to get the pup to come all the way back to you, now how do we accomplish this feat. Assuming you take your pup home at six to eight weeks of age. At this age, there is a great big old world out there and it is all strange to the pup. Every sight and sound is new. Pup has just been taken from his littermates and mother, so that adds more new things for pup. So with all these strange things around, pup will not want to be alone, he will want to be by your side at all times. So when I take a young pup outside to the bathroom or to just stretch his legs a bit, I wait till pup has his back to me. At this exact moment, I quickly back away a short distance, squat down, and give the recall command (HERE HERE HERE). I say this in an excited higher pitch voice, even clapping my hands. As pup gets to me, give lots of praise and petting (Good HERE Good. Good Here Good). We want pup to know that coming to you is a great thing, a safe happy place to be. Now the reason we squat down is to get down on the pups level. Here we are at say, 6 feet tall and there is little ole pup that is maybe four inches tall. We are an overpowering object in front of them that is very intimidating. We get down so we are less intimidating.
Now once pup has returned and you have praised him for this great accomplishment, stand back up and let pup walk around a bit more. Caution, pup will want to be with you, getting all under your legs. Be careful and not step on pup, they can be very fragile at this age, especially when stepped on. So as pup is meandering around a bit more and his back is turned, again back off quickly, squat down, and recall. Remember to praise lavishly for coming all the way back to you. If for any reason, pup does not come to you or does not come all the way back to you, get up and walk away recalling and clapping your hands. Pups do not want to be left alone and pup should come to you at this time. The fear of being left behind will overcome his curiosity of what he was into.
Every single time, without fail, that you are outside with pup, repeat this recall drill three times. You can also do this inside the house as pup is playing in the floor. I like to get my daughter or wife in the floor and we will be playing with pup. When one of us has pups attention, the other recalls. It is a fun productive activity for you and the pup. It not only helps to develop the recall habit but it also is a great bonding time.
Once we have pup coming to us over short distances using the verbal recall, we need to start right away teaching the whistle recall. Too many people raise a pup never having used a whistle on obedience commands. They wait till pup is 8 months or older, and all of a sudden we are teaching an old dog new tricks. It can be done, but it is much harder with an older dog, even at 8 months of age. Remember, the recall whistle is 3 or more quick repetitive peeps of the whistle. So as pup turns his back to you and you back off a distance from him give him the verbal recall followed by the whistle recall followed by the verbal recall. (It should sound like: Here Here Here – Peep Peep Peep – Here Here Here). Again, praise pup when he gets back to you. Within just two or three days, you can have pup recalling to you with just the whistle. Keep using just the whistle until the he is consistent with it. At this stage we want to alternate between the verbal recall command and the whistle recall command. We want to make sure that he always knows and understands both.
As pup ages and his recall progresses, you can start increasing your distance from him. Do not make it too far, pup is still young and trying a 100 yard recall is way too much for a very young pup. So do realistic distances.
Now as we are taking pup outside daily, he is getting more and more comfortable with his surroundings. I call this “Bolding Up”. Pup is getting bolder about what he will investigate or chase (bugs leaves grass etc). When he is busy investigating things his recall might get off slightly. Do not chase pup down, it will be a game for him and you will be starting a bad habit that can be very hard to break. Never chase the pup. Now you ask what if he is headed towards the street. Simple, do not put pup in a situation where any possibility such as this could occur. Keep it confined to a safe place. So pup is investigating a piece of grass and does not come when you recall. Hit the whistle louder or raise to volume of your voice as you excitedly clap your hands. Pup will turn around and think you are leaving him and come a running. Keep giving the recall until he is all the way back to you.
Another thing people do is when pup picks up a piece of mulch, a leaf, a stick they run over and snatch it out of his mouth. NEVER DO THIS!!! You are telling pup that having something in his mouth is bad and if he does ever put something in his mouth, you are going to take it away. This is a retriever, so putting something in his mouth is natural and we want to promote that. It is natural prey drive for a pup to go out and pick something up, but it is trained for them to bring it to us. So if pup picks up anything, squat down and recall. If pup makes it back without the object, fine, but praise him lavishly for recalling. If pup does make it back with the object, do not snatch it out of his mouth immediately, praise him lavishly and gently remove it from his mouth with lots of praise.
So if you do a recall drill up to a maximum of 3 times, every single time you take the pup outside, starting at 8 weeks of age. By the time pup is 3 to 4 months of age, his recall will be exactly where you want it, with him consistently coming all the way back to you when called. I cannot stress enough, that 3 repititions of this is more than enough. In anything with a pup, more is not better. Never drill a pup or an adult dog for that matter, to the point of boredom. Plus, with a young pup they have short attention spans and 3 is all they need. Do not put off teaching this to pup. The absolute best time to start is when you get home with pup, you get out of your car and put pup on the ground to use the bathroom before going inside, start right then.
As a breeder, it is my place or job to not only make sure that pups have had primary socialization but also to begin introductions to things such as wings, retrieving, crates, begin going outside to the bathroom after meals, recall and more. Since about 4 weeks of age when I first started taking my current litter outside for exploration, I have begun the recall command with them. They will be wandering around playing and exploring and I squat down, clap my hands, and in a very happy voice say "Here" repeatedly. When they get to me I smother them with praise. They must relate coming to me as a very good thing, if I want recall to be a command they obey religiously. I have also started using the whistle to recall them. At first I would just whistle with my mouth, then once they were responding to that, I started interjecting the Acme 211 1/2 peasless whistle. The pups' recall is coming along very nicely at 5 1/2 weeks of age. Now, I am no longer having to squat down and clap.
Teaching recall early on is the best time to start, the day you get the pup home. I start this right away. Remember, raising a pup is more about forming habits than it is training, so we want pup in the habit of coming all the way back to us when called. What word to use. The word you use is not important, but being consistent is. Keep it limited to a single word command: Here or Come. NOTE: If you are going to be using a professional trainer, I suggest you get a list of commands from the trainer so that when the day comes, the trainer does not have to teach a new command to the dog, making the transition into training better. Also, do not use the word HEEL, to get the dog to come back to you. Heel means to sit or walk at your side. If pup is a distance from you (10 feet or 100 yards), the correct command would be “HERE” then right as pup gets to you, then you tell pup “HEEL”, which tells pup to rotate into the Heel position. I will discuss this in greater detail when we talk about Heeling in a later article.
So we have established now that “HERE or COME” is the recall command to get the pup to come all the way back to you, now how do we accomplish this feat. Assuming you take your pup home at six to eight weeks of age. At this age, there is a great big old world out there and it is all strange to the pup. Every sight and sound is new. Pup has just been taken from his littermates and mother, so that adds more new things for pup. So with all these strange things around, pup will not want to be alone, he will want to be by your side at all times. So when I take a young pup outside to the bathroom or to just stretch his legs a bit, I wait till pup has his back to me. At this exact moment, I quickly back away a short distance, squat down, and give the recall command (HERE HERE HERE). I say this in an excited higher pitch voice, even clapping my hands. As pup gets to me, give lots of praise and petting (Good HERE Good. Good Here Good). We want pup to know that coming to you is a great thing, a safe happy place to be. Now the reason we squat down is to get down on the pups level. Here we are at say, 6 feet tall and there is little ole pup that is maybe four inches tall. We are an overpowering object in front of them that is very intimidating. We get down so we are less intimidating.
Now once pup has returned and you have praised him for this great accomplishment, stand back up and let pup walk around a bit more. Caution, pup will want to be with you, getting all under your legs. Be careful and not step on pup, they can be very fragile at this age, especially when stepped on. So as pup is meandering around a bit more and his back is turned, again back off quickly, squat down, and recall. Remember to praise lavishly for coming all the way back to you. If for any reason, pup does not come to you or does not come all the way back to you, get up and walk away recalling and clapping your hands. Pups do not want to be left alone and pup should come to you at this time. The fear of being left behind will overcome his curiosity of what he was into.
Every single time, without fail, that you are outside with pup, repeat this recall drill three times. You can also do this inside the house as pup is playing in the floor. I like to get my daughter or wife in the floor and we will be playing with pup. When one of us has pups attention, the other recalls. It is a fun productive activity for you and the pup. It not only helps to develop the recall habit but it also is a great bonding time.
Once we have pup coming to us over short distances using the verbal recall, we need to start right away teaching the whistle recall. Too many people raise a pup never having used a whistle on obedience commands. They wait till pup is 8 months or older, and all of a sudden we are teaching an old dog new tricks. It can be done, but it is much harder with an older dog, even at 8 months of age. Remember, the recall whistle is 3 or more quick repetitive peeps of the whistle. So as pup turns his back to you and you back off a distance from him give him the verbal recall followed by the whistle recall followed by the verbal recall. (It should sound like: Here Here Here – Peep Peep Peep – Here Here Here). Again, praise pup when he gets back to you. Within just two or three days, you can have pup recalling to you with just the whistle. Keep using just the whistle until the he is consistent with it. At this stage we want to alternate between the verbal recall command and the whistle recall command. We want to make sure that he always knows and understands both.
As pup ages and his recall progresses, you can start increasing your distance from him. Do not make it too far, pup is still young and trying a 100 yard recall is way too much for a very young pup. So do realistic distances.
Now as we are taking pup outside daily, he is getting more and more comfortable with his surroundings. I call this “Bolding Up”. Pup is getting bolder about what he will investigate or chase (bugs leaves grass etc). When he is busy investigating things his recall might get off slightly. Do not chase pup down, it will be a game for him and you will be starting a bad habit that can be very hard to break. Never chase the pup. Now you ask what if he is headed towards the street. Simple, do not put pup in a situation where any possibility such as this could occur. Keep it confined to a safe place. So pup is investigating a piece of grass and does not come when you recall. Hit the whistle louder or raise to volume of your voice as you excitedly clap your hands. Pup will turn around and think you are leaving him and come a running. Keep giving the recall until he is all the way back to you.
Another thing people do is when pup picks up a piece of mulch, a leaf, a stick they run over and snatch it out of his mouth. NEVER DO THIS!!! You are telling pup that having something in his mouth is bad and if he does ever put something in his mouth, you are going to take it away. This is a retriever, so putting something in his mouth is natural and we want to promote that. It is natural prey drive for a pup to go out and pick something up, but it is trained for them to bring it to us. So if pup picks up anything, squat down and recall. If pup makes it back without the object, fine, but praise him lavishly for recalling. If pup does make it back with the object, do not snatch it out of his mouth immediately, praise him lavishly and gently remove it from his mouth with lots of praise.
So if you do a recall drill up to a maximum of 3 times, every single time you take the pup outside, starting at 8 weeks of age. By the time pup is 3 to 4 months of age, his recall will be exactly where you want it, with him consistently coming all the way back to you when called. I cannot stress enough, that 3 repititions of this is more than enough. In anything with a pup, more is not better. Never drill a pup or an adult dog for that matter, to the point of boredom. Plus, with a young pup they have short attention spans and 3 is all they need. Do not put off teaching this to pup. The absolute best time to start is when you get home with pup, you get out of your car and put pup on the ground to use the bathroom before going inside, start right then.
As a breeder, it is my place or job to not only make sure that pups have had primary socialization but also to begin introductions to things such as wings, retrieving, crates, begin going outside to the bathroom after meals, recall and more. Since about 4 weeks of age when I first started taking my current litter outside for exploration, I have begun the recall command with them. They will be wandering around playing and exploring and I squat down, clap my hands, and in a very happy voice say "Here" repeatedly. When they get to me I smother them with praise. They must relate coming to me as a very good thing, if I want recall to be a command they obey religiously. I have also started using the whistle to recall them. At first I would just whistle with my mouth, then once they were responding to that, I started interjecting the Acme 211 1/2 peasless whistle. The pups' recall is coming along very nicely at 5 1/2 weeks of age. Now, I am no longer having to squat down and clap.
# posted by Clay Black @ 8:14 AM 
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