Confessions of a Dog Trainer: I Rarely Use My Recall Cue

My dog recalls without being asked. I don’t overuse her cue, so her recall stays sharp and reliable. She speeds to me the moment she hears it.

Yesterday, I recalled my dog and noticed her reaction. It was instantaneous and joyful.

The moment stood out to me because I realised: I very rarely use her recall cue to actually recall her. I train the cue every now and again on a walk to maintain it, but it’s hardly ever used with real purpose. And maybe that’s one of the reasons it works so well.

Not overusing her recall cue means it holds real value. Judging by her speed and joy, it looks like a cue she wants to hear. Her recall cue is distinct. It stands out. This is something all my clients learn.

For my dog, her recall cue is predictably unpredictable. She never knows exactly what she’s disengaging from the environment for, unless I use a reward-specific marker.

So how come I don’t need to use her recall cue very often? Because 99.9% of the time, she recalls without being asked. And honestly, that’s the best thing of all. My dog makes the active choice to come to me over the environment. I think that’s what every owner aspires to.

It took me back to a memory of being in a training webinar, where I asked the expert: would you reward a dog who came back without being recalled?

Their answer was “no”.

At the time, as a baby trainer, their answer made me doubt and question what I was doing on my walks. Technically, the expert was correct – and they still are. Under stimulus control, a behaviour should only be reinforced when it’s been cued.

But I think we were talking about two different things.

In real life, I don’t want to rely solely on a verbal cue for my dog to come back to me. To be honest, that just seems like a lot of effort on my part. I want to be the unspoken cue, my presence, my location. Just me. And I’d much rather have River do the hard work while having fun every step of the way. She probably get four times as much exercise just by going out to explore and choosing to come back in again.

Learning theory tells us that a behaviour is unlikely to be repeated without reinforcement - if River comes back to me and doesn't receive something she's finds rewarding, the chances are she's not going to bother doing that again.

The flip side is that behaviours that are reinforced are more likely to happen again.

So with that in mind, a reward is available if my dog chooses to return to me. I want her to repeat that behaviour. I don’t want to discourage it.

I liken it to taking children to Disney Land, I know they would be excited by all the rides, but rather than them rushing from one ride to the next, totally oblivious to me, I would want them to locate me and run back to me in between rides. I'd want them to share the experience with me. They'd tell me what a great time they were having, I'd say how proud I was of them and then I'd usher them off to the next ride. I wouldn't want to be constantly shouting for them or running after them.

So it's for this reason I always reward my dog when she runs up to me without a verbal cue. The park/field/woods is her Disney Land and I'm the unspoken cue. In real life, there’s nothing more enjoyable than your dog running up to you saying, “Hey, isn’t this great? I was over there, and I chose to come over here to be with you.”

Who doesn’t want a dog that does that?

Personally, I think that’s a brilliant choice for a dog to make, and I actively cultivate it. I’ll reward it every single time. The rewards I give will vary, and I might adjust things – especially if I’ve got a clever, foodie dog who decides food is better than exploring – but it will always be acknowledged in some way.

Because I want to explore the environment with my dog. Not wrestle her away from it. Not feel like I’m constantly nagging her to pay attention to me. Not worry about how far she’ll wander.

This automatic, “silent” recall means I not only get to enjoy a stress-free walk, I also get keep her verbal recall cue meaningful and special. I can’t speak for how River views it, but it certainly looks like she thinks it’s a good thing too.

Along with this automatic recall comes the necessity to train an emergency stop, because there may be times when it’s not safe for my dog to travel back to me.

In September, I’ll be launching my recall course, where I’ll be sharing both structured training strategies and practical, real-life dog walking experience.

Pippa x

Categories: : adolescent dog training, adult dog training, Confession of a Dog Trainer, Recall Programme