When it comes to our dogs, probably the most important thing that anyone wants is to know that their dog will come when called no matter what distractions there are in the environment. It can be a matter of simple convenience – like calling your dog to come when you’re ready to leave the dog park. Or it can be a matter of safety – calling your dog to come when you accidentally throw a ball too close to the road. In this article, I’m going to explain that there are several main destinations on the road to having a rock-solid recall – and by the end you will understand how to get to that ultimate goal of having your dog come when called no matter what.

What does “no matter what” mean?

Most dogs will come when called if there’s nothing better to do.  You’re hanging out in the kitchen, decide to fix a snack for yourself, wonder where your dog is, call out, and your dog comes running.  “See – my dog knows how to come when called!”  Not so fast…what’s more likely is that your dog has learned that when they hear “Sparky, come!” they should immediately pursue the most attractive thing in their environment (which we discussed in this article on why your dog stopped coming when called).  In a quiet house, with you rustling in the kitchen, guess what the most interesting thing in your dog’s environment is?  You!  Well…you and whatever you’ve just pulled out of the fridge.

On the other hand, what would your dog do if you were out in the world?  If you accidentally dropped the leash and your dog started running towards their favorite thingy on the other side of the road?  If you were walking through the woods and your dog suddenly picked up the scent of, and started chasing after, a deer?  Now we’re getting closer to “no matter what”.  Your dog’s recall needs to be completely reliable even in the MOST tempting of circumstances, and when the chase has already begun.

What’s so difficult about those tempting circumstances?

Generally, if you have tapped into your dog’s emotional energy circuits and learned how to attract them when they’re in a high state of prey drive (using pushing, tug, and redirection), then you will be able to call your dog to you, even when they’re tempted by something, as long as they have not fully committed to pursuing the object of their attraction.  You notice the deer in the field before your dog does, and you immediately start playing tug with your dog.  Your dog takes a few steps towards the squirrel, but you call “Ready!” – and your dog flies back to your side for some pushing.  In these situations your dog feels energized and is looking for a way to offload that energy “in the flow”.  But your dog isn’t in the flow yet – at least not completely.  So you have a chance, in those moments, to simply say “Hey, here I am – the best way to resolve that energy!”

However, once your dog has committed to connecting with the thing that they desire and is in the flow of that commitment, things get more challenging.  Somehow your dog has to learn how to switch objectives in this situation.  Since it feels good to be “in the flow”, then if your dog perceives the switch (i.e. coming when you call) as an interruption of flow, then there is almost no way that your dog will make that switch.  It just feels too “bad” in relation to just staying in the flow, in pursuit of connecting with the object of desire.  You need to show your dog that even in this situation they can stay completely in the flow AND come back to you.

The Steps to a Rock-Solid Recall

[note - In my DVD set, Natural Dog Training: The Fundamentals, the entirety of DVD #2 is devoted to "Mastering Obedience".  It lays the groundwork by teaching your dog all of the basic obedience exercises in a high state of drive (sit/down/stay/heel), and then takes you step-by-step through the process that I'm about to detail for developing a rock-solid recall with your dog.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, then video is probably worth a million - especially when you're trying to do more advanced training.   Over time I will be able to detail these steps here on the Naturaldogblog - for now, hopefully this is enough to give you a sense of where you want to go, and how you'll get there.]

The process of dog training that I teach starts and ends with the recall.  The very first things that you do, pushing, and playing tug-of-war, change the dynamic between you and your dog, so your dog learns that they can be safe with you at higher and higher levels of energy.  Then, with redirection, you can resolve the feelings of attraction that your dog experiences when encountering other enticing things “out there” in the world.  The ONLY way that your dog is going to be able to come back to you full-tilt instead of pursuing something else when they’re locked on target is if you have shown given your dog a way to feel connected to the flow, with you, at high levels of emotional intensity.  It’s the only way that you have a chance of being as compelling as whatever it is that has your dog’s full attention.

Once that attraction is in place, here is how you will use it to get to the place where your dog will come when called no matter what:

1. Focused, Attentive Down/Stay in High Drive – First things first – you teach your dog that they can still feel energized and in-the-flow even when stationary.  This isn’t a reluctant “ho-hum I guess I’ll lie down” sort of down/stay, this is the kind of down where your dog hits the dirt, stays energized, and is completely focused on you.  I teach how to get to this place with your dog in this article on teaching the down and this article on teaching the stay.
2. Heeling – By learning how to heel next to you, your dog is actually learning how to be in-the-flow and totally in synch with your movements.  Heeling deepens the groove of the emotional connection between the two of you, and also prepares you for the next important step – which links heeling with an energized down.
3. The Running Down – This step teaches your dog the transition between being in-the-flow and in motion (heeling next to you) and being in-the-flow and stationary (the down/stay).  In brief, you have your dog heeling next to you, quicken your pace, say “Ready!” (to prep your dog that something is coming), and then, sharply, “Down!”.  This “down” should be one of those “your life depends on it” kind of deliveries.  Your dog will hit the dirt, and immediately you transition into praise, food (to feed the down position), and the “stay” part of your down/stay routine.  You don’t want to overdo this exercise in any one session – just a few times, at most – and then some uninhibited running, pushing, and heeling to work out any stress that the exercise might have caused.
4. Down at a Distance – In this exercise, you teach your dog how to hit the dirt, energized, while they move away from you enticed by something (I usually use a tug toy).  You start with very small distances, and then progress to larger and larger distances.  You are teaching your dog how to be running, in-the-flow, in pursuit of something else, and to come to a complete stop.  Importantly, your dog learns how to stay in the flow while doing it.  In other words, even though your dog is hitting the dirt instead of pursuing that thing, it still feels good.  You can release your dog to get the toy – or, even better, have your dog stay while you pick up the original toy and then release your dog from the stay with some tugging or pushing.
5. Redirect Down at a Distance – This step is a modification of the exercise above.  You send your dog off in pursuit of a toy and have them lie down at a distance from you.  THEN you release your dog from the down/stay by calling your dog back to you, either to play tug with another, identical tug toy – or for some pushing.  Since your dog is in a down/stay, and energized, and focused on you, this release is very easy for them to accomplish.  To your dog it feels like “Pursue – in the flow.  Down/stay – in the flow.  Come back to my person for some pushing/tug – in the flow.”  You see – the whole sequence is in the flow.

At this point, you have taught your dog how to be completely energized in pursuit of something else, stop in their tracks, and come back to you – all in the flow.  It’s important to break it down step-by-step like that for your dog, so that they can successfully get each part of the sequence, and get each part of the sequence solidly before moving on to the next, final step (which I generally do with a really enticing tug toy – to keep the circumstances as controlled as possible before moving out into the real world with this exercise).

• Throw a toy for your dog, then call “Ready, Sparky!”, and celebrate as your dog turns in mid-run, circles back around to you, and connects with you for some tug, chase, and pushing.

You’re at the final step.  Your dog is in the flow and changing direction mid-run to come back to you.  Some dogs will spin on a dime, other dogs will make a wide arc as they divert from the original path and circle around back to you.  It’s vitally important that you make the return a huge celebration of push, tug, chase – by stepping up your mooseness and ensuring that your dog stays in the flow and resolves huge amounts of energy and stress, you are cementing your place as the best, most attractive being in your dog’s universe.

Use the recall sparingly

Let’s say you were in the living room, reading a book.  And your spouse/partner was a few rooms away in the kitchen.  And your significant other called out, excitedly “Hey, could you come here?”  What would you do?  You’d probably get right up to see what it was about, right?

Now let’s say you get to the kitchen and ask “What’s up, honey?”  And your partner says, “Oh, nothing, I was just trying to see if you’d come”.  How many times would YOU respond to “Hey, could you come here?” if there was nothing great or important at the other end?  Probably not many.  And in general, wouldn’t it make you a lot less likely to respond to your partner’s call?

If you want to reinforce the work that you’re doing with your dog so that you have obedience in the moments when it matters most, then save your obedience for the moments when it matters most! That and specific times when you’re practicing and set up to give your dog huge moosey payoffs for doing what you want your dog to do.  As I’ve mentioned many times, my goal with a dog is not to produce a dog-tomaton that responds robotically in lock-step with me 24-7.  My goal is to help a dog and an owner come into synch with each other, so that an owner learns how to evoke their dog’s most social (and non-problematic) nature, and so that commands like “down”, “stay”, “heel”, and “come!” are 100% reliable in the times when it really counts.  If you’re looking for a doggy robot, then you probably ought to talk to the folks at MIT.  On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more fulfilling relationship with your dog, then you’ll create a structure in your life so that your dog can be a dog – and know that when you ask something that isn’t necessarily coming naturally, it’s because it’s really important.  So don’t wear out your obedience with overuse.  Keep it fresh and intense for both you and your dog.

As I said at the beginning, having a dog who’ll come back no matter what is one of the main goals of dog training.  It allows you to “let your dog be a dog” – all the while knowing that you can keep your dog out of harm’s way when it’s truly important.  I wanted to show you that there are many steps in the process of having a dog come when called no matter what.  However, if you follow the steps as I’ve outlined them above, you will definitely achieve your objective.  Just take your time and enjoy the process of getting there!

Please join the conversation about this article over in the Naturaldogblog Forum.

A year or so ago, I was walking my dog through our in-town neighborhood, when out of nowhere a LARGE shepherd mix came bounding towards us (without a leash) with trouble on her mind.  Having worked so frequently with aggressive dogs I could see that for whatever reason, this dog had seen us coming and decided that Nola might be good for lunch – and there was no owner in sight.  Since it takes two to tango, my first step was to keep Nola from engaging in the aggression.  I gave her a “Down!”, and she hit the bricks (on the sidewalk), and she stayed there although her teeth were bared and she was beginning to growl.  I kept myself between the two dogs, as I could tell that the dog didn’t want any piece of me – just my dog, and I effectively herded the dog away from Nola, who stayed there on the ground despite all of the commtion.  Eventually my firm shouts of “No!” and “Go on!” at the other dog must have aroused the owner’s attention, as they came running out of the house to grab their dog.  While I did return later (without Nola) to tell the owner that an offleash uncontrolled attack dog was kinda “bad form”, the point of my telling you this story is to show you how useful a resolute down/stay in an energized situation can be.  In part one of this series, we taught our dog how to sit using our body language and our dog’s natural response to waiting while in hunting mode.  We used a small platform (“on the box”) as a way to delimit space for our dog, an aid in Sparky’s figuring out what to do.  In part two of this series, we went from “Sit” to “Down” – also using the box – in order to teach our dog the feeling of lying down in an energized state.  Obedience matters most when your dog is “distracted” (absorbed in the energy of their environment) – and the only way for you to be able to reach your dog during these moments is for your dog to be familiar with the feeling of engaging in obedience behaviors WHEN energized.  In this lesson, we’re going to work on “Stay”, and the Down/Stay will become an essential part of your training regimen. 

What does it mean to “Stay”?

The concept is simple enough:  you tell your dog to “stay” and your dog remains in that one place.  However, the “stay” is only effective as long as the energy of your dog’s environment keeps your dog rooted in place.  Otherwise, something “out there” could become more attractive to your dog than the staying, and your dog’s prey drive will kick into action to chase that bicycle, grab that treat, etc. 

I’m telling you this because I want you to see the stay not as an exercise of your dog’s willpower.  Since dog’s are more feeling-oriented than thought-oriented, their willpower won’t hold up under duress.  You are going to be teaching your dog how to be more and more rooted in their spot as more energy is added to the system.  It will feel good to your dog to remain where they are.  Picture your dog lying in an attentive down (the “down” you elicited in part two), and now imagine a current of energy flowing through your dog, down into the ground, back up into your dog – in a circuit.  If you can keep your dog relaxed, you will be able to add more energy to the system, and that circuit will spin faster and faster.  The intensity of the circuit will work like a magnet, holding your dog rooted to that spot.  In a sense, you are teaching your dog to “feel the flow” – the same flow that they feel when they’re playing tug-of-war with you – while lying there in one spot.  Just like electrical magnetism builds as you increase the current in a coil of wire, the emotional magnetism will increase the faster the emotional circuit spins.  The important factors for YOU to control are keeping your dog relaxed and gradually adding more and more energy to the system.

Making the “stay” happen

OK, so you’ve gotten your dog onto the box and into the down position.  You can still be totally in the realm of body language and hand signals, but if you’ve introduced your voice that’s fine too.  At the initial stages of this training, I’ll often progress from “on the box” to “sit” to “down” – but frequently a dog will just go into the “down” at the first whiskaway – it’s the internal efficiency mechanism at work.  That’s good, because down is ultimately what you’re after (and a much more useful command, IMHO).

The hand signal that I use for “Stay” is my left hand extended in front of me, palm out, fingers pointed to the sky – as if you were signalling someone to “Stop right there!”.  Your hand should be extended with the “stop right there” attitude as well – because your intent (which matters) is for your dog to remain in place, completely rooted to their spot.  I’m going to explain the progression as I go through it with a very energized (and prone-to-popping-up-from-the-down) dog – if your dog stays rooted easily, then you can move through the series rather easily.

1. Get your dog into the down position – you may need to be crouched in order for this to happen.
2. Feed the position with your right hand.
3. Hold out your left hand in the “Stay right there” position.
4. Keep feeding the position, while you SLOWLY raise your body.
5. Once you’re standing, feed the position some more.

Good – you got to a standing position, and your dog is still energized.  You’re standing more or less next to your dog – maybe slightly in front, but not directly in front. Now for the next step.

1. Take a few steps in place.  As if you were marching in place.  Just start by shuffling your feet a little – slowly and gradually.  Your left hand is still extended in the “stay right there” position.
2. Feed the position.
3. Start taking stronger steps.  By “stronger” I mean to gradually increase the force with which you’re feet are hitting the ground.  You could also start increasing the pace of your steps.
4. Feed the position.

This would probably be a good time to take a break.  Give your dog a “Ready…Sparky!” – and then run away from the box.  Your dog will spring off the box after you, and you should do some pushing together (or some tug-of-war), before you get back on the box.  Lots of praise at this point!  OK, back to the box.

1. Work your way up to where you were before.
2. Add more energy to the system.  Run in place.
3. Feed the position.
4. Jump in the air.  Just a small jump, but both feet leave the ground.
5. Feed the position.
6. Jump higher.  Feed the position.  Go crazy.  Feed the position.
7. Give a slow, gradual tug on the leash.  Feed the position.
8. Give a couple quick jerks on the leash.  Feed the position.

Maybe you’re getting the spirit at this point?  You’re near your dog and gradually upping the ante with energy that you add to the moment, each time keeping your dog in place with your “stay in position” hand and by feeding the position as soon as your dog has succeeded.

Make sure that you take breaks after your dog reaches each milestone to push and play.  Then get your dog back on the box and take it to the next level.

What to do if your dog pops back up from the down position

You have a couple choices at this point.  If you catch your dog as they’re about to get up, you can actually preemptively call your dog off the box.  Or you can use your food hand (with a whiskaway) to get your dog back into the “down” position.  Your dog’s popping up is a sign that you added too much energy to the system – so take it more slowly.  Allow your dog to educate you in terms of the correct pace of training, which will ensure that you’re building upon multiple successes with your dog - if you’re too focused on your agenda then you might set your dog up to fail too often.  A “failure” here and there (which is really a sign that you failed to work at a slow enough pace) is ok, but too many will undermine your dog’s confidence.  Slower and more gradual is ALWAYS better.

Some variations to get you to the next level

1. Back away from the box with your “stay” hand outstretched.  Back away slowly a few feet.  Then go back and feed the position.  Back away a few feet more this time.  Give your dog a “Ready…” – but instead of calling them off the box (make sure your hand is still in the “stay right there” position as you say “ready”) move back in and feed the position.  Back away a third time, and this time say “Ready…” – then drop your “stay hand”, call your dog off the box with their name, and do some pushing and tug.  Gradually increase your distance from the box.  If your dog has the tendency to pop up when you move away, you can keep a slight amount of tension on the leash, and your dog should counteract that tension by becoming more rooted in their place on the box.
2. Circle your dog.  Start circling (counterclockwise) in close proximity to your dog.  Sometimes at the beginning of circling I’ll actually drop a handfull of food on the box right under a dog’s mouth, so that they’re distracted with eating the food while I circle around them.  You might also need to maintain contact with a hand (keep your left fingertip on their head while giving the “stay” gesture with your right hand) as you circle around.  When you come back around to your dog’s right side, feed the position, and take a break to give your dog a little relaxing massage.  Try to circle around at greater and greater distances.

Important note on circling:

As you circle around, there are two things for you to do that will help your dog stay in position.  First thing is – instead of keeping your left hand out in a “stay” position as you circle around, allow your arms to swing freely (as they normally do when you walk) – you might even exaggerate the movement.  Every couple of swings of your left arm, extend your hand out in the “stay” position towards your dog (at this point I’m also saying “Stay!” as I present my left hand).  Your movement helps keep your dog focused on you, and helps establish a rhythm for what you’re doing – which will make the exercise more predictable for your dog.  So that’s tip #1.

Tip #2:  The place where your dog is most likely to pop up as you make your circle is when you’re directly behind your dog, out of sight.  So, take note of where that is (you’ll notice that your dog will probably move their head from one side to the other as they try to pick you up in their field of vision), and give your dog a “Stay” right before you leave their sight.  Then walk faster until you’re back in your dog’s field of vision.  Try to time another “Stay” so that your dog sees the “stay” gesture (and hears “Stay”) at the instant that they regain sight of you.

Especially as you move out to greater and greater distances, when you come back around to your dog’s side feed the position, take a moment to help your dog relax now that you’re back, and then call your dog off the box for some play.  The play (and/or pushing) is a way to help your dog relieve any residual tension that they have from each phase of the exercise.

Conclusion

Over time your dog will develop a steadfast “stay”, and you’ll be able to move away further – to the point where you’re even completely out of sight.  You can hide for a few moments behind a tree, or leave your dog in the backyard as you circle around your house – the options for working with the stay are endless.  The trick is to always remember to take play time between “stays” to help release any excess stress, to keep your dog energized throughout the down/stay, and to be VERY GRADUAL in the amount of energy (and or distance) that you add to your down/stay repertoire.  Ultimately the down/stay will be an important tool for you in your relationship with your dog – you’ll be able to use it to instantly defuse any highly energized or tense situation, or to just keep your dog out of the way while the family eats dinner.  Take it slow, practice consistently, keep it fun, and, as always, let me know if you have any questions.