Random Recall
This is a slightly harder version of recall than the formal recall. You will follow the same steps as the formal recall, but instead of starting with your dog in a sit/stay or place, you will allow your dog to get six feet from you and become distracted. They can be sniffing, they could be wandering, they could be playing with another dog, they could be trying to greet the neighbors, etc.
Since we are increasing the difficulty of the recall significantly by allowing the dog to be off-task and distracted before calling them, you do not need to require them to sit in front of you initially. For the first several days, reward them simply for getting into front position. When they can do that semi-reliably, we can require that they sit in front after random recalls as well.
Random recalls work best if there is NO leash pressure prior to giving the command “come.” That means you may have to follow your dog around a bit, and create slack to prevent tension in the leash. It also means that if they are quickly approaching the end of the line, call them before they get there. In an ideal world, they only feel leash pressure if they don’t respond to the recall command.
Remember to praise them as they come towards you, and take as many backwards steps as necessary to speed them up or keep them interested in recalling to you.
In the video below, Wallace demonstrates a great random recall. He turns immediately and comes to Ryan when called. Wallace also goes between Ryan’s legs, just because Wallace thinks that is funny and I’m OK with letting the dog have a bit of harmless fun here. We want them to like coming to us!
In the video below, Tucker is paying pretty close attention to Raechel during the session, so she has to wander around a bit in the hope that he will become distracted or engaged in the environment somehow. She waits for him to look away or sniff before calling him. Don’t fear – if your dog is following you around, that means we are on the right track! To make sure we are doing a thorough job with training, we want to be sure we can get that same attention in many different environments and with different distractions. Take the show on the road!
In this last video, Lucy isn’t very distracted, but she also is not engaged in training. Ryan puts himself behind her at the end of the leash several times to create the distance needed for the recall. Notice that even though she is getting a leash correction for not coming when called, the leash is only tight briefly. It gets her attention and gets her moving the right direction, then our encouragement and backward motion to do the rest.
Complete at least 25 random recalls each day. If you can do this in different areas, throughout the week, do so.