Having a solid recall command is hands down the most important behavior you can train your dogs. As Michael Ellis always says, “You can have a dog that won’t sit, down, or stand, but you cannot live with a dog that will not come when called”. This is true regardless of your ultimate training goals. Whether you are training a working dog for high-level competition, a police k9, or an everyday house dog your dog must come when called no matter what.

This course offers a step-by-step training regimen that will be both simple and fun for you and your dog. In the end, you will have a dog that comes when called through any distractions, or competing motivators, within the environment.

The training begins with restrained recalls. A restrained recall is a fun game you can play with your dog that will also have countless engagement and training benefits outside of the recall progression. From there you will learn how to begin adding more difficulty into your training. This is done through the use of distraction free recalls, and eventually call aways, and call offs. Once your dog is recalling through basic distractions you will learn how to slowly and methodically increase the level of distraction.

You will also learn how to incorporate low-level aversive into your training. You need your dog to come when called regardless of what is going on around them. The last thing you want is for your recall command to fail as your dog is chasing a rabbit toward a busy intersection. In order to train this, we set up and control how much stress the dog is under during training. Too often people train a recall without ever adding any stress into the training. This results in a dog who will come when it is convenient for them but will fail when you need it most. By utilizing Michael's methods taught in this course, you will learn how to incorporate aversives as a proofing tool. You will learn to fairly and methodically layer aversives into your training, once you already trained the behavior through motivation.

Once our recall command is trained and proofed we cover real world applications and how we can subtly modify our training to fit the needs of your specific lifestyle. You will also learn how to finish your recall training with a terminal behavior. Whether you want your dog to come to front and sit, go between your legs, or into a heel position, you will learn how to incorporate those behaviors into the end of your recall command or into a series of recall commands.

The material in this course goes hand in hand with the rest of the Michael Ellis series of DVDs/Courses. However, this is a stand-alone training course. While it is recommended that you learn the foundation of Michael's training methodology covered in the Power of Training Dogs with Food, it is not necessary for training the recall.

Outline: 

Training the Recall: The Most Important Behavior Your Dog Will Ever Learn

1) Introduction: What this DVD is covering, why we are doing it, how it fits in with the rest of our DVDs, and how it will be laid out.

2) Restrained Recalls: Positive effects of frustration. Putting behavior on cue. Voice and whistle. Benefits of engagement. How to reward, mechanics and duration.

3) Recalls in an environment free of distractions/competing motivators.

4) Recalls while focused on something else (competing motivator). Must have control of competing motivator and be able to deprive dog of access (P-). Food to start. Handler must control the value of reward for returning... value, intensity, duration.

5) Increasing intensity of competing motivator for "call away."Toys, bite wedges, bites, etc.Still must have control of competing motivator.

6) Difference between call off and call away, and on line harness drills. Call offs - ball, tug, bite, etc.

7) Leash pressure and layering the leash over your recalls. Long line/flexi work - no distractionPreparation for the use of P+ and R- (correction).

8) Basic electronic collar conditioning for recall.R- (continuous) and P+ (nick).With line work. Avoiding superstitious associations with both e-collar and line.

9) Finishing recall in real life situations. Generalization. Being prepared and practicing.

10) Teaching and adding terminal behaviors. Heel, front, and place.

11) Everyday do's and don'ts.

        a) Don't call your dog unless you have something, can make them come, or are sure they will come.

         b) Have rewards whenever possible during teaching phase.

         c) During the teaching phase, don't call your dog to put them up or call them away from something they like (unless you have something better and are sure they will come).

         d) Control your distractions/competing motivators.

         e) Practice recalls all the time!!!