RECALLS are FUN!

I love love love working on recalls! Happy, bouncy, speedy recalls!

There's an art to teaching them, especially if you're working up to recalling off of wildlife and interrupting playtime with their favourite dog pals.

Making them fun is the key to reliability.


Sneaking them in whenever you can helps generalize the behaviour.


Hearing people repeat and become more frustrated with each repetition of their recall word, is tough on me.

It teaches the dogs that our words don't mean anything until they hear that grumpy voice, rather than busting over to you at mach speed the first time they hear the golden word.  I also hear people applying negative labels to their dogs...stubborn, disobedient...and that doesn't help anyone nurture a relationship or teach the dogs that racing to you feels good.

Dr. Patricia McConnell has an excellent e- book out on emotional lives of our dogs.  How sensitive they are to our body language, our emotions, and how it affects their learning and your relationship.  She even goes into the biology of frustration, and anger...of our species...and how unhelpful it is for your dog's learning curve and relationship with you.

For The Love Of A Dog

Easy reading with lots of interesting research packed into it.

I went to the seminar  and actually told her she should have included a box of Kleenex with the book :)

I'm certain that given the choice between having a guardian who uses positive means to communicate, would be their preference, rather than having to learn  to diffuse their guardians aggressive actions.

There are soooo many fun games to play that teach dogs to check in often and coming to you means good stuff happens. Pairing what you'd like to see happen with what they love makes it easier for learning to take place.

The learning process for each dog may be different. Some worry warts are quicker to see the benefit of sticking close by, while other free spirits may take a bit of creative thinking to make it "their choice" to zip over to you.

The learning curve is what I enjoy most! I love being part of the process and seeing people's eyes light up when their dogs start zipping over to them the first time they call.