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The 5 Minute Dog by Personable Pets Dog Training
Practical dog training advice in under 5 minutes. 5 New episodes uploaded every Monday.
WIth over 20 years of Family Dog training experience, our podcast includes tips, tricks, and explanations, so you can better understand why your dog does what he does. We also provide dog training scenarios to help you curb any unwanted behaviors.
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The 5 Minute Dog by Personable Pets Dog Training
#132 Why Your Dog's Perfect Recall Is Slowly Disappearing
The recall command requires ongoing reinforcement throughout your dog's life, not just during initial training. Behavior that gets consistently rewarded stays strong, while recalls without payoffs gradually deteriorate as dogs lose motivation to leave interesting things behind.
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Let's talk about the recall. You know, when you call your dog and they actually come running back to you, the recall is one of the most important skills your dog will ever learn and, honestly, it's one of those skills that needs the most maintenance. And a lot of people make this mistake. They work hard teaching their dog to come when called. They reward it, they build it up and it's going great. And then after a few months or even a few years they just kind of stop rewarding it. They start to take it for granted, they go cold turkey and guess what? The recall starts to fall apart. And it's not because their dog is stubborn, it's because behavior that gets consistently rewarded is a behavior that stays strong. If there's no more payoff, the motivation to respond fast, happy and reliably starts to fade. Now I'm not saying you have to feed your dog a piece of chicken every single time they come to you. That's not realistic. But you should keep rewarding it, sometimes Mix it up. Sometimes it's food, sometimes it's a toy, Sometimes it's a big party and praise, sometimes it's permission to, sometimes it's a toy, sometimes it's a big party and praise, sometimes it's permission to go back and sniff, make coming to you feel worth it, even if it's not every single time. The idea is that your dog never quite knows when a reward might show up and that uncertainty it actually makes the behavior stronger. It's called a variable reward schedule and it's the same reason. People keep playing slot machines, even when they don't win every time. The maybe this time mindset is pretty powerful.
Speaker 1:Another reason not to go cold turkey real life recalls are usually asking your dog to leave something really good Chasing a squirrel, playing with another dog rolling in something disgusting, whatever it is. You're asking them to give up something that matters to them to come back to you. You want to make sure that when they make that choice they feel like it was absolutely the right call. Think of it like this You're paying them for leaving behind something awesome, and if you want them to keep making that choice, we got to keep paying, at least sometimes forever. So even if your dog has the best recall in the world right now, don't let it get stale. Keep surprising them with rewards. Keep making it a big deal once in a while. A lifetime of reliable recall is totally worth tossing a handful of treats in your pocket every now and then.