A dog’s recall is important, where you live, but her in the country, it is especially important. We live near a busy road, and coyotes are always out beyond the fences, they would love to come across a small animal like Bud out in the woods.
Bud is a curious and explorative dog, he roams around freely sometimes. I have never trained a dog on a leash, and we rarely use leashes (or umbrellas) up here.
So recall is important, as it is for all dogs. Bud and I are beginning to learn how to talk to one another, that’s the beauty of training done in the right way.
I’m working on distance recalls now. With a terrier, recalls will rarely work 100 per cent of the time. I’m going for 90 per cent, and training him to the point where I can always keep him out of danger. Come and see. Just using one or two words “Bud, come” or even better, “come.”
Again, I’m doing this in the midst of distraction.
I had a terrier I had to train to recall. He had become afraid of people after a bad experience in the past. I used a 30 foot lead line. I took him into an open field and I let him play out as far as he wished and then called him. Of course he didn’t come so I gently drew him back with the line. When he returned I gave him a 1/2 square of baked liver. After that I had only to call him. We did that with the baked liver for several trips then one day I called him back and only petted him. From then on we did sometimes food sometimes pet. Intermittent reward cements a behavior best. To bake the liver I put slices of beef liver between two plates and microwaved it for 10 minutes, poured off the grease and then cut it into squares immediately. They were stuffed into a baggie and put in the freezer. I would take handfuls out of the bag frozen and put them in a small plastic bag in my pocket. Most dogs will do anything for liver treats.