Teaching Recall
In order that you can safely allow your dog off lead to enjoy a run in an open space, explore new places or play, it is essential to teach him good, reliable recall because without it his life will be reduced to being always on the lead especially if you don’t have a secure garden.
The aim with reliable recall is to teach your dog that it's good to follow you and that being with you is fun. No training session should ever end with a failure on your dog's part, so finish the training session before he gets bored and end with a successful recall. If you push him too far and you miss this point do some kind of recall that will be a success such as putting him on the lead, calling him to you whilst you gently pull him nearer by the lead until he reaches you, then give him a treat and reward him and stop the training because you've ended it with a success.
Training recall is NOT teaching a command, it’s simply a request to come back to you when you ask.
It is important to note that a ‘dog off a lead is a dog out of control’, because no matter how well trained it is, if it doesn’t want to come back to you it needn’t.
There are 5 phases to teaching recall :-
1. Your dog must know his name.
2. Teaching him to come to you from one room in the house to another, come in the house from the garden and from the garden into the house.
3. Teaching him to go from you to a friend and back when out, or if on your own using a 'recall rope'.
4. Teaching him to come to you in an enclosed area ie: small field or enclosed park.
5. Teaching him to come to you in an open space, a field or the beach.
I know this sounds crazy, but you should never teach recall to your dog if he doesn't know his name. So the first stage of recall is to ensure he really does knows who he is.
Choose what your recall command is going to be and use it at all times. Use one or two words only such as his name followed by the words 'come', ‘come on’ and ‘this way’. The next step is to practice calling him back to you in the house and garden, always remembering to reward him with a treat, stroking him and giving him praise. Choose a treat he can't refuse such as little bits of chicken, small cubes of cheese, little slices of tinned hot dog sausage. Use that treat only for recall training purposes so as to make it special and so it doesn't become the norm. Reward him whenever he moves towards you or even looks at you because this will encourage him to check on you. When your dog looks back to see where you are, you are reinforcing the idea that being with you is safe and rewarding along with reinforcing your leadership position.
The next phase should be carried out in a small enclosed area such as a yard, park, paddock or small field, all of which must be secure and safe. Start the training when there are no distractions to help him focus so it may be necessary to do this to begin with at a time when few people are around. As his recall becomes more reliable you can introduce distractions such as toys, footballs, bikes, more people and other dogs. Each time you introduce another distraction make sure his treat is extra good - try a bit of liver or bacon before going back to what you've been using before. You need a treat that is better than the distraction.
There are a couple of ways of doing the second phase. One way uses two people and the other just the one.
With two people take your dog to the safe, secure small place. Person (1) holds him whilst person (2) stands a few yards away and calls him using his 'recall' phrase. When he reaches person (2) he is given his treat and praised. Person (2) then holds him whilst person (1) walks a little further away then calls him using his 'recall' phrase. Person (2) lets go of him and when he reaches person (1) he is given his treat and praised. This process is repeated but don't continue once you feel your dog is getting bored because it is important he doesn't fail. At the point you feel your dog is loosing interest stop and continue another day.
Continue training this way until you are happy that he understands that when he is called he comes to the 'recall' phrase and gets a treat.
Don't become disheartened if this phase lasts a few weeks because the important thing is that he doesn't fail so you don't want him moving to the next phase in an open space until you are comfortable that he is ready.
If you are on your own or are having problems with getting him to run between two people use the long-line method.
NEVER use an extending lead that rewinds as the dog may feel its not on a lead and run. If he does this he can either injure himself when the lead runs out, cause the lead to snap and it flies back at you causing injury, or he pulls it out of your hand and the handle bounces behind him causing him to run faster to get away from what is chasing him. A long line allows him to move away from you but when you call his recall phrase you have the control to make him come back to you whether he wants to or not.
The line is simply a length of strong rope or a lunge lead about 20 to 30 feet in length and attach it to the greyhound’s collar.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The most important thing to remember when using a long rope is that there MUST be a slight tension on the rope at ALL times otherwise your dog might think he's loose and set off running at full speed. A Greyhound can reach 40 m.p.h. in 5 steps!!! The tension is to minimize the risk of him forgetting he’s on a lead and running off, pulling you over or hurting you or him with a whiplash injury caused by the jerk when the rope reaches full length.
With a slight tension on the rope at all times let him wander a few feet away from you. Call him using your recall phrase such as 'name, come on, this way', give the rope a little tug and pull it towards you so he has to come back to you, continue saying your recall phrase until he is in front of you then give him his treat and praise him well. Walk a couple of steps to encourage him to move again, and again keeping a slight tension on the lead let him wander a little further than last time. Call him using your recall phrase, give a little tug and pull him towards you as last time. When he stands in front of you give him his treat and a nice praise. If you continue doing this allowing him to wander a little further each time he will quickly learn the recall phrase is associated with the tug on the rope requesting he come to you for his treat and praise. Using the long rope ensures a success for him every time, which is important. As he comes to understand the recall phrase you will find he will be coming towards you without the need to give that little tug to encourage him. As before start somewhere quiet with few distractions to begin with and as he begins to understand what your recall phrase means introduce him to the same training but with other distractions around. Reliable recall is when you call your dog to you and he comes no matter what distractions there are around and that is why the treat you give him should be something special and the praise is good for him.
The final phase, when you are absolutely sure he has reliable recall in a small secure area is to try him in a larger space such as a field or an open space such as a beach. Again try to make the first time you do this is when there are likely to be few distractions and practice your recall phrase whilst he is still close to you. At this stage in his training he will know his name, know his recall phrase and know that you are nice person to be with so if he does wander off he will come back when asked.
It is important to remember that Greyhounds are sight hounds and have extremely good eyesight. Many ex-racing greyhounds will have been trained to chase so if he does see a rabbit for example and he's off the lead, if he decides to chase it he will be focused 100% on the chase. No matter how good your training or how loud you shout his recall phrase he won't hear you until he either catches it or looses interest. Keep a close eye on where he went if you can and at the point he stops to look for you wave your arms wildly in the air and do his recall phrase so he can see where you are. Waving your arms in the air will attract his attention and hearing his recall phrase will give him the confidence to come back to you. When he does come back you MUST remember to praise him, NEVER reprimand him otherwise all your hard recall training will be lost because he will feel you are reprimanding him for coming back to you.
As with all training try to avoid him failing and never end a training session with a failure - do something you know he can do and do that so the session ends with a success. If you move from one training level to the next and he isn't ready ie: he hasn't thoroughly understood what you are teaching him he will fail the training. If this should happen take him back to the previous training level to reinforce his success, continue a little longer then move him forward again. When he is ready he will move to the next phase easily.