We all want a really good recall. For our adventure dogs, it is EXTRA important as we are often off leash with them deep in the wilderness, which is not a good place to lose your dog! What is the best way to do this?

Pay Your Dog!

If you want to maintain a good recall with your dog, one of the BEST things you can do is to always pay your dog. This means carrying some sort of reward (or toy reward if toys are your dogs jam) with you when you are out on your adventures. I prefer to use single serving sized pre-packaged cheese such as the mini Tillamook cheese or string cheeses. I would say on 75% of my hikes you will find me with cheese in my pocket!

A lot of people will initially push back on this. They don’t want to have to reward the dog for listening, and as humans we seem to expect our dogs to listen “just because we said so”.

So, let’s take a minute and break things down a bit, so its easier to understand why we want to keep paying our dogs.

We control almost 100% of our dogs' lives. We decide when they eat, when they go to the bathroom, when they play, and when they get time outdoors. This means that our dogs, who studies are showing have more emotional intelligence than we previously realized, have almost NO personal choices and freedoms in life.

When our dogs are off leash it is one of the few times they are 100% in control of what they do. They can sniff things as long as they want, pick things up, and run whatever direction they please. And calling them to COME is taking away that freedom. By NOT paying our dogs, we risk our dogs slowing down and eventually not responding to that call because there are better things out there.

Think about your lunch break at work, or maybe your recess at school growing up. If someone bothered you every few minutes and asked you to do WORK in what was supposed to be your free time, would you drop everything and do it? At first you might, but if it happened ALL the time, you might stop. What about if they paid you with something you really wanted?

The best part about trying to always pay your dog is that when you can't, they still listen and are happy to have lots of love and praise.

Lastly, I do need to point out there ARE some exceptions. Some dogs just LOVE to do what their person says, but this dog is typically the exception, not the rule!

How do you pay your dog for a good recall?