Pebbles’ Dog Trainer’s Diary: Learning to Come Back

This week’s focus has been recall. A few times now, Pebbles has got to the end of the long line, looked at something more interesting than me, and come back anyway. I would like to say that is down to skill. It is mostly down to timing, management and a lot of repetition — which is what I actually want to talk about, rather than just telling you we “worked on it.”

Pebbles is 17 weeks old now, which puts us right before adolescence usually hits — and that is why I am really building on this recall now, rather than waiting until she becomes more confident and more curious. When they do become little teenagers, recall is usually one of the first things where we can really see the effect. So the plan is not to panic when it happens, but to work on this really hard now. And if we do find that recall goes back a little bit, it is not a problem — we can simply put that management back in again.

The long line, done properly

We have been using a 9-metre long line, which is plenty for a puppy — I have never needed anything longer, even with adult dogs. Long lines can take a bit of getting used to, start with it shorter and practise so you don’t end up too tangled up. I fold it in as she comes closer, rather than wrapping it round my hand — a wrapped line becomes a knotted line the second there is any tension, and that is a good way to hurt yourself or her. As she runs out, I feed the line out so there is no tension on it. And just before she would hit the end of the lead, I say “that’s enough” — so that word comes to mean she cannot make any more progress further away, which is going to be a genuinely useful cue once we no longer use the long lead.

Crucially, the line is there to stop her going too far. It is never there to reel her in. If I need her back, that is down to me and my cues — not the equipment.

Same places, on purpose

We have kept going back to the same handful of spots rather than chasing new ones. At this age, a new environment is a lot to process — new smells, new sounds, new everything — and I do not want to be competing with all of that while I am also trying to teach something. Familiar surroundings mean she has got the spare brainpower to actually listen.

Building a recall she wants to do

I am using a variety of different cues to help with recall. There is a hand target, which comes with a lovely visual cue for this behaviour. There is “go find it,” and the standard verbal “Pebbles, come,” and now I am also building recall to a whistle. The whistle has been paired with something fantastic — I have actually started pairing it with sausages — so when she hears it, she has got the novelty of a really high value reinforcer waiting for her. She also loves a game of tug, so when she comes back to the whistle, she gets a variety of different reinforcers, not the same thing every time.

Timing matters as much as the cue itself. If she has just become engrossed in a brand new smell, or she is watching something intently, I do not bother calling her — there is no point setting her up to fail. But when she turns her attention away from those novel interests, that is my opportunity to work really hard on this behaviour.

Bringing Buddy in

We took a trip to The Rec with Buddy, whose recall is rock solid, and I dropped Pebbles’ long line on the floor rather than holding it — it was there more for my own peace of mind than anything else. They went off to sniff around together, and if she started drifting too far, I could call them both back. Having Buddy there helps in another way too: Pebbles likes to follow him, so when he comes back to me, she wants to come back as well.

We have also been hiring a secure field with a friend and their puppy, so both pups get properly off lead together. The bit I am careful about here is the pattern we are building: recall is not just the thing that ends the fun. So we call them in, make a big fuss, maybe a treat, and send them straight back off to play again. Sometimes we call them in and clip the lead on for a bit — a little parallel walking, some fuss — before letting them back off again. The point is she never thinks that “coming back” only ever means “the good bit is over.”

It is all judgement, all the time, based on what I am seeing in front of me on the day.

One thing I am strict about

If Pebbles or Buddy are off lead and I see another dog on lead, they do not go bounding over to say hello — full stop. There are loads of reasons a dog might be on a lead: they could be in season, mid-training, recovering from an injury, or is a dog who is anxious and needs that distance. A dog on lead has less choice about creating distance from something they are not comfortable with, so it is not fair to let my off-lead dogs make that decision for them.

It costs me nothing to call my dogs back to me, and it gives someone else’s dog the space they need. If it is appropriate, and the other owner says they are happy for the dogs to play, then lovely.

I am very aware of how many people are out there working hard with anxious dogs and one interaction with my dog bounding over could set weeks of that training back. I do not want to be responsible for that, and I do not want my own puppy to have a bad experience over it either.

None of this is finished and it will not be for a while yet — but that is rather the point of writing it down as we go.