Hey folks and welcome to this week's episode of Terrier Talk where we are talking about recall, okay? It's the holy grail isn't it, recall? It's the thing that everybody wants, it's the thing that once you've got your world becomes massively wider with your terrier because you can go places and do things knowing that you can get them back, that you can keep them safe, that you can keep other people safe and you can keep wildlife safe and you can do all the things essentially that you want to do with your dog.
I would argue, and I would say this, that if you have a dog that has solid, reliable recall and good lead manners, then you pretty much have everything you need out of your dog. Even if they're a little bit spicy and reactive, if you can see a problem approaching, you can recall them to you, get them under control and then deal with it because they have good lead manners, you're pretty much golden. You can go everywhere and do everything that you need to do. So...
Getting recall, however, or getting 100% recall is not an easy thing to do. It's actually not that easy a thing to do with a lot of dogs, to be fair. I think most...
pet dog owners probably live in a world where they think that their pet dog's recall is really reliable. Um, but actually potentially isn't, um, when it actually comes down to it, like in a real emergency situation, could you actually call your dog back in super high arousal? It's chased after the thing. There's a real problem here. Um,
I would say most pet dogs, you know, breed irrelevant are probably in a situation where they're very, they've walked very regularly in the same environments and they kind of know what's going on and they have a routine and really, you know, that's where they're at. If you put them in a difficult situation, their recall may well fail. So you're definitely not alone if you're out there in that situation. I think most people are probably like that. True 100% reliable solid recall is rare and very rare with a dog
a terrier breed because of all the stuff that I've said so many times about them on all my different kind of like channels you know independence arousal prey drive all of the things that make it difficult to get that kind of high recall and there are other breeds as well not just terriers that are like that you know hunting hound type dogs and some of the sight hounds and stuff but you know
For a mainstream pet breed, which is what terriers are, they are one of the tougher ones to get good recall with. And so, consequently, loads of them get confined to the lead all of the time. And sadly, it's not uncommon to see an overweight, I would say probably depressed terrier, tottering around on the end of a flexily doing the same walk every day. So,
I would love to help as many people out of that situation and as many terriers out of that situation as possible. So I'm just going to give you some of the things that go into, in my opinion, training a good recall and stuff that you should be considering when it comes to improving a dog's recall. So, number one on the list.
And this is why it seems slightly counterintuitive and might go against dog training advice that you've had previously. But having taken many terriers through recall training, this is one I solidly believe in and will hang my hat on. And that is you have to take a freedom first approach. Now, this does not mean simply letting your terrier off the lead without recall. It's not what I'm talking about. But...
You know, there is a kind of like a conventional approach in dog training where once your dog behaves well on a short lead, you can let them into a long line and then so on and so on and so on. And you are constantly trying to make them earn their freedom. OK, this will not work with nine out of 10 terriers. They will not earn their freedom. They will simply take it. And if you...
get yourself into a constant conflict and micromanagement situation with them they will just try even harder to take it and they will probably step up and quite enjoy the conflict because let's face it if they're stuck on a lead they don't have much else to do so they will you know be like okay let's have a fight about this no problem and that's me entertaining myself for the next half an hour or 40 minutes or however long i'm out here trying to get to all the things that i want to get to
And then your relationship with them suffers when they do get the opportunity to get some freedom. And, you know, in your training isn't quite up to it. They will stick two fingers up to you and take that freedom. And that's, you know, like when you have a problem and then you, you know, like as an owner and then in a vicious cycle of like, well, I can't let them off the lead because they completely ignore me. I can't do training because they completely ignore me. And so this whole like spiral of of like negativity continues.
So you need to provide them with as much freedom as you possibly can through the means of keeping them safe and keeping the world safe from them if that means they're going to kill the neighbourhood cat or whatever. So your options, yes, there is secure fields and that definitely is an option and for a dog that gets zero lead freedom I would be including that. However, you have to understand that that's not...
the same, like letting them off lead in a secure field two or three times a week, because some people, you know, like financially, they'll spend that amount of money on getting to secure fields, you know, isn't the same, because they're not stupid, okay, it's the same environment every single time, it becomes boring after a while, and it's the same environment repeated over and over again for, you know, like an hour, which is why, again, your recall might work there, but it's not going to work in other places.
Yes, that's a possibility, but also you want to be looking at things like long lines and crucially managing your environment, which brings me on to my second point, which kind of ties into all over the places, which is managing the environment, not the dog. Sorry.
By this I mean, you are going to take them to places where you are setting yourself up for success, right? I almost hate myself for saying that sentence because it's such a dog trainer sentence. Set yourself up for success, right? Like that's the easiest thing in the world to do because it isn't.
um but you can definitely set yourself up to fail by going by sticking a short lead on your dog and going to the local forest that's full of squirrels rabbits deer and all that sort of thing and all you're going to do is have a huge conflict with your dog for two hours as you walk around and they're desperate to chase everything you say no you become the boring micromanager who stops them from everything they're constantly in conflict with you there are arousals through the roof and you've just got nowhere
You are much better managing the environment, so going to places that, I hate to say, might be slightly less interesting, you maybe not want to go to them, you know, like big open fields, local industrial estates, things like that, boring places where you can go, but you can give the dog some freedom on a long line so you're not in conflict with them and they're getting to make their own choices. I want to sniff this thing, great, I want to sniff that thing, I'd like to go over here, and you're not...
constantly in conflict with them and you're not constantly restricting them so that at least they're getting to some some extent the ability to use their own brains to make their own minds up and to be independent because that's really really really important to a terrier
And if you are a human who's even the slightest bit like this, you know what it's like when you're at work and people will say to you, no, you can't do that, you can't do that. And you're going, yes, but I really want to do this and I want to do this and this is the way I want to do it and this will be better. And that frustration builds. And then when you do get a chance to do your own thing, you go slightly mental about it. So manage the environment and not the dog while you're doing training. Now tacking on to this is a kind of next tip, which is don't be the fun police.
Now, this isn't you being more exciting the environment, because I hate to break this to you, the chances are you cannot do that, okay? You can dance around in a hula skirt with a chicken on your head, and you will not be more interesting to your dog than chasing a squirrel. Like, I'm sorry, it's unlikely. And if you are, you're not needing this chat, because you can already recall the dog, okay? Because if you are more interesting, if a piece of chicken or sausage or whatever is more interesting to your dog than those things, you
Well, congratulations on getting that dog because that's, you know, like, feel extremely lucky. And you don't need to know this because you're already recalling your dog. So I suspect you're not here listening to me. Those of you who have tried dancing around in a hula skirt with a chicken on your head and it hasn't worked will know that you cannot be more exciting to your dog. But...
You can also not be the fun police, right? So you can not be the constant micromanager who's constantly saying no, who's constantly putting yourself in situations where you have to say no. Like a nice analogy that I like for this is if you take a kid, like a young kid,
and you walk into a huge toy store and you give them a low budget, so you say, oh, we've got a fiver and we are going into this massive toy store and you know realistically there's about two things in that entire toy shop that they can have with that five pounds and they are not going to want any of them. They're going to want the huge thing and they're going to want the world's biggest Lego set that's costing 200 pounds. Then you are setting yourself up to be mean because you're going in there going,
Like, you can't have any of this stuff, but I'm going to bring it in here and show it to you anyway. And I'm going to walk out being the meanest adult that, you know, there ever was. Or you can take that same kid to the forest for the day, you know, and throw them in a puddle suit and give them a load of mud to play with. And then at the end of the day, pop to the local shop, give them that same fiver and say, pick some sweets. And you'll be the best person in the whole wide world.
on the same day, just based on the situation that you've put them in, okay? And the same is true for your dog. You can put them in situations where you can give them freedom or you can put them in situations where you can come into conflict with them. And when you are trying to do training and you are trying to raise your stakes, right, with your dog, stop putting yourself in situations where you are constantly having to say no to them. Don't be the fun police, okay?
your next thing is that you really need to work out what motivates your dog okay what is it that they actually want now the tricky part with this with a lot of terriers what they actually want is freedom right and this is why it's hard work on this is the bit a lot of people missing and this kind of like don't be the fun police give them a bit more freedom approach which when i first start with a lot of clients and i say to them right the first thing you're going to do is relax chill out stop controlling your dog because they're in a cycle of like massively like being the fun police and controlling their dog all the time um
And I say to them, we're going to stop doing that. And they look at me like a mentor. Because the last five trainers they've worked with have said, right, you've got to keep control of the dog. And they've got to earn their freedom. And you mustn't let them off a short lead until they can listen to you. And then they can have a long line. And then once they can listen on a long line, then they can do this. And they've got dogs that aren't interested in working with them that don't even want to go on a walk. Like I've even...
We had working with a lady at the moment whose dog was like that and now he wants to go on a walk. OK, and their relationship is just a whole lot more positive. And all we've done is relax. OK, so the working out what really, really motivates your dog is important. And for this particular dog, it was freedom and access to the environment. And now that his human is gateway to freedom and access to that environment, her stakes with him are coming way up.
And then beyond that, what do they want? Do they want to play? Are they really tug toy motivated? If they're food motivated, what food do they like? Do they want their food thrown? Do they want to get it from you? Do they want to jump in the air? Do they want to do somersaults? You know, what is it that your dog wants to do? Because really, until you've done that, until you've tapped into it and you've worked out what it is, you're going to struggle. OK, and this is like wider even than teaching recall. This is just about bringing your states up with your dog.
Because all recall is, is a word or a whistle or whatever that says, please come here. And that's dead easy to teach. Okay, that doesn't take long. You've got a terrier, they're smart enough to work that out very, very quickly. You can do that in a day or less. You can do it in half an hour. You teach the dog, I make this noise, you come here, you get a reward. That's what I want you to do when you hear this noise. Easy peasy. It's all the other stuff. Okay, it's the relationship with you and the outweighing of the environment and the situations that you put them in that is the difficult part. Okay.
And the last part with your terrier's recall is knowing your limits, right? Now, it's my firm belief that not every terrier will get 100% reliable recall with the use of positive reinforcement only, okay? That doesn't mean you have to give them a negative consequence if you don't want to. It's an option that's available for you if you want to have 100% recall. You don't have to, but what you do need to understand is that you...
will have a limit right and if you're listening to this podcast your dog has a limit because i say you're not listening to me if you can get if you've already got 100 recall and you've just done it yourself with the use of positive reinforcement which is where everybody starts that's what everyone tries first of all um if you've already done it then fantastic you don't need my help and there are a small percentage of terriers that are like that and that's great if you've got that dog um you know and you can if you're listening to me and you don't have that dog then you can feel very jealous of the people that do have that dog
And understand that it's the dog that did that, not them. You know, like when they say, oh, my Terry's got perfect recall. I understand that was the dog that did that, not them. It's just the personality of the dog that they got. It's not that they're like some sort of genius trainer and you're not. It's a factor, but it's probably not the only thing.
So you now need to understand your limits, right? What are the triggers that my dog cannot deal with? What will my recall not stand up to? And you are then going to work your environment again. So we're managing the environment, it's not the dog, to make sure you're giving your dog plenty of freedom. And then if you do want to go to those environments that you can't handle, like for example, for years with me, it was I could pretty much recall from anything apart from deer, right? That was the one nemesis thing. We couldn't recall from that.
And I could go to environments where there are no deer and have awfully time with the dogs, right? And the dogs don't know I'm doing that, okay? They don't understand that I'm completely avoiding deer. And if we did end up somewhere with deer, they would have to go back on the lead. But it would be of a short period of time, a small percentage of their life. So it's no biggie, okay?
you need to know those limits with your own dog and then decide how you're going to go forward with them and can you provide your dog a good life on the standard of recall that you have in which case fantastic go forward and do that if you don't you maybe need to think you know what's the best thing for my dog here so prevention is always better than cure and everyone will have their own level you know their comfort level with risk to a certain extent you know if i let my dog off here
what happens you know like every time you unclip the lead you have to think to yourself what's the consequences of a failed recall and what is the likelihood of a fade recall if it's high and the consequences are high you should not be unclipping that lead if the consequences of a failed recall is low i'm in a giant open field there's nothing with a fence around it you know like they don't recall here it's not going to be the end of the world the chances are there's not going to be anything for them to chase anyway
you know, and there's nobody else here, then I can let my dog off the lead. If I am stood somewhere, I can say, okay, there's dogs over there, they can't recall off dogs, I can't let them off the lead, okay? So you have to just make that decision in your own head based on, you know, what's the level of risk to other people, to myself, to my own dog, and what's the situation, and how good is my recall? Be honest with yourself, okay? You should not be risking recall, right?
At some point, okay, yes, you have to test it. You know, there's always a first time, but you can be pretty flipping close to it by the use of good management and good training. So, yeah, there's my kind of like top tips on considerations around recall and the things that you maybe haven't thought about so far. Because I say teaching, it's easy. Like, I blow this whistle, you come back to me, you get a treat. Easy, easy talk.
Um, it's all the other factors that actually go into it that people tend to not think about. Cause they're like, I've taught my dog recall and they understand it, but they can't do it, you know? Um, and so they just, and they just think the dog's ignoring them and that's really not what's going on. I mean, sometimes with terriers it is, you know, I definitely see dog trainers who say, oh, your dog will never ignore you. If they understand the cue, they will do it. And I'm like, no, no, you've never really worked with a wily terrier. Cause I've definitely seen mine, um,
you know, be given a cue, look at me, fully acknowledge that cue and then opt not to do it. You know, so they are terriers at the end of the day and you need to understand where you are with them in terms of your relationship. Like I think I've said on a reel before, it's a bit more like a marriage with a terrier and a bit less like a traditional kind of like one man and his dog, you know, you do as you're told type situation. It's much more of a much more of like a marriage situation
with a bit of give and take so uh yeah bless them so there you go that's my little piece on recall um if you are struggling as always pop by the website drop me a message through any of the means book yourself a free call i'm happy to talk to you um if you just want a bit of a taste of terry school jump into the community it's 7.99 a month um you almost cannot lose at that um with the level of access and posting in there every single day and all the stuff that goes on um
And if you want any help, then message me via any of the means available. Social media, emails, website. And I look forward to speaking to you again soon.
