How NOT to Recall Your Dog

On a recent trip to the dog park, I observed a frequent problem: a human who is ready to leave and a dog who is not ready to give up the fun and freedom of running around off-leash.

At first, the woman tried calling her dog in a cheerful voice, "Fido, come!"

When the dog ignored her and continued to dash around the large enclosure, she tried using a more serious tone, "Fido, come here!"

Once again, the dog ignored her, so she yelled, "FIDO, GET OVER HERE!"

And her dog continued on his merry way, completely disregarding her.

Next, she escalated to screaming, "Fido, you come here RIGHT NOW!" as her dog ran in wide circles around her, tail wagging and tongue lolling.

Finally realizing that yelling at the dog wasn't going to work, she resorted to, "Fido, sweetie, if you come here, I'll give you a cookie."

For this dog, running off-leash trumped the possibility of the treat, so he gave his owner a wide berth.

By this point, she was really frustrated (and probably a little embarrassed), so she changed tactics, stomping after her dog as he ran in the opposite direction, continuing to call him in a loud, angry voice.

I watched for about five minutes while the dog had the time of his life, staying just out of his owner's reach, barking and play-bowing from time to time.

Finally, the dog tired of the game and walked over to her when she called him for the five hundredth time. At this point, the owner snatched him up by the collar, leaned down and screamed directly into his face, "BAD! BAD DOG! BAD!"

Where did she go wrong?

1. Attempting to recall her not-so-well trained dog in a VERY high distraction environment. (Until a dog truly understands the recall and responds correctly 90% of the time when there are NO distractions, the recall will rarely--if ever--work in the presence of even a slight distraction.)
2. Asking for the recall when she had NO way of enforcing the command when the dog ignored it. (What the dog learned was, "When my owner calls me, I don't have to come until I'm good and ready.")
3. Repeating the command over and over again, using different phrasing every time. (With our advanced language skills, people understand that, "Come!"; "Come here!"; and "Get over here!" all mean the same thing. Dogs, however, do not.)
4. Attempting to bribe the dog into doing what she wanted. (All he understood was "FIDO, blah blah blah COOKIE." And the cookie didn't even begin to compare with what he already had: freedom to run and play off-leash.)
5. Chasing after her dog when she became frustrated. (Dogs LOVE to chase and be chased. They view it as a super-fun game.)
6. Punishing her dog when he finally came to her. (The owner believed she was punishing the dog for his 5-minute refusal to come when called. Dogs don't connect the punishment with an action that occurred more than a few seconds earlier; they associate the punishment with the event immediately preceding it.)

What could she have done better?

1. Spending A LOT more time on recalls at home and slowly increasing the level of distraction until the dog's recall is solid, no matter what's going on around him.
2. Calling her dog a single time, using a "standard" command, such as "Fido, come!"
3. Refusing to give her dog any attention whatsoever for ignoring her. I like Patricia McConnell's method: folding my arms over my chest, turning my head with my chin raised, and making a sound to signify that I'm disgusted with the dog's behavior.
4. Turning and walking away from her dog when he refused to come. Most dogs will turn and follow when they think their owner might leave them. With some dogs, it could take walking out the gate and a few steps away from the dog park for the dog to realize he's going to be left behind.
5. Praising her dog when he came to her. It's easy to become frustrated and hold a bit of a grudge when your dog misbehaves... especially when he's done something you find embarrassing. And what's more embarrassing than having to chase your dog around the dog park to get him back on leash when it's time to go home?