How to Train Your Dog to Come Back to You Using a Whistle

Why You Need to Be Able to Recall Your Gundog

Knowing how to train your dog to come back to you is vital. One day, it may save your dog’s life.

If your dog responds to your recall it will also make your walks together a lot more enjoyable. Wouldn’t it be great if you had enough confidence to allow him off the lead?

My Dog Is Really Naughty, He Never Comes Back

First, let’s be clear that if your dog ignores your call to come back, he isn’t being naughty.

Dogs are like humans, they do what works for them. Their choice of behaviour is influenced by prior experience.

If your dog has learned that ignoring you is more rewarding, your recall simply won’t work. This often results from dogs being allowed too much freedom.

To train a recall you just need to re-programme his response by the process we will show you below.

The key to success is not skipping through the simple steps below too quickly, nor being unrealistic about your dog’s abilities when you haven’t put in the groundwork first. It isn’t because your dog has a bad attitude.

Most owners, however, will blow their whistle repeatedly and then feel annoyed with their dog for not coming back. Being allowed to repeatedly ignore the whistle simply conditions the dog that he can ignore it. Therefore, he will quickly learn that coming back is optional.

Two Worlds Collide

Deeply ingrained in the back of your dog’s mind from thousands of years of evolution is the natural instinct. This makes him see his daily walks as an opportunity to go out and hunt for dinner. Gundog breeds, in particular, have a strong desire to go off in search of prey. After all, that’s what they’re bred for.

And so, here’s the conflict. You want a pleasant stroll in the countryside, chatting to a friend and admiring the views. Your dog, on the other hand, wants to charge around all over the place. He loves nothing more than rooting through the undergrowth, exploring lots of exciting smells and hunting for fur and feather.

Just like a tap on your shoulder

We should remember that, just like humans, dogs work on the basis of seeking out what they find rewarding.

Given the choice between chasing something and coming back to their owner, most dogs would choose the chase. This is the problem. Most dogs are trained to come back in a way that they weigh up the two options. For a recall to be completely effective it has to be conditioned in a way that it’s instinctive.

Imagine you’re in the supermarket and someone taps you on the shoulder. You wouldn’t weigh up whether to keep looking at the sausages on special offer or turn round? Your reflex would be to turn round and see who was stood behind you. In how you train your dog to come back to you when he hears the whistle, that should be how he reacts.

The process you will follow in our tutorial will result in taking tiny steps to increase the difficulty. Importantly, the steps are so small that you minimise failures and achieve success every step of the way. Success breeds confidence. The learning that develops, as a result, will give your dog a reflex response to your whistle.

What Is a Recall?

The recall process starts with a string of 3 to 5 short pips on the whistle. Your dog should look up from whatever he was doing and run back to you as fast as he can. Once he arrives he should sit calmly in front of you. This is important so that you can reattach the lead or take delivery of the item he has just retrieved.

Our tutorial focuses on the steps get an immediate reaction to your whistle. Getting your dog to sit in front of you at the end is more about refining your training. First, you have to condition the response to your whistle. The key part is knowing how to train your dog to come back to you. This is what we cover here.

How to Train a  Puppy to Recall

Puppy owners are lulled into a false sense of security by thinking that their dog is different to all the others they meet when they’re out. They think their dog has a great recall, unaware that this will change.

Puppies who see their owners turn and run away are highly likely to run after them. They are scared of getting left behind. This is because a young dog will always stick with their owner as a source of safety.

However, what these owners don’t realise is that this is only temporary. As confidence grows, and the desire to explore the world increases, the reliability of them following you will diminish rapidly.

Whilst you do have this temporary advantage, you should use this behaviour to train an instinctive reaction to a whistle.

Avoid being predictable when out walking your puppy. Don’t walk in straight lines along paths when he’s off the lead and away from you exploring. Keep changing direction and even turn round and go back on yourself occasionally.

Keep your dog guessing. Wait till he sticks his head in a bush. When he then looks up 30 seconds later, he should find you’re not where he predicted you’d be. Hide close-by, behind a tree, or just around a bend in the path.

You want just a moment of unease where he’s unable to see you. This will produce a dog that, for the rest of his life, is always looking for you whenever you’re out.

Once you have this regularly, you can move onto the steps below to train a response to your recall whistle.

How to Train an Adult Dog to Recall

A lot of owners give their dogs too much freedom while they are young. They then find themselves with recall problems later on. If this is you, don’t despair.

A dog that has learned that recall is optional can be re-educated. It’s just that the process is more time-consuming and involves going back to basics.

This becomes significantly more difficult where a dog has enjoyed the freedom to chase and catch game.

The more conditioned their undesirable behaviour, the longer it will take to re-train.

Conditioned Emotional Responses

You are going to create what is known as a ‘Conditioned Emotional Response’ with your recall signal. This is where he doesn’t have to think about his response, it is automatic when he hears the whistle.

No matter how well trained, your dog should never really be out of your sight. Whilst you can’t see what he’s up to, he will quickly learn that it is more fun to hunt away from you than by your side. There is also a safety issue that a dog out of sight may come to harm.

Very early on, you should establish an invisible circle around you that denotes the zone of control. He is never allowed to stray outside of this zone. As he reaches the edge, he should be recalled and rewarded. The zone should initially be no further than the length of your long-line. This can increase as his recall becomes more reliable, but never to the point where he is out of sight.

For even the best-trained dogs, the zone of control shouldn’t be more than 50 metres. The distance should be reduced if you are unable to see them.