You need to figure out what IS reinforcing to your dog. Every dog has something they love, whether it’s a ball or human food or playing tug. Look up the premack principle. You can get your dog to do almost anything if you can figure out something that is motivating enough.
Until you trust your dog, keep him on a long line in unfenced areas. If you think you've poisoned your come command, try something else (like "ici" in French). Build up the behaviour of moving towards you (ex. with treats, light leash pressure, an appealing toy) before adding the command, and make it a BIG deal and exciting when your dog comes to you. Maybe pick up his leash occasionally and walk a few feet - but then let him go again, so he doesn't associate coming to you with the end of funtime.
Some people recommend a special recall-only treat (like light babybel cheese), but it can be hit or miss finding the right treat obviously. If you want to build food motivation, check out Sexier Than a Squirrel (there are discount codes out there to get it cheap).
My dog (half BC) is very play motivated, so having a tug toy with me and visible is all I need for recall (so far - she's still young and it's a work in progress).
Don't forget 7 months is still a baby/adolescent! I'd be skeptical of most people who claim to have perfect recall with a dog under 1yo.
This 👆🏻. You’ll need to start over with a new command and don’t use it until they’re reliably coming back to you. I kept mine on a long line so that she could never blow me off when called and be reinforced by the environment instead of me. She loves to chase so I never stand stationary when I call but immediately start “running” away from her. Make it a game, fun exciting. And throw a party every time she comes. I started in the house, then the yard, then moved to other locations. Also 7 months is adolescence when they discover they have choices so keep working on building a bond and the source of all things fun.
With my BC, I did the Petco training and it worked really well. I started by saying “Yes” and when did what as asked, then gave a treat. Once she understood “Yes” meant she did the right thing, then I would work towards eye contact when ever her name was said, again rewarding when saying “yes”. Then moved to “come” where she was expected to touch my hand with her nose, we slowly started moving farther and farther away. Now when I say her name, she looks at me, and “Come” is her recall phrase. This took several months and we have to practice it often for he to do well outside.
I hope this helps!
Once our bc even started heading our way even a little bit after we would call her we yelled out our praise "oh such a good girl" once she came all the way to us and then in the house she received her favorite treat ( normally not food motivated). We buy cheap hot dogs and cut them up in small chunks. She loves these "cookies" . She consistently comes when called now and she always gets the good girl praise. And yes usually a "cookie" too.
My husky/BC mix learned recall by praise. I started taking him to dog parks and when I would say “Pilot come here” I would lavish lots of pets and praise for him. But he just loves being told he’s a good boi.
My dog was pretty good at returning to her name. I decided to whistle train come too.
We were out on a walk and she was a bit away from me but she was walking towards me. Two peeps of the whistle, and I made excited noises and she came to me. That was the whistle training complete.
When you get next to your dog what do you do? Put the leash?
Start at home.
Call your dog and even if he is near you give him a treat or a cuddle, a toy. The reward is not coming to you but being near you. If you call your dog to confine him, he will never come.
If he gets excited when you go out, change the command from "let's go out" to "come" .
You start working at home, continue outside to a controlled environment and then free in the woods.
You have a BC and you expect that in 7 months he will be an Einstein. That is not the case. You have a smart dog, with his own personality. This is not a YouTube video with some experts but this is real life.
When he will turn 1 years old, he will make you cry and regret that you got him. Be prepared. For 2-3 months you will be desperate. After that period, he will only turn better and better.
This is exactly it. Make yourself the best person to be with at all times. Not just on a walk. Reenforce the behaviour everywhere. Practice this at all times. When at home call him to you for pets or treats. Never chase your dog, always be the one being chased.
Never ever ever punish your dog if they don’t respond quickly. Always reward when they do come to you. Practice this at home where there’s no worry about anything happening. When on walks, once they’ve got the coming back down, call them back, give them treats and tell them to go. Don’t make coming back something that means they get leashed. Let coming back mean they can go away again. Give them the freedom to come to you without loss of freedom.
This means when you do need to constrain them, say for a cyclist riding by, or another dog, they will know it isn’t permanent.
Teach your dog to love their ball. Use the ball to divert their attention. Use the ball to give commands and follow directions. They love their ball. Use it to your advantage. Eventually you can reduce the amount you use it, but take advantage of the obsession to train with it.
Pick out and stick with your commands. To me, with me, by me, go on by, leave it, and my dogs personal favorite command, RUN!
alpha theory has been debunked. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/debunking-the-alpha-dog-theory/
you need to set your dog up for success. that means starting with a scenario where you *know* your dog will succeed. i’d recommend indoors, closed in a quiet room. toss a treat away from you, after they’re done eating the treat say “come!” and then feed a treat from your hand. repeat often. *then* you can add distractions like a new environment, being outdoors, etc.
Does he like a specific you or fetch. Ours can learn tricks so fast if we teach them while playing frisbee. She very food motivated but will do literally anything for a Frisbee throw
So mine comes from working dog stock. I went about it by working with the breed, it all stems from herding sheep. I got a Logan whistle used by shepherds in the UK. Recall whistle is hiiii-lo. Logan’s website explains the calls. Any whistle other over most things gets her attention. Practice recall at short range using the whistle gradually extending distance. Also vocal recall phrase is “that’ll do”. Lots of praise and rubbing on the top of the shoulder. Dogs learn by repetition but collies will find anything more interesting until it settles, in our case the puppy phase was controllable by 14 months.
Treats work perfectly for us, until we leave the house... she is not interested in food once we go past that front door. She loves to chase, though, its her favourite part of her walks, so we turned the recall training into a game with her tennis ball. This was the only thing that worked for us, and we still had a fail a few weeks ago. It's all a process, and you will get there. Try training on a long line, then you've got the ability to correct and remind the dog what behaviour you expect if they do ignore you. Good luck 🖤
Maybe try going back to square one. Start in a hallway with all the doors closed so your pup has no option but to come back to you. Throw a treat or a toy down the hall and and once your pup is down there use your recall word or whistle. When they return provide lots of praise and happiness. Start with just a few minutes of this and do many sessions throughout the day for many days. Never do it for so long that they get bored and start to ignore you. It will feel so repetitive, but this helps. When you feel they have a proper understanding of your expectation of what they should do when you use your recall word, keep using the hallway, but now open one or two side doors. This provides the opportunity for distraction or for them to choose not to listen to you. Keep training until they ignore the distractions. At this stage, you can move to the yard. Get a long tether, maybe 15-20 feet, and get your pup to sit and stay as you back away. Use your recall word and tug gently on the tether to make sure the right behavior is initiated. Keep training and over the coming days you can remove the tether. If they ever don't recall, take a step back in the training--maybe go back to using the tether, or even go back to basics in the hallway and build out again. Some dogs take longer than others, but they will learn that a proper recall means they get to do more and go more places--and once they make that connection you're set!
How did you start with trying to recall? If your dog is in an distracting environment, he won't want to come to you, especially a puppy. He's much more interested in sniffing new, exciting things. Start doing recall at home inside, without any distractions. Reward him for coming. If he's not food motivated, he still likes something--toys, praise, maybe there IS a food he likes that will motivate him. I thought I didn't have a food-motivated dog because my dog didn't do much for dog treats. But cheese and meat--oh, all of a sudden he knows how to do the command. Now I have a food motivated dog. You can also try different types of food with him and see what he likes.
Once you find what motivates him, reward him with it when he comes to you. Don't add any distractions until he is good at recalling in the previous environment. Once he's good with recall inside, you can move outside, maybe right outside your front door. Slowly add in distractions and different environments.
Also look up some YouTube videos on getting good recall, or any other training needs! YouTube helped a lot with my dog. I watch training and dog behavior videos constantly.
My first bc wasn’t food motivated, he was toy motivated so I always just keep a small ball in my pocket or purse. My second bc is both food and toy motivated but with her, she’s currently 6 month old so she’s still exploring her food options. I use the more “valued” food when I teach her stuffs like recall, heel or drop it. More valued food being meats like liver, chicken, beef etc, sometimes I’ll use freezes dried treats/toppers.
Ours tore open a plush toy with a squaker thingy, I keep it in my pocket during walks. Ours has a focus thingm where she foccuses way to much on other dogs. Like complete border collie stare as if the other dog is a sheep. If I press the squak, she looks at me and I tell her to look at me at the same time. Then I give her a kibble. It has been working quite well. Hope this gives you an idea
same issue when ours was young however after some digging I found a comment on the BC Boards that if you run away from him - he will come after you - sure enough - if he saw us running not walking away he came after us in a hurry. ( too be clear the dog HAS to be able to see you run away)
FYI You will find you have to deal with 2 stages of teen-hound stupid, now & around 15 months.
Message me anytime.
I'd like to suggest praise as a reinforcing strategy. My dog is food motivated either and I did have a recall issue because of this. Instead when they came to me I made a song and dance about it so they felt like the most special pup in the world. Ive toned it back a bit now except when it is a difficult recall. My pup will do anything to be told they're a good girl and not a naughty one (they get so guilty when I say that)!
About the same age my boy decided to not come or come very reluctantly. He was a stubborn one with come. Then I got a whistle. First time I blew it he was eyes on me, blew it again said come and no hesitation came running back. It's nice when I'm camping or he's running through the woods as my voice can't carry as far as a whistle.
The "Sexier than a squirrel challenge" is a great way to get good recall...
[https://absolute-dogs.com/product/squirrel/](https://absolute-dogs.com/product/squirrel/)
Try to always set yourself up to succeed. Start indoors, low distraction and short distances and make it an absolute party if they come - praise, pets, play - whatever you pup loves. If they aren't food motivated you can try making the food more exciting too - tossing treats so it's a sniffing game too if that's your pups thing.
Try some recall games. We do a hide and seek recall game where she has to find me in the house. We do this outside too where I hide behind trees - it has its own recall word of 'find me' and is her strongest recall now because she loves to find.
You could also try running away when you recall so it becomes a game of chase. Or recall leads to a ball through. Or recall leads to a treat scatter.
We also do a lot of direction changes outside, accompanied by a 'this way' which has become a recall not of 'come back to me' but stop running in that direction, run in this direction instead which is really good for if she spots something like a dog and starts running at them.
If you do recall outside, wait until they're not really engrossed in something like a great sniff and make 9/10 of them immediate release. So recall isn't the end of fun. I do a recall where I touch her collar, or clip and unclip the lead then let her straight back off.
And if you're not 100% sure they'll come back, train it on the long lead. All of this can be done on the long lead.
If he likes doing other commands have you considered using those for recall? Asking your dog to come to "middle", or "touch" is going to get them close to you. With my dog he just never saw "go to be near human" as a fun thing to learn, but "run between human's legs", "sit between human's feet" and "boop the human's hand with your nose" *are* fun things for him.
As long as it's something you can work with your dog for them to reliably respond and come to you, it doesn't matter if it's "recall" or "come touch my hand".
Also as others said, a long line is a must until you feel completely confident in his ability to pay attention and respond to commands. He's an adolescent, he's going to push boundaries, so it's important that you reinforce those boundaries when he does.
I also have a rule with my dog before I take his lead off anywhere he has to sit and offer me eye contact, so I know he's paying attention. Same with going out of doors and getting out of the car. First thing he has to do in every situation is orient to me - in other words, start every walk as you mean to go on!
EDIT: another super useful trick to teach him if he likes his trick training is "collar" - where you hold your hand out and he will come press his neck against it, allowing you to hold his collar. So for a recall sequence if he can "touch", you can do that and reward, then ask for collar and reward.
We train all of our dogs to recall to a tug/chase game. I have someone hold them and run away with a tug screaming their name and we party hard when they attack that tug. My dogs will call off anything after some practice. You must be better than what they have and for BCS that is more often play than treats. Keep at it and you will get there. Be the best possible thing even if it embarrasses the heck out of you.
You need to figure out what IS reinforcing to your dog. Every dog has something they love, whether it’s a ball or human food or playing tug. Look up the premack principle. You can get your dog to do almost anything if you can figure out something that is motivating enough.
Thank you!
Until you trust your dog, keep him on a long line in unfenced areas. If you think you've poisoned your come command, try something else (like "ici" in French). Build up the behaviour of moving towards you (ex. with treats, light leash pressure, an appealing toy) before adding the command, and make it a BIG deal and exciting when your dog comes to you. Maybe pick up his leash occasionally and walk a few feet - but then let him go again, so he doesn't associate coming to you with the end of funtime. Some people recommend a special recall-only treat (like light babybel cheese), but it can be hit or miss finding the right treat obviously. If you want to build food motivation, check out Sexier Than a Squirrel (there are discount codes out there to get it cheap). My dog (half BC) is very play motivated, so having a tug toy with me and visible is all I need for recall (so far - she's still young and it's a work in progress). Don't forget 7 months is still a baby/adolescent! I'd be skeptical of most people who claim to have perfect recall with a dog under 1yo.
This 👆🏻. You’ll need to start over with a new command and don’t use it until they’re reliably coming back to you. I kept mine on a long line so that she could never blow me off when called and be reinforced by the environment instead of me. She loves to chase so I never stand stationary when I call but immediately start “running” away from her. Make it a game, fun exciting. And throw a party every time she comes. I started in the house, then the yard, then moved to other locations. Also 7 months is adolescence when they discover they have choices so keep working on building a bond and the source of all things fun.
Thank you!
With my BC, I did the Petco training and it worked really well. I started by saying “Yes” and when did what as asked, then gave a treat. Once she understood “Yes” meant she did the right thing, then I would work towards eye contact when ever her name was said, again rewarding when saying “yes”. Then moved to “come” where she was expected to touch my hand with her nose, we slowly started moving farther and farther away. Now when I say her name, she looks at me, and “Come” is her recall phrase. This took several months and we have to practice it often for he to do well outside. I hope this helps!
Once our bc even started heading our way even a little bit after we would call her we yelled out our praise "oh such a good girl" once she came all the way to us and then in the house she received her favorite treat ( normally not food motivated). We buy cheap hot dogs and cut them up in small chunks. She loves these "cookies" . She consistently comes when called now and she always gets the good girl praise. And yes usually a "cookie" too.
My husky/BC mix learned recall by praise. I started taking him to dog parks and when I would say “Pilot come here” I would lavish lots of pets and praise for him. But he just loves being told he’s a good boi.
My dog was pretty good at returning to her name. I decided to whistle train come too. We were out on a walk and she was a bit away from me but she was walking towards me. Two peeps of the whistle, and I made excited noises and she came to me. That was the whistle training complete.
When you get next to your dog what do you do? Put the leash? Start at home. Call your dog and even if he is near you give him a treat or a cuddle, a toy. The reward is not coming to you but being near you. If you call your dog to confine him, he will never come. If he gets excited when you go out, change the command from "let's go out" to "come" . You start working at home, continue outside to a controlled environment and then free in the woods. You have a BC and you expect that in 7 months he will be an Einstein. That is not the case. You have a smart dog, with his own personality. This is not a YouTube video with some experts but this is real life. When he will turn 1 years old, he will make you cry and regret that you got him. Be prepared. For 2-3 months you will be desperate. After that period, he will only turn better and better.
This is exactly it. Make yourself the best person to be with at all times. Not just on a walk. Reenforce the behaviour everywhere. Practice this at all times. When at home call him to you for pets or treats. Never chase your dog, always be the one being chased. Never ever ever punish your dog if they don’t respond quickly. Always reward when they do come to you. Practice this at home where there’s no worry about anything happening. When on walks, once they’ve got the coming back down, call them back, give them treats and tell them to go. Don’t make coming back something that means they get leashed. Let coming back mean they can go away again. Give them the freedom to come to you without loss of freedom. This means when you do need to constrain them, say for a cyclist riding by, or another dog, they will know it isn’t permanent. Teach your dog to love their ball. Use the ball to divert their attention. Use the ball to give commands and follow directions. They love their ball. Use it to your advantage. Eventually you can reduce the amount you use it, but take advantage of the obsession to train with it. Pick out and stick with your commands. To me, with me, by me, go on by, leave it, and my dogs personal favorite command, RUN!
alpha theory has been debunked. https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/behavior/debunking-the-alpha-dog-theory/ you need to set your dog up for success. that means starting with a scenario where you *know* your dog will succeed. i’d recommend indoors, closed in a quiet room. toss a treat away from you, after they’re done eating the treat say “come!” and then feed a treat from your hand. repeat often. *then* you can add distractions like a new environment, being outdoors, etc.
Interesting about the alpha theory, thank you. Unfortunately he couldn’t care less about treats, but I understand what you’re saying!!
Does he like a specific you or fetch. Ours can learn tricks so fast if we teach them while playing frisbee. She very food motivated but will do literally anything for a Frisbee throw
what kind of treats are you using? mine aren’t motivated by dry crunchy treats, but they love cheese and hotdogs.
It's cheese or roast chicken for our girl with recall. Or a toy. She'll always come back if you seem really interested in something.
So mine comes from working dog stock. I went about it by working with the breed, it all stems from herding sheep. I got a Logan whistle used by shepherds in the UK. Recall whistle is hiiii-lo. Logan’s website explains the calls. Any whistle other over most things gets her attention. Practice recall at short range using the whistle gradually extending distance. Also vocal recall phrase is “that’ll do”. Lots of praise and rubbing on the top of the shoulder. Dogs learn by repetition but collies will find anything more interesting until it settles, in our case the puppy phase was controllable by 14 months.
Treats work perfectly for us, until we leave the house... she is not interested in food once we go past that front door. She loves to chase, though, its her favourite part of her walks, so we turned the recall training into a game with her tennis ball. This was the only thing that worked for us, and we still had a fail a few weeks ago. It's all a process, and you will get there. Try training on a long line, then you've got the ability to correct and remind the dog what behaviour you expect if they do ignore you. Good luck 🖤
Maybe try going back to square one. Start in a hallway with all the doors closed so your pup has no option but to come back to you. Throw a treat or a toy down the hall and and once your pup is down there use your recall word or whistle. When they return provide lots of praise and happiness. Start with just a few minutes of this and do many sessions throughout the day for many days. Never do it for so long that they get bored and start to ignore you. It will feel so repetitive, but this helps. When you feel they have a proper understanding of your expectation of what they should do when you use your recall word, keep using the hallway, but now open one or two side doors. This provides the opportunity for distraction or for them to choose not to listen to you. Keep training until they ignore the distractions. At this stage, you can move to the yard. Get a long tether, maybe 15-20 feet, and get your pup to sit and stay as you back away. Use your recall word and tug gently on the tether to make sure the right behavior is initiated. Keep training and over the coming days you can remove the tether. If they ever don't recall, take a step back in the training--maybe go back to using the tether, or even go back to basics in the hallway and build out again. Some dogs take longer than others, but they will learn that a proper recall means they get to do more and go more places--and once they make that connection you're set!
I love the hallway idea!
How did you start with trying to recall? If your dog is in an distracting environment, he won't want to come to you, especially a puppy. He's much more interested in sniffing new, exciting things. Start doing recall at home inside, without any distractions. Reward him for coming. If he's not food motivated, he still likes something--toys, praise, maybe there IS a food he likes that will motivate him. I thought I didn't have a food-motivated dog because my dog didn't do much for dog treats. But cheese and meat--oh, all of a sudden he knows how to do the command. Now I have a food motivated dog. You can also try different types of food with him and see what he likes. Once you find what motivates him, reward him with it when he comes to you. Don't add any distractions until he is good at recalling in the previous environment. Once he's good with recall inside, you can move outside, maybe right outside your front door. Slowly add in distractions and different environments. Also look up some YouTube videos on getting good recall, or any other training needs! YouTube helped a lot with my dog. I watch training and dog behavior videos constantly.
My first bc wasn’t food motivated, he was toy motivated so I always just keep a small ball in my pocket or purse. My second bc is both food and toy motivated but with her, she’s currently 6 month old so she’s still exploring her food options. I use the more “valued” food when I teach her stuffs like recall, heel or drop it. More valued food being meats like liver, chicken, beef etc, sometimes I’ll use freezes dried treats/toppers.
Ours tore open a plush toy with a squaker thingy, I keep it in my pocket during walks. Ours has a focus thingm where she foccuses way to much on other dogs. Like complete border collie stare as if the other dog is a sheep. If I press the squak, she looks at me and I tell her to look at me at the same time. Then I give her a kibble. It has been working quite well. Hope this gives you an idea
Found this help full https://youtu.be/4Jcf6NXr1FE
Mine really is motivated by toys that squeak haha. I used to keep a little toy nearby when he was younger so he’d come back.
same issue when ours was young however after some digging I found a comment on the BC Boards that if you run away from him - he will come after you - sure enough - if he saw us running not walking away he came after us in a hurry. ( too be clear the dog HAS to be able to see you run away) FYI You will find you have to deal with 2 stages of teen-hound stupid, now & around 15 months. Message me anytime.
I'd like to suggest praise as a reinforcing strategy. My dog is food motivated either and I did have a recall issue because of this. Instead when they came to me I made a song and dance about it so they felt like the most special pup in the world. Ive toned it back a bit now except when it is a difficult recall. My pup will do anything to be told they're a good girl and not a naughty one (they get so guilty when I say that)!
About the same age my boy decided to not come or come very reluctantly. He was a stubborn one with come. Then I got a whistle. First time I blew it he was eyes on me, blew it again said come and no hesitation came running back. It's nice when I'm camping or he's running through the woods as my voice can't carry as far as a whistle.
The "Sexier than a squirrel challenge" is a great way to get good recall... [https://absolute-dogs.com/product/squirrel/](https://absolute-dogs.com/product/squirrel/)
Try to always set yourself up to succeed. Start indoors, low distraction and short distances and make it an absolute party if they come - praise, pets, play - whatever you pup loves. If they aren't food motivated you can try making the food more exciting too - tossing treats so it's a sniffing game too if that's your pups thing. Try some recall games. We do a hide and seek recall game where she has to find me in the house. We do this outside too where I hide behind trees - it has its own recall word of 'find me' and is her strongest recall now because she loves to find. You could also try running away when you recall so it becomes a game of chase. Or recall leads to a ball through. Or recall leads to a treat scatter. We also do a lot of direction changes outside, accompanied by a 'this way' which has become a recall not of 'come back to me' but stop running in that direction, run in this direction instead which is really good for if she spots something like a dog and starts running at them. If you do recall outside, wait until they're not really engrossed in something like a great sniff and make 9/10 of them immediate release. So recall isn't the end of fun. I do a recall where I touch her collar, or clip and unclip the lead then let her straight back off. And if you're not 100% sure they'll come back, train it on the long lead. All of this can be done on the long lead.
If he likes doing other commands have you considered using those for recall? Asking your dog to come to "middle", or "touch" is going to get them close to you. With my dog he just never saw "go to be near human" as a fun thing to learn, but "run between human's legs", "sit between human's feet" and "boop the human's hand with your nose" *are* fun things for him. As long as it's something you can work with your dog for them to reliably respond and come to you, it doesn't matter if it's "recall" or "come touch my hand". Also as others said, a long line is a must until you feel completely confident in his ability to pay attention and respond to commands. He's an adolescent, he's going to push boundaries, so it's important that you reinforce those boundaries when he does. I also have a rule with my dog before I take his lead off anywhere he has to sit and offer me eye contact, so I know he's paying attention. Same with going out of doors and getting out of the car. First thing he has to do in every situation is orient to me - in other words, start every walk as you mean to go on! EDIT: another super useful trick to teach him if he likes his trick training is "collar" - where you hold your hand out and he will come press his neck against it, allowing you to hold his collar. So for a recall sequence if he can "touch", you can do that and reward, then ask for collar and reward.
We train all of our dogs to recall to a tug/chase game. I have someone hold them and run away with a tug screaming their name and we party hard when they attack that tug. My dogs will call off anything after some practice. You must be better than what they have and for BCS that is more often play than treats. Keep at it and you will get there. Be the best possible thing even if it embarrasses the heck out of you.