The Weekly High Five 🐾

Hey Reader,
​
A few months ago I was walking with Maisie, a six-month-old golden retriever, and her owner. Maisie had been with her since she was eight weeks old. They'd done the work. Bowl training. Hand-feeding in the kitchen. Maisie nailed her name a thousand times indoors.

Then they hit the sidewalk and it was like none of it had happened.

We were halfway down the block when Maisie spotted another dog across the street. Lock on. Treats vanished. The owner's voice vanished. She told me later she felt that drop in her stomach she'd been feeling for weeks. "She's perfect at home," she said. "Why does this keep happening?"

Here's what's actually happening.

Recall is not a command your dog has decided to ignore. It's a habit. And habits are built where they're used. A dog who's been trained to come in the kitchen has a kitchen recall. A dog who's been trained to come in the yard has a yard recall. The sidewalk, with every smell and sound and other dog yelling for their attention, is a completely different room.

Your dog isn't broken. The skill just hasn't been built where life actually happens yet.

So the pivot with Maisie wasn't more recall practice. It was earlier recall practice. We started calling Maisie's name every ten to twenty seconds during the walk, while holding treats, before any other dog ever appeared. The goal wasn't to interrupt her at the moment she locked on. The goal was to keep her brain on her owner for the whole walk, so locking on never happened in the first place.

Within a few walks, Maisie started checking in on her own. No call needed. Just looking back, like, where are you. Her owner would mark it and toss a treat. Maisie would pull a little toward the next dog, then come back for the treat, then let that dog pass.

That is what recall actually looks like when it's built. Not your dog stopping mid-bolt because you yelled louder. Your dog never fully bolting in the first place because their brain was already on you.

Most owners try to call their dog back when the dog is already gone. The work happens before that, not during it.

Look at your day. The next time you walk out the front door, ask yourself: was my dog already gone before I said their name? Almost always, the answer is yes. The moment you reset is not the moment you call. It's the moment ten seconds earlier.

If you want the rest of the system, I'm running a free live workshop next Thursday, June 4 at 7 PM ET. We'll cover why recall breaks down outside, the four mistakes most owners are making without realizing it, and the four recall games I run with every family I coach. Forty-five minutes. Live Q&A. The link's below.

https://workshop.down4paws.com/

Bring your specific recall situation. I'll work through as many as I can during the Q&A.

Happy training,

Pam,
CPDT-KA

Find me on IG: @down4paws

P.S. Hit reply with the moment your dog goes deaf on you, whether it's the front door, the park, or the second they spot a squirrel, and I'll add it to the Q&A list for Thursday. Even if you can't make it live, the recording goes out within 48 hours.