- Location
- Andorra and Spain
This is a game that's great for getting some zip into your recall. The idea is straightforward. We start off, as ever, in a low distraction environment. You want the ground to be relatively flat, because you'll be bowling treats and you don't want them to get lost in long grass. Count out ten treats, five in each hand; make them large and visible enough that your dog will find them easily when you throw them; you want the game to be snappy, not punctuated by hunting.
Stage 1:
In the early stages, you just toss a treat from one hand a few feet away from you. You wait until the dog looks back at you, mark with a clicker or word, then turn away and throw the next treat in the opposite direction. You want to get a bowling action going on and throw from alternating hands - the motion of turning away will attract the dog to you and the bowl from the hand on the side they're passing you on will help them orient to the treat. Keep going until you have your last treat, and, instead of turning away, feed this one to the dog from your hand. In a short space of time, your dog should start to understand the game, and you'll see him anticipating the turn back to you. You can start throwing the treats farther and farther away to get more distance in the game.
Stage 2:
Once your dog understands the game, you can start introducing your recall cue. At this point, you can drop the clicker, as it can get a bit much to coordinate everything! In any event, if you've done a good job at stage 1, the dog already understands that he needs to look back to you as soon as he's eaten his treat, so the clicker is no longer necessary. Start off by using your recall cue (I'll assume a whistle) once your dog has already started to run back towards you - at this point, you're just pairing the action of running towards you with the cue. You should find the energy continues to build through this stage until you get a real whiplash turn back to you once your dog has eaten the treat.
Stage 3:
When you feel ready, you can start to move the recall cue to the point where he is just about to finish with the treat - a fraction of a second before he lifts his head to start running back towards you. You're now starting to work on the order of the events: the cue is followed by the recall behaviour, which is followed by the reinforcer.
I play this game a lot with my guys to top up their recalls. They absolutely adore playing it and get excited when they see me counting the treats into my hands. I can now use the game as a reinforcer for other behaviours I like!
You may be thinking, "Isn't this just going to encourage my dog to run past me when I recall him?", but the answer is no. It's all about the delivery of your reinforcer. Your body language will make it very clear (even without you thinking about it) whether the treat is going to be delivered by you (at the end of the game), or thrown away from you. By throwing it away, you are setting your dog up for the next repetition. The idea is that you're looking for a dog who will accelerate towards you rather than decelerating as he approaches you. If you're feeling coordinated enough in stage 3, you can even re-introduce the event marker to mark the point where your dog takes it up a gear.
A note on safety: this game is high impact, as there is a lot of stopping from high speed, so it needs limiting with puppies. I wouldn't play it more than two or three times a week with a young dog, with at least a day between each session, and probably with only six or eight treats rather than ten.
Give it a go: it's fun for both of you and great for topping up that recall cue
Stage 1:
In the early stages, you just toss a treat from one hand a few feet away from you. You wait until the dog looks back at you, mark with a clicker or word, then turn away and throw the next treat in the opposite direction. You want to get a bowling action going on and throw from alternating hands - the motion of turning away will attract the dog to you and the bowl from the hand on the side they're passing you on will help them orient to the treat. Keep going until you have your last treat, and, instead of turning away, feed this one to the dog from your hand. In a short space of time, your dog should start to understand the game, and you'll see him anticipating the turn back to you. You can start throwing the treats farther and farther away to get more distance in the game.
Stage 2:
Once your dog understands the game, you can start introducing your recall cue. At this point, you can drop the clicker, as it can get a bit much to coordinate everything! In any event, if you've done a good job at stage 1, the dog already understands that he needs to look back to you as soon as he's eaten his treat, so the clicker is no longer necessary. Start off by using your recall cue (I'll assume a whistle) once your dog has already started to run back towards you - at this point, you're just pairing the action of running towards you with the cue. You should find the energy continues to build through this stage until you get a real whiplash turn back to you once your dog has eaten the treat.
Stage 3:
When you feel ready, you can start to move the recall cue to the point where he is just about to finish with the treat - a fraction of a second before he lifts his head to start running back towards you. You're now starting to work on the order of the events: the cue is followed by the recall behaviour, which is followed by the reinforcer.
I play this game a lot with my guys to top up their recalls. They absolutely adore playing it and get excited when they see me counting the treats into my hands. I can now use the game as a reinforcer for other behaviours I like!
You may be thinking, "Isn't this just going to encourage my dog to run past me when I recall him?", but the answer is no. It's all about the delivery of your reinforcer. Your body language will make it very clear (even without you thinking about it) whether the treat is going to be delivered by you (at the end of the game), or thrown away from you. By throwing it away, you are setting your dog up for the next repetition. The idea is that you're looking for a dog who will accelerate towards you rather than decelerating as he approaches you. If you're feeling coordinated enough in stage 3, you can even re-introduce the event marker to mark the point where your dog takes it up a gear.
A note on safety: this game is high impact, as there is a lot of stopping from high speed, so it needs limiting with puppies. I wouldn't play it more than two or three times a week with a young dog, with at least a day between each session, and probably with only six or eight treats rather than ten.
Give it a go: it's fun for both of you and great for topping up that recall cue
