Movement is key when recalling your dog, it encourages and promotes success. You may have worked hard on your dog recall and established a really lovely chase recall by moving backwards and teaching your dog to come and "catch" you for a reward.
But let's not stop there!
It's a great start, but think back to that time when recall really mattered and you needed to get your dog back to you and pretty sharpish - the last thing you want is to increase the distance and run off like a clown on his 5th espresso. Naturally you would have closed up the gap and chased them down. Now, all of a sudden the roles have reversed and the game changes tone for the dog. You may get avoidance because the dog thinks it's a game of chase or worse, because of fear.
To really support a much more rounded recall, let's start incorporating all types of movement and pairing it with your dog coming to you. Begin by recalling your dog and doing a simple line dance;
One step forward, 3 back.
Two steps forward, one back.
One small step forward sideways on. etc.
At first this may simply be a small single step forward, but over time you're going to build it up to a few steps forward and no steps back, then a slow walk to meet in the middle, a gentle jog and up to a run.
Build it up!
This is real life! If you can gradually incorporate positive associations towards forward movements on your recall and in training, it shouldn't all of a sudden become frightening, challenging or quite so different when you do it for real.
Happy training everyone :)
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