The Great Pyrenees is notorious for failing to come when called. Training a reliable recall is a never-ending struggle and most pyrs will never fully master the skill. Since the ability to come when called is an essential skill, I had to find a way to work around the pyr independence.
Enter the emergency recall.
The emergency recall is something that every dog can and should learn. It is especially essential for our free-willed breeds. Unexpected situations can happen and ensuring your dog comes immediately can prevent a horrible and potentially fatal situation.
Has your dog ever broken free from the leash and run after a car, dog, or other enticing object? Did you yell “come!” only for your dog to ignore your call? If so, the emergency recall could be extremely beneficial.
Not only is the emergency recall a great skill to learn, it is incredibly easy to teach. Just follow these simple steps:
- First, you will need to come up with a command for your emergency recall. Make sure it is something you can easily remember, yet isn’t likely to be used in every day conversation. We use the word “pronto”.
- Make sure you have plenty of high value treats in your hand – something your dog doesn’t get in usual training sessions. You want this treat to be extremely special! Perhaps some cooked chicken or lean hamburger meat.
- Start off in an easy location (e.g. your house) and stand just a few feet away from your dog. Say the command, “pronto!”, in a high-pitched voice with happy, excited posture to entice your dog to come to you.
- When you dog makes it to you, reward him/her with treats for 20-30 seconds. You want it to feel like your dog hit the jackpot!
- After you’ve finished with the treats, let your dog go back to whatever he/she was doing. Typically, “come” is associated with fun ending (coming in from outside, leaving the park) so let the fun continue as it was.
- Practice, practice, practice!
Once your dog has mastered the emergency recall in a quiet place, it’s time to start adding distance and distractions. Make sure you don’t push your dog too far as success when learning the emergency recall is very important.
It is important to avoid using the emergency recall in non-emergency situations. Repeat usage in every day situations (other than practice) will reduce the overall strength of the recall. You never know when the emergency recall will save your dog’s life, so be sure to keep it to true emergency situations.
If you have taught your dog the emergency recall, have you ever had to use it? If your dog doesn’t know the skill, do you think it would be beneficial for you?
Great post! Huskies are the same way with recall. they tend to forget to listen sometimes! hahaha!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
I often ask Mauja and Atka, “Do you have your brains today?” 😉
Technically Mr. N does have an emergency recall word but I reinforce “come” heavily and don’t use it for unpleasant things so Mr. N is very good with it.
Great post! This is something I need to work no with Luna, but it’s hard when we don’t have an off leash area (other than a dog park). We can still train a bit with a long training lead, but it’s not as “real” as an off leash situation.
We’re still perfecting it as well. Mauja was great with it, but then I let too long go between practice sessions. I’m working to make it solid for both of them now.
I have the same issue with no place to practice.
All of the dog training studios I have ever been in throughout the country (Canada too!) offer practice space rentals for relatively reasonable prices. If you gather a few friends, you can make a fun training afternoon of it for even less $.
I have a word I use when I mean business which works with other commands, haven’t tried it with come. Same concept, though.
Great post! We are still working on ours!
Very eloquently written post about the emergency recall especially with the super high value treats. We are still practicing but this has given me some new ideas. Thank you so much
I spent forever trying to come up with a good word and never did settle on one! I practice the regular recall a lot in the house (I use “here”) but we don’t have anywhere to practice off leash.
Wonderful tips and thank you for joining the hop, Kelsie!
That would have come in handy a few weeks ago when Mia went after a deer and we lost her in the woods for about an hour! Have you ever tested it against a deer?
I use my formal obedience recall “front” as an “I absolutely mean it” command. It’s funny to look back on training it and how upset I’d get about perfect positioning and nicely tucked sits yet I ended up with an amazingly reliable, formal recall that I will likely never again use in a ring. Thank you for these important tips and for joining the hop!
Great article on my favorite subject! It is SO important to teach! I wrote a two part article on reliable recall just recently: http://dogsdigdirt.com/reliable-recall/
We’re still working on Bain’s recall. Ground beef is key for him, but like Lara mentioned I don’t have many good places to practice with him that are safe.
He’s great in the house, but outside is a different story.
I’ve never heard of this! Thanks for sharing, I will definitely try it! Huskies are another independent breed that won’t always come when called. This would be great if it works for them.
Nice! We are going to give this a try, it will definitely come in handy when we take them to the beach for the first time this summer!
I never really thought about having an emergency recall as a separate thing to just everyday recall, but it sounds like a great idea. We’ll have to give it a try, thanks for the great instructions!
This is SUCH an important topic and really great tips. We have an emergency recall that we’ve instilled in all three boys. Rather than a word, it’s a two-note whistle that John and I both mastered the year we adopted Emmett. We’ve been using the same whistle since 2006 and have never not rewarded it. We periodically/randomly practice it but have never (thankfully) needed it in a real emergency. But I know it’s there in my back pocket, just in case.