Recall: Everything You Need to Know

Recall is the ability of your dog to return to you when called.

Recall is an important behaviour to teach every dog because there will be circumstances where you need your dog to either come to you or give you attention.

Now, as greyhounds are a sighthound breed, we don't recommend letting them off lead in public areas because they are extremely fast and they have been bred to run and chase, not so much be excellent at recall

As such, their ability to be recalled, especially in a high-distraction environment, is quite low. So off-lead is not something we recommend unless in controlled environments. However, practising recall at home in your backyard and while your dog's on lead is important as well.

There will be many situations where you need to get your dog to come to you, such as

It’s always a good idea to have reliable recall behaviour. In addition, while we don’t recommend letting greyhounds off lead, sometimes accidents happen (i.e. leash breaks or harness slips off) so in these rare situations, good recall can get you out of a sticky situation!

Yes, it can be improved in any dog, even sighthounds.

We would comment that no recall is going to be 100% perfect, especially with greyhounds, for the reasons mentioned above.

The best way to train your dog to optimise its recall is to reward them with a high-value food reward every time you call its name.

You may also use a toy, however, most dogs will prefer food.

Now, that will create a very strong, positive emotional association with returning to the owner.

It will make the dog more likely to engage in that behaviour in future because it makes them feel good.

For the times that you aren’t carrying treats; if that behaviour has been paid for with treats enough times, it won't necessarily matter because the emotional association is strong.

It's a good idea to make sure that you reward the dog in other ways with your attention like nice pats and so forth!

It's always important to for the greyhound to walk nicely with it’s adopter.

Ideally, the greyhound can walk alongside a relatively loose lead, especially when something exciting is happening and you want to go in a different direction.

We recommend learning the u-turn by reading our article here.

You can take a pocket of high-quality treats and utilise food rewards to promote the behaviours.

Part of any dog in our adoption programs is day-to-day interactions with staff, which is being rewarded in response to looking at or approaching the hand. This is done regularly, especially in response to their name.

Most greyhounds that are adopted from Greyhounds As Pets will have a history of responding to their name.

That doesn't mean you need to keep the same name when you adopt them. PS - Check out our adoptions page here.

This is the same principle as the recall.

Provide the dog with a high-value food reward (that smells nice) in response to looking at you when you say their new name.

If you believe the dog's been called its previous name for a while, you might want to say the old name immediately after the new name to help bridge the gap. Usually, all you'll need to do is provide a food reward with the new name.

GAP NSW has multiple regional programs across NSW Australia.

Contact us or even better, put in an application form and our staff will direct you to the appropriate centre and coordinator.

And if you're ready to adopt a greyhound, you'll be able to meet some and maybe take one for a walk!