Let me ask you this… do you have a gundog that’s suddenly stopped paying any attention to you when you’re out in the countryside now that it’s autumn? Well, you’re not alone.
Autumn brings colourful countryside walks, but it also brings unique challenges which might come as a surprise for new gundog owners.
At this time of year, during the British shooting season, there is an abundance of strong game scents like pheasant, deer, and rabbit around.
These scents are irresistibly alluring to our gundogs, but exposure can cause their instincts to kick in, and it becomes almost impossible for them to respond to trained cues, like recall.
You see, whether you got your dog as a family pet or working companion, all of our labradors, spaniels, vizslas and pointers have been bred over generations to hunt, flush, and retrieve game.
Without understanding the natural drives in these dogs, it’s easy to misinterpret their behaviour as stubbornness or disobedience.
While recall might be impeccable in your garden, if you’re finding that you are getting zero response when you’re out surrounded by the intoxicating scents of nature, there’s no need to panic.
Yes, it’s a frustrating, sometimes alarming experience when your dog appears to be deaf to your calls because they’re off hunting - nose on, ears off. And so in this blog, we’re going to explore why your gundog won’t listen to you, what to do if they ignore your recall and how to teach your gundog to come back when called, even in challenging environments.
Why doesn’t my gundog listen to me when we’re on a walk?
Before we dive into looking at how to teach your gundog a reliable recall, we need to understand why your gundog finds it difficult and sometimes impossible to respond to cues during your walks in the countryside.
The countryside is rich with stimuli that can easily overwhelm your dog's senses. Scents, sights, and sounds, such as those from wildlife or other dogs, are highly stimulating. This environment creates a high level of external distractions, which can exceed the level of control you have over your dog.
Initially, the field stimuli in such environments are significantly more potent compared to the control you have through your cues. In these situations, they might revert to what behaviour has been most rewarding to them in the past, or they might rely on their natural abilities and instincts to decide what actions to take at the moment.
As the dog's experiences with you grow and you engage in more structured training exercises, this can gradually shift, with the influence of these stimuli decreasing and your influence and control increasing.
Above all, we must also remember that our gundogs are bred and trained to respond to certain environmental cues instinctively.
For instance, the scent of game triggers a hunting sequence in them. In the countryside, these natural instincts are often more pronounced and can overpower learned behaviours like recall.
How do I get my gundog to come back to me even when we're in a distracting environment?
Transitioning your gundog’s recall from a quiet garden to a distraction-rich countryside involves a combination of patience, technique, and understanding of your dog’s instincts.
Start in a baseline environment. Begin training in a less distracting environment, like your garden or a familiar, quiet place. This helps establish a strong foundation for the recall behaviour without overwhelming distractions.
Use a consistent recall cue (like a whistle) and associate it with positive experiences. For example, we like to use a range of games and rewards to build a positive association with the recall cue.
Gradually expose your gundog to more and more distractions and challenging environments by playing these games in different places.
Repeat recall games frequently and use high-value rewards to reinforce the recall behaviour, such as their favourite treats, toys, or activities like letting them hunt a bit of cover. The key is to make returning to you more rewarding than the distractions they encounter.
When training a recall, particularly in a highly distracting place, try to avoid calling your dog away from something they want or enjoy doing. This is because the recall cue can very quickly become a punisher.
You must avoid doing this in the early stages, so in these instances, if you need to recall your dog away from something good, use a temporary verbal cue.
If you do have to use your whistle recall, you must go straight back into the conditioning process and play hundreds of repetitions of the recall games to balance this out.
Training in distracting environments takes time and persistence, so you will need to be patient and consistent in your approach.
Remember, the key is to make responding to the recall cue more rewarding and exciting than the distraction itself. As your dog's training progresses, they should learn to prioritise your cues over environmental distractions.
What to do when your gundog ignores your recall?
If your gundog ignores your recall in the heat of the chase or exploration, it’s crucial to remain composed and strategic.
Always avoid showing frustration or anger. Dogs can pick up on your emotional state, and negative reactions can make them less likely to respond in the future.
When your dog returns after ignoring the recall, do not scold them, as this can create a negative association with returning to you. Always reward your dog for returning, even if it takes longer than expected. This reinforcement makes them more likely to come back in the future.
If your dog runs away from you, do not chase or run towards them. Chasing can trigger their prey drive or make them think it’s a game, encouraging them to run further away.
If your dog looks at you but doesn’t come, try showing them a high-value treat or their favourite toy to entice them into you. As mentioned before, we need to make coming back to you more appealing than whatever distracts them.
Avoid repeatedly calling, as when they don’t respond, it will weaken the effectiveness of your recall cue and will become white noise. Instead, wait for a moment when your dog is less distracted and try again.
If ignoring recall becomes a habit, it’s a sign that you need to go back to basics and reinforce the training in less distracting environments before gradually reintroducing more distractions as your dog’s recall improves.
Recall is a skill that must be nurtured and reinforced regularly, especially for gundogs often exposed to highly stimulating environments. You might need to take a step back and consider if the training process might be lacking in some aspects – perhaps the rewards are not motivating enough, or the distractions are too challenging at the current level of training.
If you are struggling with your recall, it is advisable to use a long line for safety reasons to ensure you can retain control over your dog.
How to teach your gundog to come back when called
The step-by-step recipe below will help you to condition your recall whistle cue to food but in time the whistle cue can be conditioned to anything your dog regards as valuable.
Step one: Throw several pieces of food to the floor around your feet, and in front of your dog. As your dog is eating blow your whistle cue.
Step two: You can also do this while your dog is eating their dinner or use their dinner scattered on the floor for the exercise.
Step three: Repeat this as many times a day as you can and consistently at least once a day for several weeks.
Step four: Include some social interaction such as physical contact, scratching ears, allowing rubbing against you, stroking and talking to them as you do this. Create the idea that being close to you and having contact with you is a great place to be. Blow your recall whistle during this interaction. The combination of food and interaction with you will increase the value.
You may find that when very focussed on their work, some dogs will not enjoy physical contact. The older they get, the more evident this becomes. It is no longer reinforcing but actually irritating to them. If you see this in your dog, leave it out and just talk to them as you deliver the food.
Step five: Change the sequence around. While your dog is away from you, at some distance or in another room, whistle your recall cue and as your dog arrives, scatter food at your feet. Make sure it is a good scatter - one piece of chicken won’t cut it.
Step six: Gradually increase the criteria, whistling your dog from one place to another. Always reinforcing prompt arrival with a combination of food and interaction with you.
At this point you can add in your click, the click should be for speed and purpose, not for location.
Step seven: Change from scattering the food on the floor to delivering a number of pieces of food (6 minimum) from your hand. Do this slowly increasing the length of time that your dog is with you.
Step eight: Do not focus on a specific behaviour at the end of this recall. You do not need a sit in front at this stage and adding this in too soon will slow down your dog’s response. Imagine it’s like running into a brick wall. Allow them to come into your space at speed, it’s the speed that you want associated with this cue.
Keeping your recall reliable in the long term
The recall will be a lifelong project. The minute you become complacent about the behaviour and its solidity is the time your dog will be three fields over with you running behind like Fenton’s owner in Richmond Park.
The real skill of your recall is not actually establishing the required behaviour but keeping and maintaining its quality and association with the whistle cue.
Your dogs hunt because they love it. It is not instinctive to break off hunting and return to you and so the value of reinforcement must be redressed and the conditioned response to the cue maintained.
The higher the value the greater the strength in the behaviour is the motto that should be adopted with this.
I always carry food with me in my pocket and yes, my dogs are rewarded for prompt response in as many situations as possible, no matter how old they are. The reward used can and will vary depending on the situation, the dog and the environment. This keeps the recall strong.
Sometimes my dogs are rewarded with an environmental reward e.g. immediate return to hunting, or retrieving, other times food reward would be sufficient, although I don’t believe that just one piece of kibble is ever enough for your recall training.
If you’re finding it challenging to work through the recall steps listed in this blog, or need personalised guidance, then now might be the time to join one of our classes.
Whether you have a puppy or are getting started with an older dog, our group gundog classes in Haslemere, on the Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire border, are designed to help with the basics like recall while also teaching your dog to focus on you in every environment and providing safe, structured outlets for their natural hunting instincts.
For more information click here if you have a puppy: https://www.teachyourgundog.co.uk/products/puppy-gundog-classes
And here if you’re getting started with a dog over 8 months old: https://www.teachyourgundog.co.uk/products/foundation-gundog-classes-saturdays
📸 Photographs 1, 2, 3, 4 credit Alice Loder Photography