If your cue isn’t poisoned yet:

Complete 50 recalls without a single failure (reset back to zero every time your dog doesn’t come) :

50 Successful Recalls Over the course of the week, we’d like you to try and achieve 50 recalls without a single failure. That means 50 individual times that you called “Chop Chop” and your dog came and got their reinforcer. Every time that your dog ignores the cue, your total resets back to zero again - even if you’re up to number 49! There is no restriction on where the recalls are, or what distance they’re over. You can do 50 recalls in your kitchen with your dog less than a metre away if you like - so long as there isn’t a missed recall. This exercise is designed to encourage you to only call your dog if you’re absolutely certain that they’ll successfully come to you. If you can, you should spread out the practises over the week, doing 5-10 each day rather than doing all 50 in one session. Keep a tally in a notebook or your phone so you know what number you’re up to, and try to be as honest as you can.

If your cue is poisoned:

Choose A New Recall Cue and charge it:

As a part of your homework this week, we are going to build some solid value for your chosen recall cue. We recommend “Chop Chop”, other good alternatives are “hurry” or “quickly”. Whatever you pick should only be used for recalls, should be a maximum of two syllables, and shouldn’t be your dog’s name.

Choose one you haven’t used before; nice clean slate to build only positive associations. The cue should be easy to remember, hard to say in a cranky tone of voice, and preferably have a sound on the end that can be drawn out: “Chop, Choooop”, “Quicklyyyyyy”, “Hurryyyyy” – carries nicely long distance.

Now, your exercise is to do 40-50 repetitions every day of shouting your recall cue and walking up to your dog to give them a super yummy treat. Make sure to finish saying your word before you move, so your pup makes the association with the word and not your movement.