John and Wendy Holtzman are frustrated. When they go off-leash hiking with their Beagle, Bonnie, rather than come to them when they tell her to do so, Bonnie keeps sniffing the grass or rolling in something stinky.
“She’s so stubborn! We call her and call her and call her, and she won’t come,” says Wendy. “And it’s not like she doesn’t know what to do. She graduated from her puppy class, which included recall training. She did it there, but she simply refuses to come to us now.”
John and Wendy want to know why Bonnie the Beagle rebuffs their bidding and doesn’t come when called.
Let’s see if we can figure it out:
“She’s so stubborn! We call her and call her and call her, and she won’t come,” says Wendy. “And it’s not like she doesn’t know what to do. She graduated from her puppy class, which included recall training. She did it there, but she simply refuses to come to us now.”
John and Wendy want to know why Bonnie the Beagle rebuffs their bidding and doesn’t come when called.
Let’s see if we can figure it out:
- What is the dog doing? (Name the exact behavior the dog is doing.) Continuing to do what she was doing rather than coming when called.
- What is the dog's body language? (List what the dog looks and sounds like.) Nose down the ground, tail pointed up. Her ears are flopping down to the sides of her face, and rather than walk in a straight line, Bonnie is all over the place — zigzagging, retracing her steps, making figure eights, moving in circles. She alternates between keeping her nose tight to the ground to sniff and then trotting in a bouncy kinda way to a new area to sniff. And then sometimes, Bonnie drops to the ground on her back and rolls around in the grass (or in goose poop, or on a dead mouse...).
- What is going on? (Describe the context.) Bonnie the Beagle is hiking off-leash.
Now we put the information together:
When a dog doesn’t do what is asked, it usually means that she simply hasn’t learned what to do well enough, so a good place to find answers is the How Dogs Learn page in All About Dogs.
Dogs learn by the immediate consequences of their actions. Bonnie did learn to do a recall (A.K.A. “coming when called”) in puppy class, where she was given pieces of hot dog for running back to John and Wendy. In this case the consequence of coming when called was Yummy Hot Dog.
Perhaps Bonnie is failing to come when called because she hasn’t yet learned it as well as John and Wendy think. If so, then the reasons are likely:
To be certain this is a learning issue and not something else, we need to look at Bonnie's body language to make sure she's not distressed.
Dogs learn by the immediate consequences of their actions. Bonnie did learn to do a recall (A.K.A. “coming when called”) in puppy class, where she was given pieces of hot dog for running back to John and Wendy. In this case the consequence of coming when called was Yummy Hot Dog.
Perhaps Bonnie is failing to come when called because she hasn’t yet learned it as well as John and Wendy think. If so, then the reasons are likely:
- The reward for coming when called is not a high enough value to her compared to sniffing and rolling. (Maybe she’s bored of hot dog and needs something new and exciting to taste; maybe John and Wendy stopped giving her food altogether and just say “good girl,” if she comes to them.)
- Bonnie knows how to do a recall in the classroom, but going from that to doing it in the woods — where she can sniff all sorts of flora and fauna — is too big a leap. She needs to be trained in incrementally more challenging situations. Otherwise, it’s like jumping from kindergarten straight into college.
To be certain this is a learning issue and not something else, we need to look at Bonnie's body language to make sure she's not distressed.
|
Bonnie has her nose to the ground and her tail up. Her ears are flopping down next to her face, she’s moving around in all kinds of directions and sometimes when she trots around, it’s kind of bouncy. If you compare this to the images in the Body Language Gallery, Bonnie clearly falls into the “not-distressed” category.
|
|
Bonnie is a Beagle who is hiking off-leash. We know from Predatory Behavior in All About Dogs, that Beagles are scenthounds who have been bred to have SuperDoggie-caliber noses. (They can detect a teaspoon of sugar in a body of water as big as two olympic-sized pools!)
|
What's the answer?
Putting our three questions together we can see that two main themes are in play:
First, Bonnie is a Beagle, and Beagles are bred to breathe in, er... strike that... Beagles are bred to track smells. Few things are as rewarding to a Beagle as the opportunity to sniff in Nature and roll around in something stinky.
Second, Bonnie hasn't learned to do the recall well enough to do it out in Nature yet. As we know, dogs do what works for them and stop doing what doesn't. If John and Wendy don't reward Bonnie for running back to them every time, with some incredibly tasty noms, Bonnie will eventually stop doing the recall (which we see happening here).
If you want to teach your dog to always come when called, grab some incredibly tasty treats and follow this plan, courtesy of The Academy for Dog Trainers:
First, Bonnie is a Beagle, and Beagles are bred to breathe in, er... strike that... Beagles are bred to track smells. Few things are as rewarding to a Beagle as the opportunity to sniff in Nature and roll around in something stinky.
Second, Bonnie hasn't learned to do the recall well enough to do it out in Nature yet. As we know, dogs do what works for them and stop doing what doesn't. If John and Wendy don't reward Bonnie for running back to them every time, with some incredibly tasty noms, Bonnie will eventually stop doing the recall (which we see happening here).
If you want to teach your dog to always come when called, grab some incredibly tasty treats and follow this plan, courtesy of The Academy for Dog Trainers:
