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Really Reliable Recall:

Train your dog to come no matter what! DVD and booklet, by Leslie Nelson. Healthy Dog Productions, 2007

Review by Yvonne Morant
{gratefully reprinted here - first published in The Western Yodel, an official publication of the Basenji Club of Western Australia, Inc.}

Leslie Nelson is the owner and director of Tails –U-Win! Canine Center  in Manchester, Connecticut.  According to biographical notes on the DVD and on her website, she has been teaching dog obedience since 1973 and has 30 employees offering 50 canine training classes a month, using positive reinforcement training methods.  Not only a teacher, Leslie has bred and shown numerous breed champions and performance dogs and continues to compete with her Afghan Hounds, Whippets and Standard Poodles.

Leslie Nelson believes that dogs and people learn best when they are set up for success in an environment free of criticism and correction.  This is the key to the success of Really Reliable Recall, by which she means having a dog come to you immediately when you call no matter what it’s doing.  This is the recall you use when there’s an emergency as opposed to your everyday recall.  Because the Really Reliable Recall uses positive reinforcement training, it gives you, as trainer, all the tools you need for training any command.  When you’ve mastered the Really Reliable Recall, there’s nothing you can’t train your dog – (let’s face it; if we can get our Bs to come when called, there’s not a lot else we really need them to do). 

{Leslie’s DVD is available online at dogwise, amazon, clean run}

There are three elements involved in all positive reinforcement training.  These are:

1. Management – planning ahead to set up for success

2. Relationship – built on trust and cooperation

3. Training – modifying behaviour with positive reinforcement.

I am really excited about Really Reliable Recall because Leslie Nelson is  an experienced sighthound handler and therefore well aware that some breeds, including Basenjis, are not as instantly amenable to the recall as some others might be.  She has gone out of her way to test her methods on sighthounds and other “difficult” breeds and they work.

The DVD presents the theory and practical application of the methods, using class demos with dogs as well as additional footage in an easy to follow, step by step format that is enjoyable to watch and makes the goal seem less daunting.  The DVD is 90 minutes in duration and is accompanied by a short booklet which summarises the steps involved for easy reference.  The booklet can stand alone but viewing the DVD is highly recommended.  It’s so good that I have been tempted to put it on for the Basenjis to watch alone in the hope they’ll absorb it in our absence! 

Don’t get me wrong, Really Reliable Recall is not magic; it does require some sustained (but not technically onerous) effort from we humans.  It is our responsibility to keep our Basenjis safe from harm and, our responsibility to learn and implement a training method such as Really Reliable Recall.

On Youtube see Dan Sailor's Buddy watch the DVD

Kim McNeill & the dogs with the tell-tale tails

I decided Zest's recall could/should be better when she gave me the slip and ran around the non-fenced portion of our 5 acre lot and then (for the first time) made it all the way to the road so she can check the pee-mail under the mail box.  So I made it a priority to do recall work and have been working very hard on this over the last 2 weeks or so.  I used Premack principle with the neighbor goats and she was coming back to be before I could even call her.  All was going well. 

So yesterday, I pulled her out of the dog yard (leaving the other 3 dogs there) and head to the agility yard.  We did a little focus work and I release her so I can go inside and grab a toy (I had treats, but we use a toy with agility training too).  She flushes a rabbit and gives chase and the rabbit runs towards the fence (wire field fencing).  Unforunately (or not) the rabbit misjudged the holes in the fence and bounces off of it and lies there stunned about a foot or two from the fence. 

Zest says "SCORE!!!" and runs up to the rabbit; I run along the outside of the fence (to do what I have no idea). 

So I go back towards the gate, Zest grabs the rabbit, the rabbit squeals.  I go into the yard and stand at the gate thinking "crap, now what?"  (I'm not real fond of dead animals unless they are pre-packaged and the last time there was a rabbit kill, it involved lots of fleas). So I call her; I have no idea why I did this.  Zest, being the brilliant enterprising dog she is (recall = really, really good treats afterall), trots over to me carrying this 1/2 dead twitching rabbit.  I grab her by the scruff (not a correction as we've worked on this being play) and get her to drop the rabbit and proceed to stuff her mouth full of chicken praising her the entire time.  If I'd been smart, I'd have premacked the rabbit right then, but I didn't have the fortitude for that (okay, so I'm a weenie).  Anyway, I am pretty pleased with our recall work.  And our retrieval work. 

Susan K-M

Here back east, Kim, Fern, just a bit younger than Zest, had channeled the whole thing.  She had, in her case, a warm, but dead, about 4 week old rabbit in her jaws, and she was being hotly being pursued by the rest of the family, while I stood aghast, and, then, I did the right recall.  I called out to Frey, my lovely friend, who was packing his truck after working on the garden,

"Frey, Fern has a rabbit, help."

Frey came right away, opened the gate, said, "Fern, come." 

She ran right up and let him have the rabbit. Easy as all get out.  She knows a "looker" when she sees one.  Such is east coast recall work.