Bean

Training for Bean the Boston Terrier. Bean was six months old when her owners came to me looking for help with her recall.

Bean was over-excited around other dogs and was unable to disengage when she saw them. If she was off the lead, she would not listen to calls to come back and she would be gone! Whilst her love of other dogs was sweet, her owners recognised that it jeopardised Bean’s safety; a solid recall is absolutely essential. What if Bean ran over to a reactive, on-lead dog? What if she ran across a road?

Recall training looks different for every dog as they each have their own reasons and motivations for not wanting to return to their owner, but for Bean, it was simply that other dogs were far too exciting.

We worked together on a mixture of training and management strategies with the end goal of making Bean’s owners the most exciting thing on her walks so that she would choose them over other dogs. We taught Bean new commands that her owners could throw in on their walks together to keep her focus and engagement on them. We also spoke about how to read the environment and Bean’s body language to prevent her from ‘locking on’ to other dogs and retain her attention.

As Bean is still young, her recall training will be ongoing but her owners now feel equipped to handle whatever their walks may throw Bean’s way.