By Andre Yeu, KPA CTP, CPDT-KA, Founder of When Hounds Fly
This past weekend I worked with a rescue dog named Bobby. He came from Colombia, he was reactive to other dogs and squirrels, and his owners were unsure of how to help him. They’d tried treats, they said. Didn’t work.
I’ve heard that sentence hundreds of times. And almost every time, the problem isn’t the dog.
Your Dog Isn’t Ignoring You. They Just Never Learned to Pay Attention.
Here’s something most people don’t want to hear: a dog that doesn’t listen has almost always received little to no training. Not because their owners don’t love them. Not because the dog is stubborn or dominant or “a lot.” But because dogs aren’t born knowing that eye contact matters, that responding to a human voice is worth doing, or that checking in with you is even a thing.
Attention is a trained behaviour. So is recall. So is every single thing you wish your dog would do reliably.
When Bobby’s owners said he ignored them, what they really meant was: nobody had ever taught Bobby that tuning into a human being was worth his time. That’s not a character flaw. That’s a training gap.
“I Tried Treats” — The Most Common Mistake in Dog Training
When Bobby’s owners told me they’d tried treats, I didn’t doubt them. I just asked what kind.
Dry biscuits. Freeze dried liver. The kind of thing you buy in a bulk section at Bulk Barn.
Here’s the thing about treats: they are only as useful as they are motivating. Offering a dog a dry, flavourless biscuit (or even rock hard liver treat) and expecting them to choose you over a squirrel is like offering someone a cracker to skip dessert. It’s not about willpower. It’s about the value of what’s on the table.
I went and bought something different for Bobby. Something with real smell, real flavour, real value to him. Within the same session, we had Bobby checking in voluntarily, and staying calm around other dogs and squirrels, the very things that had been setting him off.
The dog hadn’t changed. The currency had.
The single most important step in how to train a dog to come when called is finding out what your dog actually finds motivating — not what you assume they should want.
How I Start Every Single Client: The Reinforcer Audit
Before I teach a single command, before we talk about off-leash recall training or anything else, I do one thing with every new dog I meet: I run a reinforcer audit.
I bring a variety of food options. Different textures, different smells, different levels of intensity. I try toys. I try talking to the dog in an animated voice. I try touch and physical affection. And then I watch.
The dog tells me everything I need to know.
If they eat something and immediately look back at you wanting more — that’s a reinforcer. If they take it politely and wander off — that’s not. If they light up for a tug toy — use it. If they couldn’t care less about the ball — leave it at home.
Here’s the honest truth that most training content won’t tell you: 99% of dogs do not find praise or physical touch motivating enough to work with, especially outside, especially around distractions. That doesn’t mean you stop telling your dog they’re a good dog. It means you don’t build your training plan around something the dog doesn’t actually value.
That said — always test for it. That 1% of dogs who are genuinely motivated by affection and your voice? They exist. And if you have one, you use it alongside food and toys. But you test first. You don’t assume.
What About E-Collars and “Accountability”?
In Toronto, you don’t often see the really old-school stuff anymore. The scruff shakes, the alpha rolls, the angry recall followed by physical correction. That era is mostly behind us, and good riddance to it.
But there’s a newer version of the same idea making its way into mainstream dog training, mostly through American YouTube channels and social media: the e-collar.
The pitch sounds reasonable at first. The dog still gets rewarded when they come back. The stimulation is just a “backup.” It holds the dog “accountable.”
But let’s be honest about what’s actually happening. If a dog recalls because they’re afraid of getting an electrical stimulation, that’s not fundamentally different from recalling because they’re afraid of getting scruffed. The mechanism is different. The underlying dynamic is the same.
And the fact that you hand them a treat afterward doesn’t balance the equation. That’s like a partner with an anger problem giving you flowers on your birthday. The gift doesn’t cancel out what came before it. It just makes it more confusing.
There’s a reason e-collars are banned across much of Europe. Not because European dog trainers are soft, but because the evidence doesn’t support the need for them when behavioural dog training is done properly.
Fear-based recall is fragile recall. It breaks down under stress, it damages trust, and it teaches the dog nothing about genuinely wanting to be near you.
What Reliable Recall Actually Looks Like
Reliable recall — the kind that holds up at the park, around other dogs, when a squirrel bolts across the path — is built slowly, on a foundation of trust and genuine motivation.
It starts indoors, with low distraction, and a treat your dog would commit minor crimes to get. You call, they come, they get something worth coming for. You repeat that hundreds of times before you ever take it outside. You build the habit before you test it.
That’s what dog obedience training Toronto dog owners often don’t get enough of: the slow build. People want to skip to the off-leash park before the foundation is solid. That’s where it falls apart.
Bobby isn’t going to be reliable off-leash next week. But we started something real this weekend. He learned that checking in with his owners produces something worth checking in for. That’s the seed everything else grows from.
The First Thing to Do This Week
If your dog currently has no recall to speak of, don’t start with commands. Start with an audition.
Go to a pet store and buy five or six different types of treats — different brands, different textures, different smells. Go outside to your backyard or somewhere mildly distracting. Offer each one and watch your dog’s reaction. Look for the one that makes them stare at your hand and ask for more. That’s your starting point.
Once you have that, you’re ready to actually train. And training recall the right way — building the mechanics, the timing, the reinforcement history — is exactly what our Foundation Skills program is built around.