Recall Training for Great Pyrenees and Other LGDs: How to Walk Off Leash

March 8, 2020 Bri Wyzard

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Recall, or your dog’s ability to come when called, can be one of the most frustrating commands to train your Great Pyrenees or other livestock guardian dog (LGD) breed. However, it may be the most important command to teach your dogs for their safety and the safety of other animals and people.

I recently received an email from a woman who owns a Maremma named Luna (love the name!). She wrote that her dog is almost 2 years old now and serves as a companion dog, rather than a livestock guardian. She wrote that Luna “has no pack instinct to stay with me and my other dog… when we go off for a trail walk.”

She says that:

“Luna will just take off down the trail and run off to wherever she pleases. She becomes deaf to any recall—be it a whistle or my voice.”

Luna does always eventually come back, but her owner feels frustrated and scared in the meantime.

This is the worst, and we’ve all been there with our dogs, at least I have. And this is a problem both for people who are keeping LGDs as pets or as livestock guardians. Regardless of the role your LGD breed dog is playing in your life, she needs to have perfect recall.

In this article, I’m going to teach you the 4-step process for teaching your Great Pyrenees or other livestock guardian dog breed that elusive perfect recall. The perfect recall won’t happen quickly and it won’t happen without some good ol’ hard work, but if you stick with it, you will get there.

Why Your LGD Has Bad Recall

There are a couple of reasons your LGD has bad recall, and, no, it’s not because she’s inherently stubborn and not trainable. That’s a myth.

First of all, your LGD has a strong instinct to protect her charges. If your dog is a companion animal, her charges are you and the rest of your family, including other pets. If your dog is a livestock guardian, you can add your livestock to that mix.

One of the main ways livestock guardian dog breeds protect their charges is by patrolling the area. They want to understand the landscape, see if there are any threats around, and they want to start marking the territory.

Some LGDs breeds have very strong instincts for this kind of patrolling—the roaming breeds, including Great Pyrenees, Akbash, and Anatolian Shepherds. Other breeds have weaker instincts for patrolling, such as the Italian Maremma (like Luna), Spanish Mastiffs, and Polish Tatra Sheepdogs. But all LGDs will typically want to check out the area when they are in a new environment, even those with weaker roaming instincts.

The other reason your LGD may want to run off when off leash is just because she is curious and excited. Many of you may have or have had other breeds of dogs with terrible recall. New environments are just so exciting, and many dogs can’t control their instincts to explore.

LGD breeds aren’t immune to that type of excitement. In fact, I think that poor recall in any dog, regardless of breed, is more the rule than the exception. Most dogs will need training, and if you have dogs that don’t, count yourself lucky.

You may also be interested in:

Livestock Guardian Dogs and Roaming: Which Breeds Roam, Why, and How to Fix Roaming Problems

The Great “Escape Artist” Pyrenees: How to Keep Your Pyr in the Yard or Pasture

The 4 Steps to Perfect Recall for Great Pyrenees and Other LGD Breeds

Step 1: Teach Your LGD Basic Obedience Commands

Unfortunately, you’re going to have a really hard time teaching your dog to walk off leash if that’s the first command you’re teaching her. Walking off leash is an advanced command. You’ll need to start off with the basics.

The basic commands are:

Look at me
Sit/stay
Down
Shake
Leave it
Come
Off

The reason you need to start with these commands is twofold. First, your dog needs to understand what a training session is. You don’t want to start training your dog in an environment where she’s excited and distracted (like an off-leash walk).

Second, you will use these basic commands to help you train your dog to walk off leash. As you’ll learn below, doing short training sessions is one of the best ways to keep your dog focused on you and near you rather than running off.

I have several articles you can read if you need help training your dog the basics.

I also highly recommend the online training program, Brain Training for Dogs. This is a program that includes written instructions and some video (although not enough video for my taste), but the best part of the program is that you have access to world-renowned dog trainer, Adrienne Faricelli. She is very active in the forum and amazing at answering any questions you have.

I have written two review articles on the program, if you’re interested—one for those of you who are keeping LGDs as livestock guardians, and one for those of you who are keeping LGDs as pets.

Brain Training for Dogs: The Best Online Obedience Training Program for Livestock Guardian Dogs

The Ultimate Obedience Training Program for Pet Great Pyrenees and Other LGD Breeds: Brain Training for Dogs

Step 2: Teach Your LGD to Walk on Leash without Pulling (Optional)

If you are planning on having your dog on leash from time to time anyway, you may want to train your dog to stop pulling on the leash before you train her to walk off the leash. This intermediate step will make your off-leash training go more smoothly.

Below is a video by my favorite dog trainer, Zak George. The video shows how to train your dog to stop pulling on the leash.

As always, start your training session with no distractions. You may even want to start in your backyard.

Remember that you always want to prevent unwanted behavior rather than correct unwanted behavior. So, in this case, you want to prevent your dog from pulling on the leash in the first place.

When it looks like your dog might start pulling on the leash, you need to immediately get her attention, either by saying her name or using the “look at me” command. Sometimes just speaking in a very excited voice is enough to get your dog’s attention. Give her a treat as soon as you get her attention.

Do this over and over and over again. It’s tedious, but if you put the hard work in at the beginning, it truly does pay off.

When your dog is no longer pulling on the leash in a calm and controlled setting, start adding in more distractions. Have another person come by, or you can walk by another dog. You’ll need to retrain with every added distraction until your dog gets it.

Eventually, you’ll come by a distraction that’s very exciting for your dog, such as another dog, and she’ll have a hard time paying attention to you. Do a short obedience training session to get her attention on you. Tell her to go into a “sit” and a “down,” etc. This helps to keep her attention on you, rather than the distraction. Reward her liberally when she obeys.

Whenever your dog is unable to keep her attention on you and pulls on the leash instead, take a step back in your training. Train her in a less distracting setting or further away from the distractions.

For some dogs, this training may go very quickly. For others, it may take many, many months. I know that may seem daunting, but it will get easier and easier over time.

Step 3: Teach Your LGD to Walk Off Leash without Distractions

When training your LGD to walk off leash, you want to start in a controlled environment without distractions. This could be your backyard or it could be an empty park or field.

You’ll want to work with a long lead (rather than a regular leash) and a harness when starting out.

Your dog should very effortlessly listen to your “come” command in this setting.

First, do a short obedience training session with your dog to get her in the training frame of mind. Then add some space between you and your dog and do another training session.

Now you need to add in a tiny distraction. This can be a favorite toy, a bone, or a piece of food. Tell your dog to sit and stay. Then, drop the object onto the ground next to her while telling her to “stay.”

She likely will go after the object right away for the first time. That’s okay. Just try to get her attention as quickly as possible and try again. Do it over and over again until she stays and reward liberally.

When you first add in the distraction object, drop the toy next to your dog very lightly and with very little energy. Then, when she’s good at leaving that object alone, drop it further away, more heavily, and with more energy.

As she gets good at staying, roll the object, throw the object, make it especially enticing. You basically want to gradually up the level of the distraction, making it more and more challenging as she gets better and better at obeying.

You then want to start backing further away from your dog, and then when you toss or throw the toy, say “Come.” Your dog needs to come to you instead of going after the toy. Keep adding more space between you and your dog as she gets better. If she ends up going after the toy instead of coming to you, you’ve pushed her too far. Reduce the space between you.

I’ve included two videos below that show different dogs learning these skills.

Step 4: Teach Your LGD to Walk Off Leash with Distractions

When your dog gets good at Step 3 in one environment, change the environment and try again.

Once she’s doing well in different environments, start adding in more and more distractions. Have a friend come with you to try to distract the dog. Bring another animal in.

You need to train your dog to come to you around all different types of distractions in order for her to learn a perfect recall.

How Long Does It Take for an LGD to Learn a Good Recall?

It can take many, many months of training. Although a recall may seem simple to you, it’s an advanced training procedure for your dog. You’re training her to go against her very strong instincts.

Dog trainer, Zak George, says that he doesn’t even attempt to teach his dogs to walk off leash until they are at least 1 year old. That doesn’t mean that you have to wait that long, but it does hint at just how advanced this procedure is for your dog.

Every dog needs to have a good recall if she’s going to be off leash. Teaching this skill is the long game, but short and consistent training sessions coupled with lots of patience are the key to success.

For Love of Livestock