You can’t teach lead walking and recall entirely in isolation.

Or, more accurately, you can teach the mechanics. But if the engagement isn’t there, those mechanics can disappear very quickly when you take the dog out into the real world.

A dog might recall beautifully across the garden. It might walk nicely beside you in the house. But outside, the smells are better, there are dogs in the distance, people are moving around and suddenly you barely exist.

At that point, repeatedly practising recalls or trying to stop the dog pulling isn’t necessarily addressing the real problem.

Before I worry too much about either, I increasingly look at something more basic:

Does this dog keep its handler in the picture?

What does engagement actually look like?

If I put a dog on a long line and let them explore, do they ever look back? Do they choose to come closer? If we change direction, do they notice? Can they sniff and explore without completely disappearing into the environment?

That doesn’t mean I want a dog staring at its owner for an entire walk. Far from it.

Sniffing, exploring and taking in the world are important parts of being a dog. I don’t want to remove those things in the pursuit of a perfectly obedient walk.

What I want is a dog that can do them while maintaining a background connection with the person at the other end of the lead.

Think of it less as demanding constant attention and more as keeping a line of communication open.

Building connection before asking for more

This is why apparently simple exercises such as rewarding voluntary check-ins, changing direction, hand touches, following games and moving together can be so valuable.

Sometimes I’ll put a dog on a long line and initially ask for very little. They can sniff and explore, while I watch what happens.

When they voluntarily look back at their handler, we can mark and reward it. If they choose to come closer, that’s worth reinforcing too. We can move away and see whether the dog notices and follows.

Gradually, the dog starts learning that keeping track of their person is worthwhile.

These exercises can look deceptively simple. They’re not just warm-ups before we get onto the “proper” training.

They’re helping to create the engagement that makes the proper training possible.

Why it matters for lead walking

Loose-lead walking becomes much harder if the dog is completely disconnected from the person holding the lead.

If their entire focus is ahead of them, we can spend the whole walk reacting to pulling after it has already happened.

I’d rather build a dog that starts to notice where we’re going.

That doesn’t mean marching at heel for an entire walk. We can have periods of connected walking and periods when the dog is free to sniff and explore. But when we do ask them to move with us, there’s already a relationship to work with.

Put simply, loose-lead walking is much easier when a dog cares where you’re going.

And why it matters for recall

The same principle applies to recall.

We absolutely need to teach a dog what a recall cue means and make coming back to us rewarding. But recall shouldn’t be the only time on a walk that the dog remembers we exist.

A dog that regularly checks in, chooses to come back towards us and pays attention to our movement is already rehearsing many of the ingredients of a good recall without hearing the recall cue at all.

Then, when we really do need to call them, we’re not suddenly trying to become relevant from 50 metres away.

So if recall is struggling, or every walk feels like a battle with the lead, sometimes it’s worth looking beyond the obvious problem.

Before asking, “How do I stop my dog pulling?” or “How do I make my dog come back?”, I might ask a simpler question:

Does my dog notice what I’m doing in the first place?

Because loose-lead walking is much easier when a dog cares where you’re going.

And recall is much easier when the dog remembers you’re there.