In this video I walk you through 5 fun recall games you can play with any dog—puppies through seniors—to build a recall that’s fast, reliable, and able to pull your dog away from real-life distractions. I start with the foundational skill most people skip: automatic check-ins. If your dog can’t offer attention in a distracting environment, it’s unlikely they’ll respond to your cue, so I show you how I mark (“yes”) and reward those voluntary glances back to me—using food, tossing treats, or even releasing back to exploring as the reward. From there we level up using the Premack Principle (yes, “eat your veggies to get dessert”) so the environment becomes the reinforcer—sniffing, saying hi, or going back to play happens after a check-in or a hand target. Then I add speed and commitment with the Whiplash game (rapid redirects away from distractions), Catch Me If You Can (I run so my dog chases me), and finally Chase + collar grabs/body handling so your dog is comfortable being reached for and you can clip a leash without them dodging you. My biggest takeaway: keep sessions short, practice in real-life moments, and only increase difficulty when you’re hitting about an 80–90% success rate—recall should stay easy, rewarding, and fun.