Course Details
There’s nothing better than seeing your dog joyfully running full speed toward you just because you called their name... Except maybe when they do it at a busy dog park — or when they turn away from a deer mid-hike to choose you instead.
Of course, the reverse is also true. Few things feel worse than calling your dog and watching them continue at full speed in the opposite direction.
Whether you’re just getting started teaching a recall or want to rebuild and strengthen one that isn’t as reliable as you’d like, this class is for you.
Over six weeks, we’ll teach a real-life recall from the ground up, focusing on helping dogs want to come to us and choose to stay engaged once they arrive. This is not a formal obedience recall. The emphasis is on relationship, reliability, and practical skills that translate directly to everyday life. We’ll build a strong reinforcement history for coming together, create clarity around what happens after your dog reaches you, and gradually introduce real-world distractions.
This class will give you a clear, step-by-step approach to teaching a recall you can trust.
Note: This class is not designed to rehab dogs who chase cars or extreme cases of chasing prey — for that, I recommend Tracy McLennan’s class. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to Melissa directly.
Teaching Approach:
This class will take a step by step approach. Each step will have written instructions with a corresponding video of each step. Videos tend to be short, with the occasional video that is a bit longer demonstrating one piece at a time.
Lectures are released weekly, at the beginning of each — then students work at their own pace. Feedback will mostly be written, however for gold students I will occasionally do a screen recording if I think the student might benefit from feedback on timing.
Instructor: Melissa BreauMelissa (she/her) is FDSA's resident marketing geek. She teaches two classes here at FDSA: Marketing for Pet Professionals and Building a Wordpress Website.


