Recall training with dental issues: soft treats for dogs

Reliable recall is the most important skill a dog can have — and the usual advice is simple: pair a high-value treat with a long line for safe practice and you'll get results faster than almost any other method. The catch is that 'high-value' usually means something hard and smelly, which is a problem if your dog has dental pain. Before I point you in the right direction — how bad is the recall right now, and are you working mainly in the garden or out on walks? And has the vet confirmed the dental issue, or are you working around a suspicion?

Got it. One in three in a busy park with a Boxer is actually a fairly common starting point — they're stubborn in the best possible way, but they do respond brilliantly to high-value food rewards once you find something they go mad for. The dental issue rules out things like dried fish skin or hard jerky, which are usually my first suggestion. What I'd go with here are Forthglade Soft Treats — the liver flavour specifically. They're genuinely soft, not just 'softer than a biscuit', so there's no hard chewing required. They're also small enough to use as rapid-fire rewards during a recall session without filling him up, and liver is one of the few smells that cuts through park distraction for most dogs. Have you tried any soft treats before, and did he actually seem interested or just politely take them?

That's useful to know — Wagg treats are fine but they're low on the excitement scale, which is exactly what you don't need when you're competing with squirrels and other dogs. Forthglade liver is a step up in terms of smell and palatability, which matters a lot for recall specifically. The rule with recall training is that the treat has to be genuinely worth coming back for — it needs to feel like a jackpot, not a consolation prize. Forthglade Soft Natural Dog Treats in liver are available on Amazon UK, around £4-5 for a bag, and they hold up well in a treat pouch without going sticky. I'd pair them with a 10-metre long line so he's never actually off lead until the recall is solid — that way you're building the behaviour without the risk of him just ignoring you and disappearing. Does he have a long line already or do you need a recommendation for that too?

The dental issue actually changes very little about the training method — the main thing is just keeping sessions short so he's not eating a huge volume of treats in one go, which you'd do anyway with recall work. Keep rewards to two or three pieces per successful recall rather than a big handful, and make the fuss and praise part of the reward too so the food doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting. The one practical thing: check the treats aren't drying out in the pouch mid-walk, because a stale soft treat loses a lot of its appeal. A small sealed treat pouch helps. You should notice a difference in his enthusiasm fairly quickly once he realises liver is on offer — Boxers tend to switch on fast when the stakes go up.

Good luck with it — honestly, one in three recall in a distracting park is fixable with the right treat and consistent long-line work. Most people see meaningful improvement within two to three weeks once the reward value goes up. If the liver doesn't land with him, come back and I'll suggest a couple of alternatives worth trying.