Off-leash reliability is the one behavior most often cited when someone tries to discredit positive reinforcement and claim that shock collar training is the way to go.
The argument is usually that there will always be times when your dog is more interested in the environment than they are in the piece of food in your hand. The claim is that you cannot achieve 100% reliability in your dog's recall with just positive reinforcement.
Whenever I hear this argument, I instantly think to myself that this person doesn't actually know how positive reinforcement works.
When you begin teaching your dog a recall via positive reinforcement, using food, you’re not supposed to be using the food to get the behavior. You’re not supposed to be calling your dog and holding out a piece of food to entice them to come for the food.
Instead, you’re calling your dog to come to you and potentially encouraging them to come via your voice and body movements, but the food only appears after your dog arrives. The food is the consequence of them coming to you, not the lure or as too many people say, the “bribe”.
Over time and multiple repetitions, your dog learns that when you call, a lot of really good things are going to happen for them if they come to you. This is what creates the reliability that people want in their recall. It’s the dog’s confidence that coming to you is a definite good thing, while whatever they’re doing is only a “maybe”.
How reliable your recall becomes depends on how consistent you are with your reinforcement and how reinforcing it actually is for your dog. Reinforcement doesn’t always = a piece of food. If your dog comes to you and you hand them a piece of kibble then leash them up to go home, the next time you call, they may not be so eager to come to you.
However, if you scatter a few pieces of freeze dried beef liver then release them to go play again, or you leash them up and play a game of tug, the next time you call, they’re far more likely to come to you.
A solid recall is absolutely possible with positive reinforcement, and having your dog comes to you for things that they want instead of to avoid things they don’t want is the best part.
Oh, and for the record, you cannot achieve 100% reliability in your dog’s recall with shock collar training either.