Come dog!

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When you begin to teach the come dog command, there is a few tips that you should consider.

First and most important, is never call your dog over, if you are going to do something that might be negative or un pleasant to the dog.. For instance, do not command your dog over and end a fun time by tying him up, bathing him, telling him off, locking him up, cleaning him etc..

Try to never call, then punish your dog for something like running away when he comes. Your dog will think he’s being punished for obeying your command!

If your dog already has negative connotations with the ‘come’ command (for example, he thinks it means ‘get out of here ASAP’ or you’ve used it often and your dog is starting to ignore it, start using a new come command that has a different sound to it.

Forget your old come command and teach this exercise using a brand-new word. ‘Here’ is a popular choice, but you can make up any command that suits your style or you feel comfortable with.

With this one command, your dog should stop what hes doing, come to you swiftly and sit in front of you- ideally! For ease, I will treat this as two separate exercises. These two exercises can be taught over the time frame, but should not be combined until the dog knows them well.

“Come sit in front of me”

Have your dog on a medium lead/leash. When you have your dog’s attention, take several quick steps back as you guide the dog to you with a favourite treat, held in front, around nose height. When your dog is in front of you, stop and raise the treat up a little, so the dog is motioned to sit and wait. Click with the clicker, and treat when the dog sits correctly. If and when your dog does this properly, you can:

Next, practice this while standing in place and holding your ground, instead of moving back. Try now eliminating guiding with food and switch to simply reinforcing a correct ‘come in and sit” command, so he learns to accept praise as a reward.

Long line recall

Attach a long line to the dog’s flat collar, try around the 25 feet mark. Have a buddy hold the line in two places; the handle at the end, and about 1 metre from the collar of the dog. Your buddies task is simply to hold the dog until the handler gives the recall command, then release the dog by dropping the portion of the line near the collar and continuing to hold the end so he doesn’t escape.

Your job is to run away from the dog, calling his name, to attract him (maybe a whistle or something), until the dog is pulling against the lead trying come to you. Here is where you should let out a firm recall command.

Your helper should release the dog at this time.

If you called your dog at the right time, he should come sprinting to you. Clicker him and treat him when he gets there. Don’t overuse this technique, so he gets the sense of reward.

When the dog is doing both of these exercises with competence, put them together; recalling the dog, and prompting the dog to sit in front by leading him slightly with the treat. After a few reps the dog should do this hassle-free by him self. The finishing steps for the recall will be:

If you call your dog and he fails to come, run in the opposite way, just as we did before, attracting him by calling his name etc.

Above all else. Do your best to make it fun for him to come over! He needs to know he’s doing what makes you happy as his master.