The puppy or dog obedience training come command is undoubtedly the most important control or obedience command you will teach your dog. At some time during your dog’s life you will use this command to get him away from a situation that may be either embarrassing or dangerous. This really is a control command that needs to be enforced and reinforced continually.
Some dogs just don’t come when they are called and just carry on about their business or they may actually try to get away from you.
If your dog ignores you it is probably because:
He doesn’t know the command.
Has never been corrected when previously given the command and ignored it.
Thinks he has better things to do.
Thinks he is going to have an experience that he doesn’t want such as being put in his cage.
If your dog tries to get away he has probably had a bad experience such as a physical reprimand. This is absolutely the wrong thing to do. When he obeys the come command he should be praised not be scolded for it.
Let us say for instance that he is in a situation which is wrong (he’s jumping up someone in the park or chasing someone’s dog) the very first and immediate command should be the leave command and then come command.
He should be praised for leaving and coming, not scolded. Let’s face it. It wasn’t his fault that he was free to go and jump up people or chase their dog; it was yours for not being observant of what is happening around you. If you were unsure how he would react with someone or their dog you should have brought him back to you earlier with the come command so that the situation would not arise.
Please don’t blame the dog when it is your fault.
This command is so important that it demands an immediate response as soon as it is heard. As soon as he hears the come command, he should come directly to you. Use this command whenever you want him to come to you and not just in an emergency.
As well as the safety aspect of the command, it’s also good to be able to have your dog walk off leash, particularly if he is a hedger or swimmer. It gives them greater freedom to explore and gives you a greater peace of mind. Although he is off leash and may be out of your sight, you must always be aware of where he is and ensure that he is within earshot.
In essence, you have to teach him to give an immediate response to your come command regardless of whatever else is happening around him.
This may be a hard command to teach some dogs particularly in an older dog that you may have got from the pound or animal shelter.
We have fostered many Great Pyrenees dogs who, without a doubt have a mind of there own. This is a sheep or cattle minding breed and are normally left in the field with the flock or herd to protect against coyotes or wolves, which they will do with great courage. The problem with this type of breed is that their instinct to protect is sometimes greater than your come command.
Be patient and don’t let this put you off. Persistence will prevail. The earlier in their life you can start teaching this command the better. It is a command that needs to be given every single day and when you give it, they need to respond and come to you immediately and not saunter back at their own free will.
How to get your dogs to come
There are certain things that your dog needs to do such as eat and go out to the bathroom and come back indoors. These are great opportunities to start the come command.
Always be aware of what your dog may want. For instance, he may be fidgety because he wants to go out. (This is probably truer if you have acquired an older dog). If you keep your weather eye on him, you can preempt him. Go to the door, keeping it closed, and call him using the come command. When he gets to the door, praise him for coming and then open the door and let him out, assuming it’s a fenced yard of course.
I always go out with my dogs. When he has done his business, I praise him and then call him to come back in using the come command. Again, when he gets to the door, praise him before you let him in.
What you are doing here is praising him for coming to you to go out, praising him for doing his business and praising him for coming to you to go back in. You see, you are always praising him.
Here’s another scenario, its mealtime so you call him with the come command. When he gets to you, praise him. Now you can also use the sit command and praise him. When he finishes his meal, guess what. Praise him for finishing. You see what’s happening here? We are building a bond with praise and he is responding to the commands naturally.
If he takes his time coming to you, don’t lose your cool, just keep calling him but you may want to use a coaxing tone. He’ll get there finally because he’s hungry and then you can praise him. Sometimes it takes time to build confidence and you just need to persevere. If your dog is a rescue, you just don’t know what torment he may have gone through.
Never, ever punish your dog when comes back to you. It’s acceptable not to praise him if he comes back to you in his own time. When he does finally come back to you give him another command such as “sit” and then praise him for that.
If he comes straight back to you, fuss him and fuss him and fuss him. The reason that he comes back to you is to get lots of love, fuss, fun and praise and maybe even a treat. The reason he comes back to you needs to be greater than any other reason.
Never let your dog off leash in public until he is responding immediately to your command.
Always be aware of what is going on around you and control your dog accordingly
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Make the reason for him coming to be greater than the reason not to. If he’s having fun, let him know that he is going to have more fun with you.
Make the come command part of everyday routine and vocabulary.
There are going to be times when he will not want to come to you such as bath time. I always make grooming fun because they are used to being stroked and scratched and rubbed all the time.
When I groom them, I keep fussing them at the same time. I also always use a towel to wipe their feet and dry them if they have been in the rain or the water. In fact they will come as soon as they see the towel. I can then extend the grooming and toweling by introducing the bath and I keep it fun by rubbing and fussing as I am shampooing and rinsing and then drying time is a BIG fun time.
They always get a treat afterwards. It takes time, especially with an older nervous dog. Be patient and continue reinforcing the command through repetition.
Training your puppy to come
Young puppies will always follow you around because you are their parent. You need to take advantage of this by making it fun for him to follow you. If he’s following you, call him with the come command. He’s going to love this and when he finally bundles up to you, give him lots of fuss. He needs to know that coming to you is always fun.
If he’s across the other side of the room smelling the curtains or looking at the fireplace, get down on you hands and knees and call him using lots of fun voice. They have a short attention span so he’s probably tired of smelling the curtains anyway and you are a new attraction.
When he gets to you give him fun and maybe play a little belly rubbing game with him. Give him a little treat. Treats should be very small like one little kibble, they should not be chewy and they should not be crumbly.
Leave him to go and play and try the same trick later especially if he is involved in something. The idea is for you to be more exciting than what he is doing.
If you’ve got some one who can help you, both of you get down on the floor on opposite sides of the room. One of you call him with the come command and fuss him when he comes, but not too much.
Now its your partners turn to call him and fuss him. Do this back and forth and he will love it until he has almost had enough and then just collapse on the floor together and fuss.
We can now extend this by hiding in another room, behind a chair or beside the bed. Now call him with the come command and keep calling till he finds you. Reward him well.
Now let’s go out in the yard for some more training. Your puppy or dog now has more distractions and we now have to make coming to you more attractive than smelling the roses.
We are now going to start creating more challenges for your puppy or dog and move from the yard to a public park. For safeties sake, we are going to attach a long line. This is a lightweight rope that you can buy from most hardware stores.
Let your puppy wander and he will soon forget that he is wearing this as it trails along behind him. Now start using the come command again. Your dog is going to feel free and is going to explore new things so this is going to be more of a challenge.
Remember that the long line isn’t there to reel him in, its just a safety line so he doesn’t go to far away.
When he is responding to this, try looking for other challenges such as a squirrel or another dog coming down the path and wait until he sees it and when he has seen it, call him back. He now has to make a choice between you or the squirrel.
Make sure your dog has completed a level of obedience before going on to the next. If he is not getting it, step back to the previous level and reinforce what he already knows before moving on.
You will find that I have reviewed several techniques by different trainers but only those that I have found to be worthwhile are on this site and I have created links to them as they will give more in-depth obedience training help than I have given here.
