By Heidi Clayton
Teaching your dog to come to you when called is, in my opinion, the most important command any dog needs to know. While we would like to believe that our dogs hang on our every word and will come to us merely because we ask them to, by and large, I find that is almost never the case. We are not as interesting as the rest of the world to our dogs. For example, in the kitchen, we have to compete with smells, sounds, and other stimuli that render us almost invisible to our dogs.
First of all, a young puppy is not going to come to you all of the time as they do not speak our language and actually don’t know what the word “come” means. As with every command we teach a puppy, they need to learn the meaning of the word first. To teach a reliable recall, your puppy must first 100 percent know their name. That means if you say their name when their back is turned, they actually turn and look at you. Most people I know use the praise of “good boy” or “good girl”. Instead, I say their names, not just “good girl”, so that my puppies hear their name in the form of praise. To teach your puppy or dog their name, you can sit for about three minutes with them and simply say their name in a happy tone. Then, give them a piece of their food or a treat. Test it by saying their name when they are distracted with their back turned to you.
Another of my pet peeves is people saying the word “come” 100 times when the dog clearly has no intention of doing so. When you say come repeatedly, you are making that word lose its absolute meaning of “get over here the second I ask” and turning it into “get over here when you are ready”. I don’t say the word “come” until I am certain my dogs or puppies know what it means. How I teach them that I am as interesting as whatever it is they are doing and it pays to come to me is turning it into a game. When my puppies are involved in something, I approach them with a handful of outrageous treats and make a clown of myself. I give them a few treats, then turn and run away. If they follow me, I turn and praise them while saying the word “come”. When they get to me, I give them a jackpot of treats. If they don’t follow, I try again and slow down my retreat.
Another way to remind your dog that you are the giver of all things is to call them to you for their meals. Everyone who comes to me makes a huge fuss over their dogs sitting for their food. I honestly don’t ask my dogs to sit for their meals, but I do ask them to come to me. Running from outside or anywhere into the house and getting their food for coming when called is one of the easiest ways to reward your dogs for their compliance.
Making a game of coming when called and rewarding the dog or puppy for getting to you will make a huge difference in the struggle to compete with the world for their attention.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net.
Heidi Clayton started Four On the Floor Dog Training to provide positive, reward-based dog training in South Jersey. She breeds, trains and shows bull terriers under the SoraBully’s Bull Terriers kennel name. Email questions to heidi@fouronthefloordogtraining.net or learn more at https://fouronthefloordogtraining.net
