Training A Dog How To Come When Called

This is page 2 of our ‘Training A Dog To Come When Called’. For page 1, see: Training A Dog To Come To You

Tips on ‘training a dog to come’ continued…

In this article, we will be discussing a couple more techniques so that you will be able to teach your dog to come when he is called every single time.

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The Casual Approach Technique To ‘Teaching A Dog How To Come When Called’:

Always keep some of your doggy’s favourite kibble or treat in your coat pocket or handbag. At random times, when he is quite close to you, casually use his name and call him over.  Reward him with a treat when he gets to you – then release him. The word here is ‘casually’. You don’t want to make a big deal of it. It’s a quick process; call him over, reward him with treats and praise, then release him.

This is what your dog will think: my person calls me, I go over and get some praise and eats, and then I get to go back and do what I was doing – sounds good to me!

It is important that you do this very thing over and over and over again.  (Be sure you don’t call him and keep him there then oblige him to do something he doesn’t want to do – it will backfire and you will have a dog that won’t come when he’s called.)

Practice this technique by the door, practice it at his crate, practice it all over the place, and practice it even in areas he might not want to come so that he gets used to the rewards.   Repetition is the charm.

KEY: When teaching a dog how to come, make sure you NEVER make him do anything he doesn’t want to do AFTER he actually comes to you.
For instance:  If you’re practicing by his crate, don’t put him in it after he has come to you, as this will be a detriment to the training – when you want him to go in his crate, go and get him.  As you progress through various stages of training, you can teach him to go to his crate and get in it himself – right now we are concerned only about getting your dog to come to you when you call him.

NOTE:
While we are talking about the use of food as reward, it is important you understand the difference between rewarding and baiting – especially when training a dog how to come.
Baiting: When you are holding out your hand with treats and saying please listen to me, it’s called baiting. It’s a bribe and it’s not casual because the dog knows your trying to manipulate him and doesn’t like it and then you’ll have a doggy that doesn’t come when he’s called.
Reward:  So just keep a casual posture and if possible have a treat prepared in your hand and when he comes, give him some praise and a treat and do it over and over and you’ll have a dog that will come to you when called in no time at all.

Load the Sound Technique – teaches a dog how to come:

Another technique while you’re training your dog to come when called is to use a sound like a whistle or another sound or a word, or their own name to signals your dog to come to you.  Choose what you are going to use to call your dog and stick to it.   What you want to do is “load” the sound.

Here is how you load the sound:  Wait until you have got your dog’s full attention, and he is right near you, then make the sound, (in this case I’ll just say whistle.) So you whistle and then give him a particularly delicious treat that he absolutely loves and can never get enough of.  Do this repeatedly and treat him every single time so he begins to associate the whistle with the treat.  Each session, you can load he sound about 10 times making sure to keep the intervals non predictable.  This will quickly teach the dog to be responsive to the special sound.  You will find that soon he will come straight to you whenever he hears this sound. And that, my friends, is only one of our many ways for teaching a dog how to come on command!

Train yourself – train your dog…

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