"Come" command

[chalonen]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if someone could give me some advice for helping train Lexie with the 'come' command. She is 4 months old and is a great puppy. She is really good with the sit/stay/lie down, and I'm super proud of her but with 'come' she only does it when she feels like it. If I can actually get her to make eye contact with me then she does pretty well if she sees my arm making the come command movement but she seems to be thinking in her little head that if she doesn't look at me then she can pretend she doesn't hear me ;). She's a puppy monster sometimes! (but im sure they all are at her age)

Honestly she is too smart for her own good!!:lol-sign:

I have been using her favorite treats for the come command only, but I am still really concerned about the lack of progress we are having especially when there are other people/dogs around (mostly at the park, her favorite place!). I worry most about her safety, if she runs on the road or comes in contact with another dog that doesn't want to play with her!!
We are considering doing some training with a whistle (my boyfriend used to train dogs like that, though it was awhile back).
If anyone has any suggestions or knows any sites that would be good for me to look at I would really appreciate it! She means so much to us and we want to be the best parents we can be so she can be the best dog she can be!

Thanks everyone!

BTW how do I put pictures of her on my post so that they show up right away?

[Falconara]

I have some suggestions...but there are some things you need to do before you work on that command if you havent done them already.

The name game is one - you say her name and as soon as she looks at you you give them a treat - dont say her name multiple times...and if she doesnt look after about 30 seconds take a treat and lure her head towards you....she'll get the idea.

The second is the attention game...usually what we do is the scarecrow - we put treats in one hand...let the dog know there are treats there...and then put higher value treats and hide it behind our back. Once Lexie looks away from your hand you treat her with the treats behind her back....eventually you want to up the difficulty by not treating her until she looks at your face.

Then what we do for the recall is we usually have two people standing about six feet apart (so the leash can be in hand) and have one person call the dogs name...as she comes to that person they say good and treat (dont use the command, 'come' yet). Then you call her back and praise as she comes towards you and treat.

You start to increase the distance...and then you can start doing it from one room in the house to another. Once you are reasonably sure she has that down you can go back to straight lining it for 10-15 feet and use the command....but only as she is coming to you...ie...you say her name, she starts towards you...you say come as she is coming towards you.. then praise and treat when she is at your feet.

All these exercises are step based - you start in a place where there is little distraction...then you begin to up the distance or the distraction...once they have one of those down pat you begin to add the other...keep it challenging...but not so hard that they get frustrated...these kind of sessions are also usually best done for short periods.

Hope that helps :)

~Cate

[2dogmom]

I think practicing at the park may be more than she can handle at the moment. If she's four months old she'll have the attention span of a gnat and the park is going to have a ton of interesting things going on.

How about if you practice at home first and when you feel that she is responding well, then increase the distraction level to the park? Until you are sure she will come to you, I'd leave her on the leash so she doesn't get in the habit of being disobedient.