come!!

ive been trying to teach my min pin to come on ommand. but he doesnt come when i say come he comes when i say good boy i thinks hes learnd that he gets his treat when i say this.. and hell only come if im sitting i=on the floor with my hand xtendd.. wht can i do to change this??


thnx.. raymond

Yeah I know the command come is really hard. I finally taught TOki to come after screaming at him to come. j/k

Lucky doesnt know that he getts confused and he only comes when i say bye bye!!!or luck luck silly things like that!!!And it works!!

never scream at your dog to come. place the dog at one end of the room, or have someone he's not that attatched to hold him loosely. then have a treat or a fav. toy in your hand. say "(dog's name) CoMe!" say this once. if he doesn't come wait a moment and try again. if this fails (probably won't if you have his fav. thing.) have the helper bring the dog to you. never scold your dog, it just helplessly confuses him!

regards,
allison

This thread caught my eye, even though it was down on the list. That someone feels the need to scream at their dog disturbs me. How could a dog or anyone want to come to someone who is frightening them? I know that the recall is one of the hardest to train. This command gives people more trouble than just about anything.

If you associate great things with coming, you're more likely to get the dog to come. And if you use the word "come," but don't enforce it, the dog learns that he doesn't have to come.

Here's how I get the dog to learn to come. I hope it will help:

Get a long line and play with the dog. Have some tiny treats in your pocket. When the dog comes bounding near you, say, "cookie?" And give a treat. Don't use the word, "come" yet. Then let the dog play some more. Join in. And again, say, "cookie?" Give a treat. Do this for a several training sessions. If he doesn't come near you, try getting his attention by running the other way, making funny noises, sound like you're having a wee of a time. Say "cookie" again. That is to get his attention. Don't bribe with it to get him to come, but wait till he comes near you or to you and then say, "cookie" and give him the cookie.

Then a week later or so you can go into a safe, fenced yard and let the dog off the leash to play. Run the other way and play with the dog. Make him love to come close to you. Say, "cookie" and give the cookie. When he's coming to you happily and able to break away from his play to come when you say "cookie," you're ready to add the command, "come." Saying "cookie" is just a way to get his attention onto you and off the thing he was interested in. The cookie, your praise and fun has to be better than what he was doing.

So now when he comes near you for the cookie, say, "come." When he comes, say, "goooood come." Then give the cookie. (remember to use tiny, pea sized treats or you'll get a fat dog) Practice this often for short sessons and wait till you've enticed him close to you to say, "come."

Then later you can perfect it whereby when you say "come," he should come right in front of you and sit. Little by little you'll be able to call him from more of a distance and not have to wait for him to come first on his own. But if he doesn't come when you call, you need to back track. You've gone to fast through the steps.

If he regresses, go back a step or two in the training process. Just remember, NEVER EVER CALL YOUR DOG TO "COME" IF YOU'RE NOT ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE HE WILL. Never give any command if you can't enforce it. It loses all meaning and the dog is then trained to ignore you. Also, only give a command once. He heard you the first time. Otherwize the commands will sound like, "come, come, come,come" or "sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, sit." If after one command, he doesn't do it, help him do it gently and praise.

Never punish your dog when he comes or scream at him to come or he'll never want to come and he'll be afraid and cowering of you. Get your dog to want to come to you....like it's the best thing he's done all day. It's a party to come to you. You'll get a much more reliable and happy dog.

Also, don't call the dog to come and then punish it by ending all play, going inside or doing something else miserable right after, like clipping nails or something. LOL. Call the dog, put the leash on, release the dog for some more fun before you call it quits for the walk. That way, he'll not shy from seeing the leash. At the end of the fun, do something else mildly fun before it totally comes to a screeching halt. LOL.

Good luck.

Couldn't have said it better myself ^ (and I was about to try).

The best way, short version, of getting a dog to come is to make it look fun. Crouch down, hold out your arms, use a treat, and in a very excited voice say "come." Use the long line mentioned above to coax them. They'll learn.

Scream at them and your pup will think "look at that cranky person, see ya later cranky." - translated from dog to English.

That's my two-cents

LOL. Sorry...my post is so long. I would have made it shorter but every time I stopped, I thought of just one more thing. LOL.

The thing is, when you crouch down and say, "come," what if he doesn't come? Oh, I guess if you have a long line on, you can force them in. But I try to avoid force when I can so that the dog will "make the right choice" all on his own. And be rewarded for that, for choosing to come rather than being rewarded for something I just did....reeled him in. LOL.

But I like your shortened version. Some people won't have the patience to go through the process I explained. But it works well....promise.

I don't mean forcing them. Actually, with the right tone all of my dogs will come. They don't even need treats. They love the attention.

I also don't just say "come." It's always, come here little baby. What a good puppy you are. What a pretty boy, Come here and play with me....

Works for skittish horses too. The crouching/patience thing. I always had caught the new horses on the farm where I worked. The trainer was always busy and I'd spend a long time crouched down waiting. They'd almost always come up eventually and sniff me. Being lower then them makes me not threatening.

I'm glad you two explained that. I wracked my brain and couldn't for the life of me figure out just how I taught my dogs to come to me, then realized it just sort of happened. Bimmer even has one whistle he comes to and I've got another one for the girls.

The only "active" thing I've ever done was to have a snout-to-snout talk with them when they got a bit cavalier about coming in. I explained to them that this was not optional; when I call them they have to come right away because it might be very important that they get in quickly. Of course, on 60 acres it can take a bit more time to get here, especially if they're making their patrols along the fence . . .

I may actually be the worst trainer in the world - I just have dogs who understand me. I'm sure they deserve all the credit!