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Very first thing to teach your dog, it can mean life or death.
- Rocky Mountain Tollers
- May 19, 2022
- 3 min read
The very first command I teach my dogs is the command "come". A dogs recall can literally save your dogs life. If it runs out the door and out into the road, if your at the park and it gets loose, if you are in unfamiliar territory your dog could get lost easily. You absolutely have to teach your dog to come to you immediately every time you say come.
There are several methods of teaching a dog to come.
1. First and foremost they have to be on a long lead- like 10 to 20 feet depending if it's a puppy or adult. https://amzn.to/3MyqeWw
2. Treats might help this process along, as most dogs are very food driven, but can be done without treats also with positive reinforcement and praise. https://amzn.to/3Mwphhp
3. Have 2 people stand 10 feet apart if a young puppy, and 20 feet for an older dog.
4. First person stands keeping the dog next to them, the other person goes 10 to 20 feet away holding the end of the long lead.
5. The person holding the end of the lead says the dogs name and come (example: Jack come). As soon as the person gives the command "come" they start pulling the end of the rope leading the dog straight to them.
6. Tell the dog good come, reiterating the command word, with an immediate treat or reward.
7. Repeat with the other person taking the end of the lead and doing the same thing. Have the dog go back and forth between both of you using only the same command.
The most important factor in training is consistency and repetition. Make sure the same command is given, show the dog what that word means or what you expect from them when you use that word, then practice that command over and over until they do the command every time.
It is more beneficial in my experience to do short training sessions often, rather than long training sessions farther apart. Play with your dog, get the energy out and have fun for a few minutes. When it’s timeto train make sure their attention is on you. I personally love to work a 10 to 15 minute session with young dogs, and 15 to 30 minutes max on adult dogs. You can come back to it later that day also, but at least once a day training sessions are very beneficial & you will see quick results.
Another favorite of mine for training is to play games with the dog that is teaching them at the same time, it doesn’t always have to be formal training session. It can be done throughout your normal daily routines.
I will have them on a leash with slack following me around doing my normal daily routine, I randomly give them the “come“ command and bring them to me. They are smart and catch on quickly that they get loves, a pet or sometimes a treat when I give them the command and soon you don’t even have to use the leash for them to come on their own.
There are other methods of training a dog on his recall, to “come“. You can use a whistle https://amzn.to/3PzuvdY, hand signals, a clicker https://amzn.to/3LpOWXG
or a vibrate/beep collars https://amzn.to/39IFmSM. If used correctly a vibrate/beep collar can be a very useful training tool for long distance when a dog is retrieving far distances away. These collars can be used to train a dog when they feel the vibrate or hear the beep they know to come running. This is a method you can teach once the dog already knows what the command means, or teaching it along with the rope method.
Some of my favorite things to use while training the "come" command are:
Long training lead-
Training vibrate/beep collar-
Training clicker-
Dog training treats-
Training treat bag-
Training dog whistle with lanyard-
These are some of my favorite training items that make training easy, they are affordable and practical. You are one step closer to having your dream dog by teaching them manners & how to obey. Good luck and happy training!
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