Tips for teaching puppy to "come"

[Tinijocaro]

We have a 3 1/2 month old Bichon- "Ollie". He's doing great with sit, wait, and general potty training. I'm having a hard time teaching him to come. I am working mostly inside with him at this point, and I want to get "come" down solid before we move outside where there are many distractions.

How the heck do you teach a dog to come. I've been saying "Ollie come" and if he comes, I give him a treat. He seems to know his name lately, but he doesn't always come. Any tips?

Jackie

 

[LindaR]

Use a training collar and a very long leash (at least 6 feet or longer). Give the command and give a quick tug on the leash, then give him a treat (if you are using them). If he refuses, repeat with a little sharper tug on the leash. When he DOES come, really really hand out the praise!

 

[GEM]

Any tips for teaching a two year old (human) the same thing?

 

[janette]

Congrats on your new baby. We have 2 Bichons one 3yo and one 10+. They are great dogs.

Sounds like you are doing fine, I know mine come if I say the word treat or open the treat jar.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Use a training collar and a very long leash (at least 6 feet or longer). Give the command and give a quick tug on the leash, then give him a treat (if you are using them). If he refuses, repeat with a little sharper tug on the leash. When he DOES come, really really hand out the praise!

I agree with all this, but in my opinion 3 1/2 months is way to young to use a training collar aka choke collar. Their neck muscles aren't developed yet at that young age, and if you would tug too hard, you could injure his esophagus. When I taught obedience classes, we always recommended a flat buckle collar until 6 months old.
Make sure you only say the come command once. This actually goes for any command. If he doesn't do it the first time you say, work with him until he does. Repeating the command several times, will only teach him he can come, sit, down whenever he darn well chooses. Also make sure when he comes to you, don't let him run past you, he should stop in front of you. Then touch his collar, then give him a treat. This teaches him he will not get a treat unless he comes to YOU, not past you and some dogs think its a game, they come to you, then when you reach out they take off. Touching the collar before giving a treat will teach him its not a game.
And make sure you practice come where there are ALOT of distractions in a safe fenced area. Because what they do indoors and in quiet will not be what they do outside with alot of noise and distractions.

Good Luck and congrats on the new pup.

 

[goofy4tink]

In addition to roliepolieoliefan's good advice....start with your pup about 3' in front of you. Then as he gets the 'come' command down in close to you, lenghthen the distance. Tell him 'come', give a gentle tug and he, most likely, will trot on over. Give him lots of praise and a little treat. It will get harder for him as the distance grows....so many other terrific things to look at, sniff, or just check out. Much better than ambling on over to mom!! My golden knows to come and then sit, right in front of me. But, it took a lot of work and patience. Good luck...keep in mind..a well-trained dog is a happy dog!!

 

[Tinijocaro]

Thanks to all who replied to my questions. Really helpfull advice. I especially liked the touch the collar thing- makes sense. Thanks again!

Jackie

 

[The Mystery Machine]

We are doing this as well...we use many ways to teach them to come.

Best one we use in the house, their favorite game btw....we play "hide and seek"...oh do they LOVE that.

Someone holds them back and you hide with a treat. Yell "Butters & Gracie Come" and then they take off to find you.

Puppies love this game. I have 2 of them so it is race to find you.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Biggest tip: NEVER GIVE THE COMMAND COME UNLESS YOU CAN ENFORCE IT. The dog should never see it as "optional". Responding to this command could save his life someday.

With a pup that age you can attach a long piece of twine to his collar. Get around in a big circle, include all members of your household. Give every person a pocketful of really good treats. Take turns telling the dog to come, make it very enthusiastic, pat your knees, whatever it takes for the dog to voluntarily come. If the dog does not come you can give a gentle tug on the twine, but you probably won't need to. Praise and a treat each time he comes. Do this every day at least.

Everyone in the household needs to learn this routine and should be taught never to tell the dog to come unless they follow through. That will be forever.

Tip#2: NO MATTER WHAT THE SITUATION, IF THE DOG COMES TO YOU WHEN HE'S COMMANDED TO, YOU NEED TO PRAISE. That means even if the dog was chewing your flower bed and you call him to come (just an example), you need to praise him for coming. **Never scold a dog when he comes to you** or he will learn that coming to you gets him scolded. Coming to you should always be a pleasant experience if you want it to work when you want it to.

My previous dog, Kayla, never knew she could run away from us if she really wanted to. Her entire life if you said come, she came, no matter what she was doing. We used the above methods when we first got her as a pup. My current dog is good with come as well, luckily, but it's been more of a challenge since we now have young children and they will tell her to come but not enforce it at times. I've included the kids in her group training and they're really doing a good job, but consistency with training is really important. Good luck.

 

[widget]

We have a West Highland White and to get him to come to us when we were training we made sure he would see us as very excited and happily jumping around calling him to come so it would seem we were the best thing on the planet and he would have to come and check us out. We would then kneel down so he would stop infront of us and give him a treat. Now he automatically sits in front of us. We also taught him to lie down while he was young. This helped when he decided on a few occasions to run away from us towards another bigger dog or open gate. Once sharp 'down' and he went to ground which gave me (why was it always me doing the running??!?) enough time to get to him before anything happened.
As others have said, praise, praise, praise and no scolding - who would want to come to someone if they thought they were going to get yeld at.
Hope you are having a lot of fun with your pup.

 

[Gupsmom]

I agree with the last post. I also have a Westie. Our puppy school teacher said COME should be the most fun thing your dog hears. EVERY time you call the dog to come it should be reward with PET, PRAISE and FOOD!!! Also say the word COME atleast 4 times after he obeys. For example (Our dog is Tucker.)...call TUCKER COME (only say it once). Be really excited and make it sound fun (clap, tap the ground etc). When he comes, immediately pet him, give him a treat and say some form of "Good Come" atleast 4 times....like "Good come. What a good come. Good come, Tucker. Good come."

Also, in the beginning practice from a distance of no more than 6 feet.

I have to say that even at 3 months old tuck comes every time I call...because he knows it means praise and food.

Jess