Speaker: Lesson 2 is Come.
Come means that your dog runs to you quickly and you reach out and touch his or her collar. The reason that you touch his or her collar is to reinforce that come means you can get a hold of your dog.
I had a student ask me once why this is one of the first lessons I teach? He said, in every other training class that I have been in, they always teach sit, stay, before the come command.
What I said to him was generally when you are calling your dog to come, he is not sitting and staying, waiting patiently for you to call him. He is generally running wild in the other direction, not paying attention to you at all. This is why we teach this command in this fashion.
Come is perhaps the most important command that you can train your dog to respond to. It could save his or her life. It's wonderful to know that when I say come, my dog runs to me quickly and enthusiastically. Remember your jump start training. You can now integrate look and come into your everyday routine with your dog, specially when doing something that your dog likes; like being fed or going outside to play ball, these are all opportunities to use the come command.
Remember that you want 100% compliance, 100% of the time. This means, do not ask you dog to come to you unless you know you can make him do so the first time you requested.
With your dog on a six foot leash, start walking around and wait for his or her attention to be diverted. Once his or her attention is diverted, say come, and take a few quick steps backwards, while encouraging your dog to come to you. You can also reel in the leash as you are doing this.
Running backwards is going to incite the chase technique in your dog, and encourage him or her to come more quickly.
Once your dog gets to you, you should use verbal praise and you can follow that up with tactile or food praise; depending on what you think is necessary to get a positive response out of your dog. Remember, always use the verbal praise first because your dog will anticipate the tactile or food treat will be forthcoming.
Now for the come command. Shug come. Good boy, good boy! You always want to make sure that you are able to touch your dog's collar when he comes, but you can put him on a leash if needed. Good boy! That's a good boy. Good boy!
So for the come command, I like to just start walking around with your dog on a six foot leash or longer is nice, and wait until they get distracted by something else; maybe a certain smell or an animal that they might see before using this command.
Okay. You just want to walk around and be a dog for a minute. Shug, come. Good boy! That's a good boy. That's a very good boy.
Basically, why I do it that way is because generally that's what's going on. Your dog is running around, not listening or paying attention to you, when you call them to come. I like to use the dog's name first, just to get his attention initially, and let him know -- like I have several dogs, I would let the specific dog know that I want that specific dog to come to me.
As you can see, he is distracted again, and I will say Shug, come. Good boy! That's a good boy.
You want him to run towards you enthusiastically. Now, if he didn't come so quickly, what I would want to do -- okay, let's distract him again. Shug come. You always want to say come as you are reeling the dog in, so he realizes that means you want him to come towards you. Good boy! That's a good boy. Yes, that's a good boy.
Some tricks of the trade for the come command is to never call your dog to do unpleasant things, such as go to the vet, or to be groomed; if that's something your dog doesn't like.
On the other hand, feel free to call your dog to come when you do things like playing with your dog or feeding your dog. This reinforces that good things happen when your dog comes.
Remember to make a point to touch your dog's collar each time he or she comes. The reason I ask you to do this is that your dog knows that coming means that you are able to hold on to their collar and have them back under control, if that's what's needed.
If at anytime you find your dog not responding to a specific command, repeat the lesson, going back to the point where you had 100% compliance, 100% of the time. Repeat the command five to ten times before proceeding on.
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