Every dog owner knows that a reliable recall, also known as ‘come’, is one of the most important commands you can teach your pup.
A perfect recall could even save your pup’s life in an emergency, so it pays to make sure you have a reliable response from your pooch every time. Here’s how you can do it.
1. Start Off Slow and Build Up
Set yourself up for success by starting off slowly and building up. Start off with a distraction-free environment and a few treats in hand.
Then, call your dog’s name in an inviting tone of voice and reward them with a treat when they come running towards you. Do this repeatedly until your pup understands that coming to you means good things happen!
You can then start adding distractions—try calling their name while playing or when there are other people around—and continue to reward them each time they respond positively.
2. Make Sure They Know What You Mean
When teaching any command, it’s important to make sure that your pup understands what you expect from them before moving on to the next level of training.
Before trying out the ‘come’ command in more difficult situations, try calling your pup from farther away and see if they come running back immediately or if they take their sweet time.
If they don’t seem to understand what you mean, go back a step and practice with fewer distractions until they get it right.
3. Positive Reinforcement is Key
Finally, remember that positive reinforcement is key when teaching any kind of obedience training.
Make sure that you only reward behaviors that you want to be repeated so that your pup will associate coming back to you with something positive rather than something negative like punishment or scolding.
Try not to raise your voice too much during the training process; instead, focus on rewarding good behavior and ignoring bad behavior while calmly repeating the desired command over and over again until they respond correctly every time!
Conclusion
Teaching a reliable ‘come’ command isn’t easy but it’s worth investing the time into as it could save your dog’s life one day!
Start small with few distractions and gradually build up until both yourself and your pup are confident about reliably responding to the ‘come’ command wherever you may be – indoors or outdoors!
Always remember to use positive reinforcement along the way for the best results! Good luck!