Tips for Teaching your Dog to Come

When bringing home a new puppy, there are a number of obedience lessons that need to be taught.  As a result, you will have a well-behaved dog, one that you can take places and enjoy more.  For instance, the first obedience lesson is to sit.  Once your dog has mastered that, he will find it much easier and enjoyable to learn the more difficult lessons such as come.  In this article, we will address some tips on how you can get your dog to come, making the lesson fun but also successful.

This particular lesson is extremely important and could actually save your pet’s life.  Let us say you were at a local park and all of the sudden, your dog decides to take off after a car.  Unless he knows the come command, he could accidently be hit, leading to a disastrous result.  Therefore, make the come command one of the five most important obedience lessons to start with and from there, you can move on to more complicated lessons.

Always remember to give your dog lots of verbal praise, petting, and small treats when training.  Using negative tones and gestures will have a negative effect that will simply not work.  To get started, choose a place, preferably a fence back yard where you have some control if the dog does not mind right away.  Then, place your dog on a leash.  While giving him the “come” command, slowly pull the leash toward you until he is in front of you, at which time you would tell him to sit.  Once he obeys, offer praise and a treat.

This will take a little time but with patience and taking him through training sessions several times a day over several weeks, you will begin to see results.  During the session, each time you call your dog to come, shorten the leash a little bit.  By going over and over the steps of the lesson, soon, your dog will understand the connection between the word, “come”, and the motion to come to you.  This, reinforced with praise will go a long way.

Keep in mind that it is not a good idea to take your pet to the local park where he can roam and then when called, you put him on the leash.  The reason is that he is going to be having a blast running free and if he begins to associate come with being put on a leash and taken home, chances are he will never learn.  Instead, start working with your puppy while very young and work in the yard, always having him on the leash.  Use a firm voice, but one of anticipation of the dog coming to you.  He needs to understand that you are serious and this is not time for play.  Otherwise, you may need to call him at a crucial time and him not respond.  Remember, show patience and perseverance and he will learn to come the right way.