Just want her to come “here!” When I call her. She’s young, had her for two weeks. We have a big back yard and have been keeping tiny treats in our pockets and constantly calling her “here” and giving treats treats treats. Has been working but sometimes I can’t seem to get her attention. I haven’t started formal training daily sessions (how soon should that start?) but would it be better to: A) keep up with the treat and “here” constantly B) put her on long lead and call “here” and pull her to me C) build smaller pen just for training so she knows this isn’t free play time in big yard, and work on “here” with lead or treats?
I have 14 week terror. I too have a big space, so played hide and seek! Held a treat and did a runner! Let him move away then ran and hid. He soon found me. Got his treat and cleared off. I did a daft dance and threw myself down where he could see me, and he came running. Added come command and he has had this nailed for 3 weeks now. I play game all the time to reinforce it, only time he didn't come he was having a poo and barked back at me! Its my main fear that they won't come back and a previous dog legged it in a field on me....I did the stupid dance and we both ended up in a stream his response was so swift!
It sounds like you're a bit new to the concept of training, so I would recommend you get the book Total Recall, which has a step-by-step program for training your dog to come to you when called. Firstly, I would choose a different word, since "here" is very similar to "heel" and, if you are going to use that for her walking by your side, then it could be confusing. In fact, I would recommend using a whistle for recall - it carries better over distance, isn't lost in the white noise of everyday chatter, isn't affected by your emotions, whether you have a cold etc etc. I'll quickly address your A-C: A) keep up with the treat and “here” constantly How does she know that "here" means to come to you? How have you made it distinguishable from, say "tomato"? In dog training, you need to pair a cue with a behaviour to get them linked in the dog's mind, and that means the behaviour (coming to you) has to come before the cue to start off with. So, you would wait until she is heading to you before using your cue, then make a big fuss of her. If you are constantly using the cue word, which she doesn't understand at this stage, she will simply learn that it is a "noise" word that doesn't mean anything - or that she should come, but only when you've said it twelve times. B) No, you never pull, push or force your dog to do something. This actually has the opposite effect to what you want, as dogs instinctively resist against pressure. Try to force a dog's bum down when saying "sit" and they actually learn that "sit" means "engage your muscles to push UP" C) Well, you can do this, but how about starting off in your kitchen, or a hallway? Somewhere without distractions? I'll reiterate, go ahead and buy Total Recall. It will help you immensely. Good luck!
@ahlangle - by your post, you sound really keen to train this - with your enthusiasm and interest I think you can nail it! Another vote for Total Recall - it really, really helped us with Coco. How old is your pup?
Bought Total Recall. Thanks folks! One more question: how old should she be when we start training sessions to work on sit, stay, etc? Now all I’m doing is playtime, giving treats and treats to get her to follow me around, potty training etc
I'm very new at this - we have a 10 week old who we've had for two weeks. So lots of people might correct me on this - but here is what I did: No one was allowed to say "come" at all - which was hard for my husband and son for be first days! I would walk around the house randomly, not in "training" but just regular life. Antime he walked towards me I said "yes! come!" and gave a treat (kibble). No big deal made of it. After a few days I waited until he got to me and then i said "yes! come!" ad gave a treat. The word come was mever used any other time. After 10 days or so, I would back away in training sessions and do the same - as he came to me, say come, on arrival "yes! come!" and treat. I had my 10yo disteact him a bit and I went a few stps around the corner and said his name and "come!" and he got loads of praise and a big treat (still kibble!). we did it three times and left it. Repeat two or three days in a row. I switched to the garden and got him playing with a toy and walked ten feet away and told him to come. Lots of praise and rewards! Aftér about 3 days we are down to lots of praise and pets and cuddles when he comes, maybe every 3rd or 4th time a treat. And I do it randomly in the house and garden as well as during training. Once in a while I hav given a good treat (not kibble - a mini piece of cooked chicken), so he still has incentive to come because it just might be something great! I've had him today in the garden into mischief that he knows he shouldn't be doing (eating a plant pot) and when he really dors not want to leave it, I walk off and shout "come!" He stops, cocks his head to think about it, and comes bounding acroos the garden. In terms of when to start training, we started at 8wks2days! In the 15 days home with us he knows: sit, down, paw, floor (4 paws on floor no touching anyone), leave it, bring it, spin, pull, come, touch (touch his nose to your open hand), let's go (walk with me from a sitting next to me position), heel (not a proper heel but he's very close to me with no further ahead than his back legs by my side) and today we started with drop it, which is the hardest one yet!!!! All of these he will do reliably in training and 95% reliably around the house. I've taken him on three short walks (5-10 minutes) and he's about 75% reliable with all of the excitement! It takes 2-3 sessions of 5-10 minutes a day, every day and little tiny 30 second moments throughout the day and they can learn quickly!!!!
