Come means COME!!! Right?

hunniedoll

New Member
I love taking my new pup to the dog park that is near by. The only issue is... he gets too excited and over worked and forgets that come, means COME! Its not an immediate thing for him, if he comes at all. When at home, he does such a great job. He follows me around so I barely have to use the command. My fiance and I originally trained him *come* by standing on opposite ends of our yard, taking turns yelling out come to him, and rewarding him with treats when he made the mad dash to us. But now, when we are at an off leash park, he is too excited and distracted to listen to me as well as he should. Any advice? v:dogunsure:
 

tx_cowgirl

Honored Member
Staff member
How old is he?
Start adding distractions slowly. For instance, have your fiance play with him with his favorite toy and then you call him. You can try standing with your fiance while he plays with the dog, then say, "Come!" and run away. He should be enticed to chase after you. From here, you could have someone bring a dog(to your home) and let them associate on-leash. Give the command, and if he doesn't, bring a treat to his nose and lure him to you(a very short distance--a stride or two maybe).
From here, advance to letting them play off-leash at your home. Stand close to them and give the command, then run away.
Continue to slowly add distractions, and only add distractions as he masters the first ones. In other words, don't bring in the dog until he's perfect with coming to you as your fiance is distracting him. Don't unleash them until he responds perfect with him and the other dog on-leash. Taking him straight to the off-leash dog park will not do anything for him, since he is not at all ready for it yet.
Also, it'd be good to buy a 20-50 foot lead so that you can still work with him but know that he is not going to get too far away. One thing that I like to work on is having the dog in a stay, going a distance away, and having a distraction(a person and dog) seated about halfway between. The dog will be tempted to visit them and become distracted in mid-return, but continue working just as described before. You can have them sit a little ways off to the side so he is less distracted and have them ease there way closer as he improves. Hope this helps, and if you have any questions feel free to ask! :) Good luck!
 

hunniedoll

New Member
Is is a year and a half, but I have only had him for a couple months now... so it has been hard to break him of some bad habits. Def a great idea you have there, I will keep ya updated on how it works ^_^ Thanks! Im sure Link appreciates the help too hehe
 

fickla

Experienced Member
I of course also recommending training with as many distractions as you can think of. If however, you really enjoy taking him to the dog park and don't want to stop that during your come training, there is something you can try there that can help. Bring some good treats along at a less busy time (and be prepared to ignore all the other dogs begging), and whenever your dog has stopped playing for a couple seconds call him to come and start running away. When he comes to you, give him a good treat and then release him to go play again. The trick is only calling him right now when you know he is going to come, not calling him when he is in the middle of intense play. Eventually he will learn that come doesn't mean you are going to take him home, it just means a good treat and the chance to play again! Of course training in other places with good distractions is preferable to start first, but there's no reason to stop the dog park in the meantime!
 

hunniedoll

New Member
Thats a great idea... Today we went during lunch time so there were tons of dogs there going on their daily walk. Out of no where, he has started to come when called and gave me very little problems today. I have no idea how he changed over nite, but today I even brought treats and my clicker prepared to train while at the park and I didn't even have to. Now isn't that a moody dog or what?! haha
 

snooks

Experienced Member
i play the gottcha game. i call the dog when she is likely to come I gently grab her collar and release and scratch an ear and say gottcha and give her a treat and release. so she learns that coming to me doesn't always mean that we're leaving the dog park or that she has to stop playing or the leash is going on. the key is to be sure they get close enough for you to get their collar (if there were an emergency etc) and be sure they were safe. if you do this enough and make it a guessing game that only 1-2% of the time does it mean that it's time to go but every time there are great treats you get results.

don't call in the middle of a great chase game, or a good roll in a nice dead object, or something very doggie fun. do it around the house, low distractions, and higher distractions when you can. running away is good, having a toy to throw past you so they can run past you to get it, treats for a come, squat and make silly kissy noises, anything that works. i also did these random recalls in puppy kindergarten class and they really helped her learn coming to me means treat and then go back to the fun.
 
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