 Good tip for teaching the "come" command
I get a training newsletter put out by Rosana Hart, who does clicker training. I don't use clicker training, but most of the concepts work with or without a clicker. I thought this was an interesting one and something I didn't really think to practice. Teaching the "come" command is challenging but so important. I thought this newsletter contained a good tip for this command.......
"When you call your dog to come to you, in dog training jargon
that's named the recall. It's good to make the sit part of what
you expect, but that's not the key part. The really significant bit
is to touch your dog's collar every time, just as he sits or
immediately after. If he sits too far away for you to touch the
collar, he hasn't done the exercise and gets no praise or click.
You can say "Too bad," or you can just move to another spot and try
the activity again.
Why should your touching the collar be an essential part of your
dog's coming when called? So you can grab it if necessary. A dog who
learns to come when called but to stay just out of reach is
training you that the come doesn't really mean come. And that could
be a problem in any number of situations, from a prim neighbor
wearing immaculate white slacks to far more serious situations.
With our current pup, Lola, she was already seven months old when
we got her as a rescue, and she thought at first that I might be
going to hit her when I did that. So at first I reached from down
low when I touched the collar -- not hard with a Rottweiler, more
of a challenge if you have a Pomeranian. It only took a few times
before she trusted me when I did that." |