Teach Your Dog To Come When Called

One of the best tricks to teach your dog is to come back to you when you’re out and about. Imagine your dog slips her collar and runs, stops, and then looks at you – known that she will come back when called will cut down on panic that she’ll keep running or think it’s a game. As you teach your dog basic commands like sit, stay, and down, make sure you teach come too.

2 Ways To Teach Your Dog To Come

Tip 1:
Practice this when you’re in the house
Step 1: put a leash on your dog
Step 2: hold the other end of the leash and say “come” then move backward
Step 3: keep moving backward as your dog walks to you
Step 4: stop and then reward your dog with praise and her favorite treat
This method teaches her to come to you and keep walking to you… like following you. You’ll spend a few times trying to show your dog what you mean but it won’t take long since you are doing it in the house where the distractions are minimized. If your dog also comes to her name, call her name and say come to get her attention and then teach her to follow.

Tip 2:
When tip 1 is under your belt, you’re ready for tip 2 – which is trying this out outside. If you have a backyard, start there, if not, get a leash that’s about 20ft. The long leash makes it easy to hold onto your dog if she gets distracted and walks away.
Step 1: let your dog walk away from you while you hold the leash
Step 2: get your dog’s attention by calling her name and talking in an excited voice
Step 3: back up to get the full 20ft length of the leash extended between both of you
Step 4: encourage your dog to come to you by acting excited and happy, and say come!
Step 5: when your dog starts to run or trot towards you, say, “yes!”
Step 6: when she catches up to you, reward her with praise and a treat

Try this a few times and if you visit dog parks, try it off leash. As your dog learns to come when called, make the game a little more difficult by increasing distance. Continue reinforcing this command in the house too.

Have you trained your dog to come? What did you do?
Let us know!

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