Teaching your dog to come on a leash is one of the most basic dog training tricks that every dog owner must know how to teach. This skill is imperative to being able to take your dog anywhere and anytime he wants to go. Here are some dog training tips for teaching your dog to come when called.
The first step is to find an open area where you can place your dog. You can do this by making a regular “come” noise from a stick or from a nearby garden hose. You want your dog to get used to hearing the command “come”. Your dog should come right up to you before you say the word “come”.
Second, tell your dog to “stay” and then give him a treat or high praise. (If you are going to do this while he’s not barking, make sure you give him the treat immediately.) Praise your dog again for coming when called. Once your dog understands the “stay” command, you can move on to the next step.
Next, tell your dog to “go”. Again, praise him for doing what you ask. Has your dog to walk beside you with his nose pointed. If he goes in front of you, give him a treat and lots of love. If he moves out of range of your dog training tricks, say the word “free.”
In order to teach your dog to stay, you will need to associate the command “stay” with something else. Most dogs understand the word “stay” and would respond to it by stopping whatever they are doing to go to the designated area. If your dog has a behavior problem, this is easy. Simply take him to the spot you want him to go to, but make sure you stop him before you actually start dog training him. If he tries to get away from you, simply give him a treat and lots of love. He will soon learn that when you say the word “stay”, he must stop whatever he is doing.
If you have an older dog that hasn’t been trained much, or one that doesn’t know how to behave around people, you may want to try using dog training tricks to teach him how to come when called. To begin, you will want to take your dog to a place that is familiar to him. Make sure you use treats and praise if necessary. You will want to have him sit or lie down and then call the command “come”.
To begin dog training tricks with this method, you will want to tell him to sit. Have your dog in a sitting position until he/she has responded to the command. Call the command again until your dog sits. When he/she doesn’t sit, you can either give him a treat or just give him praise. Keep repeating the process until he responds correctly each time.
Another great tip for dog training tricks is to try and distract him. If your dog is focused on something, he won’t be able to ignore it. Try calling his name while doing something else. If your dog gets distracted, he will eventually realize that what you are trying to teach him is irrelevant and will get rid of the distraction.
This is just one exercise, but it’s another good one. If you repeat it enough times, your dog will start to learn that the command he needs to follow is more important than the action you want him to do. Eventually he will just look at you when you give him the command to sit. In that way, learning how to teach your dog to come on command has finally started to pay off.
As mentioned above, to teach your dog to sit properly, you need to distract him by calling his name while doing something else. You also want to practice teaching him the sit command before you distract him with something else. For example, if you’re going to practice how to teach your dog to sit on the stairs, practice standing on the stairs and calling his name while waiting for him to sit down. This will make your dog feel confident that the command he needs to follow is much more important than whatever activity you might be doing at the time.
So if you want to learn how to teach your dog to come on command, remember to practice before you do anything else. Practice before you go on a trip. Practice before you lead your dog into danger. If you follow these basic dog training tricks, your dog will always know how to come whenever you call his name.
