Dog Commands - Come
Come is the most important command as it will be needed regularly throughout your dog’s life. Sometimes this might be needed in a tricky situation and for this reason, a very quick response is what is required. It will not always happen but in order to reduce any risk while the dog is young, you must ensure that only the quick response is rewarded.
Come follows on naturally from Stay in an ideal world, but as coming to you will in many cases be more natural for a puppy than staying away, it might not always work in the prescribed sequence initially but should certainly be trained that way as reinforcement as your dog learns the basic set of commands. By doing this to test your dog occasionally as he is learning, it will also allow you to practice of the preferred association of commands and gestures.
Come as a command can be taught most easily initially as you give the puppy its food, by repeating the command as he comes to you, and praising him as he arrives. It will be most easily reinforced by using a retracting lead that you can gently pull towards you when outdoors. This might be done initially as a practice in the garden then as a test of how well he is learning when out on a walk.
A natural practice used with puppies that is not recommended is to encourage it to jump up at you as it reaches you, both as a welcoming and after the “Come” command. With many dogs you want the dog to stay down as it grows older and encouraging it to jump up will at least delay any effective training and might lead to other behavior problems later. No problem with him jumping up, but only when you deem it acceptable.
The other common error is to chase your dog if he is not returning. This might become a game for him, though a game of chase when he is beyond basic training is just good fun. The way to get almost every dog to come back is to walk away and keep walking and he will soon follow.
Accompanying his movement towards you by a bend of your knees often proves useful as it is a gesture that your dog can see from some distance and can be used to encourage him not to jump when trained well.
