How can you make a dog come to you all the time. when he is off his lead?

Answer 1

recall is the hardest and i think the most important thing a dog needs to know.
here is what i am doing with my puppy and it seems to be working very well. At first you need 2 people for this
1) start in your house. Have 2 people in the same room stand on opposite sides of the room. Both should have some training treats. show your dog that you both have food. (btw this works better if the dog is hungry, so do it before dinner or breakfast) call your dog's name and say come. as soon as he comes, praise like crazy and give a treat. Have the other person call the dog, as soon as the dog gets his treat on the other side, call your dog again. Repeat this for several minutes at the time. Once your dog is reliable in one room, move on to step 2
2) also need 2 people for this one. now you and your helper should stand in different rooms in the house, so that the dog can't see the other person when its next to you. Have training treats ready to reward your dog. Call your dogs name and tell her to come. as soon as the dog comes, praise and give a treat. Have your helper call the dog. go back and forth for several minutes at a time. When your dog is reliable at this move on to step 3.
3) in your backyard, or another large outside area that is more or less free from distractions, such as other dogs etc. Again you need 2 people of this and lots of yummy training treats. (for this one we used a jar of gerber's beef baby food (make sure its just the beef and not the dinner / meal or whatever. Basically make sure it doesn't have any onion powder in it). Have your dog sit by your helper. Open up the jar of food, say your dogs name and let him have a lick of the food. quickly run to the other side of the yard and tell your dog to come. (He should come running like crazy, they love baby food). when your dog comes, praise like crazy and give him a few links of the baby food. Don't use the baby food for anything else. (or your dog will get used to it). Once your dog gets reliable at this, move on to step 4
4) two people, baby food, in big backyard. Have the other person play with the dog and distract him. call your dog and tell him to come. when he comes give a couple of links of baby food and tell him to go play. rinse and repeat until he is reliable. move on to step 5
5) now in a dog park or a place with lots of distractions have the helper hold your dog. come close to him, say his name and give him a lick of baby food. run away from your dog (like 10 feet) and call him to come. When he comes praise him like crazy and give him a couple of licks of food and tell him to go play. in a few minutes have your helper hold the dog again and repeat the above steps. repeat until your puppy is reliable. move on to the next step
6) again dog park or a place with lots of distractions, have the helper hold your dog you stand like 10 feet away and call him. when he comes give a few licks of baby food. (note in this one you don't show the food first) . slowly increase the distance between you and the helper. one when your dog becomes reliable at this move on to the last step.
7) let your puppy play with other dog / people etc in a large dog park with lots of distractions. stay close to your dog. call him and tell him to come. when he comes give him lots of praise and treats (baby food) slowly increase the distance between you and your dog. and always give lots of praise when he comes.

a few tips: never scold your dog when he comes (even if you called him 10 times and he didn't come, when he does come never scold him, or he will associate coming to you with punishment)
when your dog comes, gently grab his collar and say gotcha!!. a lot of dogs are afraid of this motion (or hand going for their neck, but this is something we need to do often) by practicing this, you teach your dog to associate collar touching with food.


good luck i hope it works for you!!

Answer 2

Hey there.
One thing that people try to do with dogs is to call their dog when the dog has already found something that's MUCH more interesting than you are. Things to smell, eat, play with, and run off with are much better than humans shouting their name - especially when that shouting has not exactly meant super wonderful things in the past.
Solution? There are a few things. Firstly, never - but never - call your dog to punish or scold. Only ever call your dog when you intend to reward him for coming. It takes a lot for a dog to tear himself away from distractions - and they should be rewarded for that every time (especially when they're pups)
Secondly, think carefully about the environment that you're training in. Think about how far away you are from your dog when you call. Being within a few feet of your dog and calling her when you're in a 'boring' environment will give you a far greater chance at success than if you're in a field where it's just rained, and a rabbit has just disappeared into the grass. Yikes.
Keep your dog on a long line to prevent mistakes. Don't feed your dog before you train. Bring amazing, smelly treats (chicken, cheese, steak, etc) with you and work with your dog with those treats. Have someone hold your dog, and let him know that you have the delicious treats (it's OK to act goofily and dramatic about your amazing treats!) Walk away from your dog just a few steps, crouch into a sprinter's start position, then CALL! your dog's name and run in the other direction! Reward your dog with a fistful of treats when she reaches you.
Repeat. Not only does this make it *very* exciting to chase and catch you, this game can become very motivational for the dog wanting to interact with you.
You can see how easy it will be to build in distance and distraction here. Gradually increase the distance that you have between you and the dog, and then start to play this game in increasingly distracting environments.
Reading Leslie Nelson's _Really Reliable Recall_ is important. I've given you just the bare bones of an answer here - there's much more to it than this. Good luck!
http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB813

*Alicia's got the right idea but I personally feel that some dogs won't be excited to get recalled to a "Sit" at first (if ever) For a young dog, or a dog that maybe wasn't so jazzed about coming back, I would stick with treats at first, not a command. Sitting is not rewarding for every dog.

Answer 3

Recall training is just persistence and patience over time. I would recommend that you never rely on it in a congested or high traffic area or in new situations - better to be safe than sorry by using a leash. You don't say what the breed is but there are some that are harder than others (sled dogs for example have very poor consistent recall due to their instincts as do bloodhounds that catch a scent). Use rewards and praise a lot and start off training with a long lead or in contained areas. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Try to never ever use the recall for something bad like time to come in and stop playing, time for a bath, etc.. You want your dog to feel sure coming is always a great idea that gives treats, play, etc.. So you may have to either use a different command to end play (but give a reward) or physically bring your dog back (like for a bath).

We failed to do this with our old dog and she would only come when she wanted. With our new dog she sprints full speed when we call knowing something good is coming.

Answer 5

The difficulty can depend on the breed. Terriers are probably the most difficult to respond when they are focused on another dog, squirrel or other varmint.

In any case, call them frequently in the house, while on leash, off leash in the backyard, and treat them everytime they come to you.

Never ever allow a terrier off leash where it could run into the street. If a terrier sees a squirrle (or rat) across the street, chances are they will bolt for it and not stop.

Trying to stop a terrier from bolting for a squirrel is like trying to stop a hound from sniffing the ground.

Answer 6

All excellent advise, but please keep in mind the breed of the dog. Huskies, for example, are bred to run AWAY from you because they're pulling a sled. They also have a free spirited nature and are selectively deaf when they want to be. Under no circumstances should a husky be allowed off-leash unless in a securely fenced area. Because a husky can, and will, bolt given the chance and they have no street smarts whatsoever. They will keep running until they run into a car.

Answer 7

Give the dog it's freedom on a "long lead" (20-50 foot rope). Anytime the dog does not respond to recall real it in like a fish. Don't be giving that recall command when you can not enforce it!! Start out with no distractions and don't add them until the dog is ready.

Answer 8

Practise, practise, practise! The more you do it, the better he will listen. As long as you always reward him for coming to you. Try it on a smaller scale (in the house and then in your backyard) and then move to a larger scale (maybe have someone holding your dog leash while your dog is sitting and get kind of farther away and then call him to come and then reward him when he does). Practise makes perfect! And this is a great thing to teach, especially if he goes off leash around cars!

Answer 9

It's the hardest thing to train and even if your dog becomes very reliable, you should never assume your dog will always come, every single time.

Enroll in obedience class, they will teach you the recall. Practice it faithfully. But never assume your dog will always come and never let your dog off-leash in an unfenced area where he could run off and get hurt - it could happen in an instant. Even owners of top competitive obedience dogs don't take that risk.

Answer 10

getting him first to learn while he is on the lead. if u have him sit and stay and walk the length of ur leash and tell him to come and he comes that is good. also alot of praise when he goes come. make it a good experince if he runs away and does not listen don't scold because if u do that he won't want to come back

Answer 11

Depends on the dog, my dog comes to me when I call her...always, with no training.
But most dogs need training for that. And it's def. worth it.