# Come



## Mollywomble (Jul 19, 2010)

Please without jumping on me - "Come" is a problem I have with Molly. At home she is fine and comes when I call (99% of the time) then at her 2nd home (I live half at BF's house) which is a large property with lots of space to run around and things to sniff, she only comes 45% of the time. I have done all my training the same way (clicker training/so food or scratches for reward) and she always come when on a lead (including very long lead) but as soon as she is off the lead she decides she can make the decision. The annoying thing is that she will do all other tricks off the lead, e.g she has been taugh to touch my hand, so I can hold it out and say touch and she will come running over which is how i normally catch her, but I really want 'come' to be established properly! 

I think I am probably better off changing "come" to "here" or a new word and starting from scratch so we can totally disassocate her current some-times coming if you know what I mean. Does this sound right? Any Ideas??


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## ponyfarm (Apr 11, 2010)

Thats tough. I would do a million "come's" with a long lead and a prong and the best treats ever (baked chicken maybe) and lots of praise. 

Set up distractions: smelly things, other people, etc...and do lots of comes. Be sneaky on when you are going to call. Cant let not "coming" become a habit. That is a bad habit and hard to break..I know from experience with wayward field lab.!!


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## koda girl (Feb 15, 2010)

I find with my dog when I have her off leash I call her often by saying "come", then I give her a treat. I have a friend that she only calls her dog when it is time to go home, so she calls and when the dog comes she pops the leash on. Next time the dog is not coming so fast knowing it is going to be caught. Koda knows most times when I call her, she gets a treat, then goes back to playing, she likes that. And she comes when ever I call her.


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## Ucdcrush (Mar 22, 2004)

I noticed that using a prong collar and giving corrections for not coming helped my dogs get the message that they need to come no matter what.

The technique is to have the dog wear the collar, and if he does not come, you go up to him, and give him prong corrections back to where you called him from, saying your recall word while walking back there. I first read about that on Leerburg. I think he advocated the dog wear a leash with the collar, but I have used it with a short leash (6 inches) hanging off the collar, so the dogs have unrestrained movement but a correction can still be applied.

I know it's not the PC way of doing it these days, and honestly, I did not spend a bunch of time training with food rewards after initially training the meaning of "come", but the prong technique does work. In fact, similar to using an e-collar, once you do that type of correction, the dog may not want to get far from you, and will be quick to return to you when you do call him (assuming you train this well, by enforcing that he will come every time, you will catch him and correct him if he ignores you, every time). To get him to venture away from you, you can put the dog in a stay then go away, reward the stay with food or praise, showing him that he can indeed be far away from you and be OK. But when he hears the recall word he knows he better come back.

Of course if you are using a short leash, you need to be in a place where you can catch him if he decides to ignore you, like a nice fenced in yard.


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## KonaK9 (Dec 1, 2010)

I have your same problem,

My dog will come about 99% of the time on a long lead, short leash, or in the house.... I can even leave a leash trailing behind her and she'll usually listen however as soon as a lead is disconnected from her she immediately disobeys...its a whole new mindset.

Lately she has been sneaking out the front door that a roommate forgets to close all the way and wont come back into the house until very late in the evening (probably when she gets hungry) needless to say animal control showed up at my house today due to the past 2 or 3 times she got loose. It has now become a serious problem and I cant seem to brake her of that mentality.

Everything I read about "come" always seems to be easier said than done...or maybe Im missing something, I wish I knew a good local trainer to aid in this issue.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

I use 'Come' and 'Here' on my dog, but they both have different meanings. 'Come' means he has to come directly to me, stop what ever he is doing right now, come to me and sit (I'll point either in front of me or at the heel position). 'Come' is very formal. 'Come' is used when a stranger comes into our yard. 'Come' is used if I need him to me right now. No questions asked.

'Here' means I need him to come back to where I can see him. Or come back towards me. We live in the country as well. If he goes running through the pasture and is getting too far ahead, I'll say "Here!" and he'll change directions, come back towards me but continue to sniff and play around. If I'm sitting on the porch and I can't see him, I'll say "Here!" and he'll come back to where I can see him. If he comes to me, I reward him, but I don't expect him to. 

If I am working horses, and I have the dog out as well, there are times when I don't want him next to me. I don't want him in the round pen when I've got a horse in there. But I also don't want him running into the neighbor's pasture. I want him to stay close - where I can keep an eye on him. 'Here' does that for me. It works for me. It may not be politically correct, but in my situation I had to get creative. 

I train on 'Come' because I don't use it often. I want him fresh and crisp on it. When you have your dog off-lead, he has to be. I admit, if I'm in a situation where 'Come' is going to fail, like when he is running after a cat, I won't use it. If he sees the cat and hesitates, I can say "Come" and he'll come to me. But if he is in motion after the cat, he most likely will come to me only after the cat gets away. I won't use it if I know we are going to fail. I don't want him to know I can't enforce it when he is in hot pursuit. I do however, have other things that I say and do when he is in prey drive. I save 'Come'.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

Mollywomble said:


> Please without jumping on me - "Come" is a problem I have with Molly. At home she is fine and comes when I call (99% of the time) then at her 2nd home (I live half at BF's house) which is a large property with lots of space to run around and things to sniff, she only comes 45% of the time.


I wanted to add that my dog is now 19 months old. So we've been working with him since he was 8 weeks old. This takes time. 

A really fun game that you can play with your pup and your BF is going out to the pasture. Both you and your BF have some high value treats. One person holds your pup. Pet her, love her, get her excited while the other walks off a short distance. Then make sure she sees the other person - have the person call her, "Molly! Come!" and release her. The orginal person is dead quiet while the person calling keeps calling her, "Come! Hurry! Come! Good Girl!" etc. Get her really excited. If she wanders off, then the distance was too great. Only increase the distance when she 'plays' by the rules. 

Make sure you quit the game before she does. But the more you play and the more excited you keep her the longer the distance can get. As our boy got really good (He loves it now) we added "Find Him/Her". And that is where the other person actually hides while the first holds him. We even play at night in the dark. Our GSD loves it, and it all started from that one little game of 'come'.


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## Pattycakes (Sep 8, 2010)

I'm working on the "come" command with my dog right now too. She too only comes about 40% of the time when she is off leash, but comes about 99% of the time when on leash. 

Thanks for some of these ideas.


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## Mollywomble (Jul 19, 2010)

KonaK9 thankgod you seem to have the same problem as me lol! i thought i must be the worst owner ever since my dog doesnt come! 
Hmm some ideas there are cool thanks - tho I have no idea what a prong collar is and don't want anything to do with it if it causes any kind of pain like it sounds like it does lol (correct me if im wrong, but I am also very anti shock collars for teaching anymore than staying within a property boundry) And lillie she can play games like that (not quite up to find people but i will definately start doin that again and progress to that because it would be useful!) btu she can do come once she knows she is playing a game e.g from one person to another without a problem. It is forexample when she smells something more interesting - e.g a chicken trail that she ignores me and I am really stuck on ho to improve for that. MAybe I should just leave a long lad on her for a week and grab it when i need too? I also taugh her by calling come just to a treat or scratchs, as I don't take her to "dog parks" she doesnt really ever get called to be taken home if you know what i mean?


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

You have to be more fun than whatever the dog may be interested in. Make sure that when training, if you call the dog, get really excited when they come as though they just won the doggie lottery for coming.

Don't punish the dog - EVER - if they don't come right away. Your dog will never come to you if you punish them. If the dog blows through the command and you catch up to them, I would absolutely give the collar a pop and then back on lead for further training. That is ASSUMING this is an adult dog that knows the command, which it sounds like, and is choosing to ignore you.

I would go to an e-collar if the dog was really persistant, though I haven't had to do that with any of mine thus far.


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## KonaK9 (Dec 1, 2010)

I agree with you rerun, though I am almost entirely against shock collars and things of the like...the problem with not coming can and has turned into a serious and dangerous problem with her. If I could afford an ecollar I would probably try it on her.

I would much rather her fear a potential small shock and come every time than choose to disobey one time and be hit by a car or worse.

Obviously a loving owner wouldn't abuse the e-collar and it would only be used when necessary so i dont believe in that case its too harmful for the dog



....I think of it like spanking your kids. My father always used a belt on the back of my legs when I was young, it stung like crazy for a split second however it probably taught me lessons that saved my life.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

I should clarify, I do own and have used the e-collar for various training (not OB, but things such as counter surfing, door jumping, etc) but haven't ever had to use it for the come command as - knock knock - mine are all very responsive to it.

Our e-collar, and I believe most if not all of them, have a button that just emits a beeping noise. When paired early on with the static, the dogs learn fast that the beep is their warning. Therefore, mine respond to just the sound fabulously, but would blow right through it if they knew there was no pop to back it up should they proceed.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

she's smart. she's figured out she can get away with
not coming when off leash. train, train, train. work on leash.
slowly include off leash recall. find a trainer if necessary.


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## Mollywomble (Jul 19, 2010)

doggiedad that not helpful she IS good on leash but bad off leash. I am asking HOW i retrain her. and we don't have 'dog trainers' around here, i am from a dif country and they are far between in main centers (where i am not)


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Mollywomble said:


> ....we don't have 'dog trainers' around here, *i am from a dif country *and they are far between in main centers (where i am not)


It would be helpful if you put your general location in your profile, so it appears below your username in all your posts. Otherwise people will likely continue to assume that you live in the US and you'll have to explain it over and over again.


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

KonaK9 said:


> Lately she has been sneaking out the front door that a roommate forgets to close all the way and wont come back into the house until very late in the evening (probably when she gets hungry) needless to say animal control showed up at my house today due to the past 2 or 3 times she got loose. It has now become a serious problem and I cant seem to brake her of that mentality.


The bigger problem here seems to me to be that your roommate keeps forgetting to close the door all the way. A solid recall would be nice, but it would be even better if she couldn't sneak out the front door in the first place. Maybe some retraining of the humans in the household is in order. How would the roommate feel if your dog was killed due to his/her irresponsible actions?


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