Teaching “Come”, the Elusive Dog Behavior

“Come” is the most difficult of all behaviors to teach dogs. From my experience, that is primarily because we humans use this word/command in a non-specific manner. We use “come” to mean, get in the car, heel, turn around, get out of the car and a plethora of other things.  While we may understand the “concept”, dogs don’t. They must have a specific meaning to each command.  We must have a clear picture in our head of what “come” should mean in order to teach it and have reliability in performance.

What “come” should mean to the dog is, “go from wherever you are at and sit in front of me”. Nothing else is acceptable.  The reason the dog should sit in front of you is because in an emergency, such as you are hiking and come around the corner and there is a moose, your dog should come right back to you and sit so you can grab his collar.  (Yes this happens to hikers in our area!)  It should always mean the same thing. When you allow your dog to come, grab a snack and take off again without sitting, you lose the ability to protect your dog in an emergency.

We forget that everything is training for a dog.  If the definition of “come” changes every day, the dog will always be confused.  Then, when there is an emergency, the dog cannot perform the behavior necessary to save his life.  Consistency in what you reward every day is what will prepare your dog to be able to do this command in a life threatening situation.

And most of all, you must be prepared to make yourself better than anything the environment can give the dog. If the environment is more fun than you are, the dog will always choose what the environment rewards him with for NOT coming when he is called.  That means you must find what the reward is that is more important to the dog than the scent of a deer, the sight of another animal, or even other people.  You must be prepared to reward your dog significantly for his good behavior. That reward must be whatever is most important to YOUR dog.  Food may not always be the most important reward. 

“Come” can be the most elusive command, but must be paid attention to everyday and rewarded consistently but is the most lifesaving command you can teach.