Come Here and Go To
Teaching a dog to Come when Called is easy with Lure-Reward Training. That said, you probably don’t want your dog to simply come when called. Instead, you probably want them to Come Sit and Stay. If you fail to make this distinction, you’ll probably end up with a dog that runs right past you, or ducks and dodges you when you try to take hold of their collar.
So instead, teach your dog to Come, Sit and Stay. When they do, take them by their collar before you reward them, to ensure that you can when you need to, and so that they learn to enjoy having their collar grabbed.
Let’s break it down using the four steps of Lure Reward Training:
1. Say, “Rover, Come” and 2. Quickly back away from the dog and 3. As the dog approaches, 4. Praise and offer encouragement. When the dog is just a couple of dog-lengths away, 1. Say, “Rover, Sit” and then, 2. Give a handsignal to Sit and 3. Once the dog has sat, 4. Take the collar, praise and offer a piece of kibble and then release your dog’s collar as you say “Free Dog.”
Practice indoors first and then in your yard and then other people’s yards and maybe with other dogs before you attempt this exercise at the dog park or in other very distracting environments.
It can be a very good idea to get someone to help you train your dog because then you can call your dog back and forth. This is a great way to train recalls and an excellent way to exercise your dog.
Even better, get another person or two to join you for Round Robin Recalls. Have everyone spread out around the house, in different rooms, or outside in different corners of your yard, or the park.
The key is that only one person at a time may give instructions to the dog. The person in control of the dog says, “Rover, Go to Ian” and then stands still and ignores the dog. Now Ian is the only one who is going to instruct the dog and he will say, “Rover, Come Here” and encourage the dog to approach. Ian praises the dog as they approach, instructs the dog to Sit, takes the collar, praises some more and maybe offers a piece of kibble for super-fast responses.
Then Ian says, “Rover, Go to Kelly”, or any person of his choice. At which point Kelly will call the dog. The dog will quickly learn to anticipate that when someone says, “Rover, Go to Kelly”, it’s always going to be Kelly who calls them to Come, so they’ll start going to Kelly before Kelly even calls to them.
This is a wonderful way to teach your dog the names of all family members and close friends, which can be extremely useful as a personal search-and-rescue dog, or even an in-house messenger service.
My Dad used to use his Malamute, Phoenix, to deliver notes. He would say, “Phoenie, Come Here, Take this and Go to Jamie, please.” Phoenie understood the words, Phoenie, Come, Take, Go to, Jamie, and Please and he was happy to oblige. My Dad used to call it Malamute Mail.
I remember playing in the garden one day, Phoenix delivered a note that read, “Dinner is Ready. Come now, or it’s mine. Love, Phoenix.”
Also, it’s useful to teach your dog to Go to… different places, like, “Go to your Bed” for example. The four steps of Lure Reward Training would be: 1. Say, “Rover, Go to your Bed” where 2. An accomplice has already placed three pieces of kibble on the bed to act as a lure and 3. the dog gets to the bed, where 4. You praise as the dog eats the kibble.
Then say “Rover, Come Here” and reward Rover when he does so. Alternate between “Rover, Go to your Bed” and “Rover, Come Here”. Each time your dog heads towards you, your accomplice should refresh the bed with kibble.
As your dog gets the hang of it, you can start asking your dog to lie down on their bed as well. If your dog goes to their bed reliably and promptly whenever you ask them to, you’ll be able to resolve a very long list of household behavior problems.