Mistakes to Avoid When Calling Your Dog – Dog Training Tips

Sep
30
2011

Mistakes to Avoid When Calling Your Dog – Dog Training Tips

One of the most important commands you will ever teach your dog is to come when you call him. There are many conceivable situations in which you might choose to call your dog. The obvious one would be that he is playing, and you need to go home.

But that is not the only time we might need our dog to obey this command. If we encounter a dangerous situation, for example, we might want our dog right by our side rather than roaming free. If he fails to respond to our command in such a dangerous situation, it could even cost him his life!

To avoid such tragedy, our dog absolutely needs to obey this command. One thing to keep in mind to make him want to come to you is to always be cheerful when he comes to you and to always reward him for this behavior. The only way to make him come consistently and reliably is for him to know that coming to you when called is the best thing in the world.

With that being said, it is actually quite easy to make mistakes when calling your dog – mistakes that would want him to NOT come to you. Here’s the two biggest:

Mistake #1: We call our dog, and he is quite busy doing something he loves. Naturally he doesn’t respond right away. He might keep playing, simply keep running around, or even keep daydreaming. But eventually he pays attention, changes his mind, and does come to us.

But having waited this long, we are less than pleased. We know he was fully aware of the command, yet he intentionally disobeyed! Hardly the kind of behavior that we desire. And naturally we would want to scold him for that.

This might feel right to us, but we have to keep in mind to be happy whenever he shows up after being called. No matter how long it took him. If we are not, the command is never going to work.

Mistake number two: This mistake is not too different from mistake number one, but we often make it unintentionally. Our dog is playing off the leash, we need to go home and call him, and he comes. We then put him on the leash and head home.

Watch out: What’s the big deal, one might ask? Well, be conscious of the fact that your dog was just enjoying himself. Then you called him, and he obeyed. If you simply put him on the leash and head home now, that will seem like the fun is over. And you don’t want him associating being called with this displeasure. Instead, play with him after he comes, finish playing, and then head home.

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