2 Strange Rules That Make Your Dog Want to Come When Called

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Rule 1: Never use the recall word for anything bad.

If you want a dog who comes running the moment you call, the word "Come" has to mean good things, every single time.

Most owners break this rule without noticing. A dog digs up the garden, the owner calls him over, and he gets a telling-off. Professional dog trainer Dan Stevens uses the example of a dog called Major. Major learned that "Come here" means "you're in trouble", so the next time he was called in for dinner, he ran the other way.

Dogs know only dog language when they come to live with us, so it's up to us to teach them ours. To Major, "Come" had come to mean an angry owner. It needs to mean "get to me as fast as you can, because something good is waiting".

If you need your dog beside you for something he won't enjoy, Dan's advice is to give a firm "Sit" and go and get him yourself. Keep "Come" for the good stuff.

Rule 2: Never give a command you can't back up straight away.

This one surprises people. Calling "Come" while your dog is across the park chasing a squirrel is, in Dan's words, doomed to failure.

If he doesn't respond, there's nothing you can do to enforce it in that moment, so he learns that "Come" is optional. Every unanswered call makes the word weaker.

Instead, practise recall where you can reward him the moment he gets to you, and build up from there.

Anna from New York wrote to Dan after using his methods: "Now anytime I call my puppy to come, he rans as fast as he can, because he knows that he will get a lot of love for coming to me"

Dan covers recall step by step in Secrets to Dog Training, along with over 25 behavior problems, from barking and jumping up to house training. Here's where you can see it...

See Secrets to Dog Training (affiliate link)