How do I get my puppy to “come” when called?

Lindsey F: How do I get my puppy to “come” when called?
I’ve recently started training my puppy to “come” but now, she will only come if she sees a treat in my hand. Somehow she knows whether or not I have a treat and ignores me when I call her when I don’t have a treat. She does other commands like sit, down, shake, and stay when I don’t have treats, so what should I do?

Answers and Views:

Answer by lcwoahh
Clap your hands to get her attention, and when she’s looking your way, slap your thigh and call her name, and say “_Name here_, Come!!”

Hope it helps 🙂

Answer by Becky
Just keep using treats – you can use her food as treats if you are concerned about overfeeding. Eventually you won’t have to use treats but for some commands it is very hard for a puppy to ignore all of the stimulations around him/her and listen every time. Treats are a great tool.

Or – running in the opposite direction after calling come will get your puppy to chase you. When he catches you reward him for coming.

Answer by Mrs. Superman
call name, have a treat in hand

Answer by carriage
Name your puppy “Stay”

that should do the trick.

Answer by dominos8585
whistling helps. If you control how often you give her treats, you can eventually wean her off of them. It worked with all of our dogs…

Answer by Jen
Well, see, you never taught your dog to “come.” You just taught it that when you have treats in your hand, you’ll give them to her.

You should take a formal obedience class with your dog so they can teach you how to teach your dogs these things properly.

Answer by Megan
You could fake having a treat in your hand. When you call her hold your hand out in a fist so it seems you have one in your hand.

Just an idea, but what we do is when our pup follows a command we vary the reward. Sometimes it’s a treat, sometimes it a “good boy,” a pat, etc.

This way the dog doesn’t constantly assume they’re getting a treat and learn to follow commands based on a variety of rewards.

Answer by Susan B
The Recall Game

Having a dog who will reliably come when called is one of the best
things in life. This means FREEDOM for your dog. Here is how to teach
your dog to RUN to you each time you call it.

1) NEVER call your dog unless you are CERTAIN you can enforce
the command. Each time you call your dog and he does not immediately
come to you to receive a food reward, you take a step backwards in
his learning to come when you call. It is important not to make
mistakes when teaching the recall. DO NOT CALL YOUR DOG if there is
ANY chance you cannot enforce the command. EVER.
2) NEVER call your dog to you for anything unpleasant. If you
need to interrupt a play session, or you are going to trim nails, or
if you are about to do anything to your dog that he does not enjoy,
GO GET THE DOG. Do not call him to you.
3) FOOD REWARD every single recall. EVERY SINGLE ONE. This
means keeping treats in your pockets at all times.
4) Smiles are required equipment when calling your dog. NEVER
EVER call your dog in anything but a praise tone of voice. Correction
will NEVER help a recall. Your dog must WANT to come when you call.

To play the game you need at least 2 people, and several is great.
Each person is given a handful of very small soft treats. I prefer
tiny pieces of hotdogs or string cheese. Pieces should be VERY small,
even for a larger dog or puppy. I slice a hotdog in half and cut the
pieces the size of a nickle. Once people have their treats, they
should take a seat around the room with as much room between them as
the room will allow.

One person takes the puppy or dog and points him towards the person
who is going to begin the game. This person may do anything to get
the puppy to come towards him except say the word COME. Clap hands,
smile, laugh, show the treat, call PUPPPY PUPPPPY PUPPPPY, or the
dog’s name. When it is CLEAR that the pup is committed to going to
the person, and ONLY THEN, say the pup’s name, and come. For example,
Bailey, COME! It does not matter if the puppy is almost to you, as
long as the pup hears his name and the word COME while he is going
TOWARDS the person calling.

Hold the hand with the food right up next to your body so that the
puppy has to come all the way up to you and touch you to get the
treat. Do not feed the treat until you are holding the puppy’s
collar. This prevents the “snatch and run” game. Praise and pet the
puppy cheerfully while he is getting his treat. Once the pup has had
his little tiny treat, it’s time to point him towards another person
who does the same thing.

It is extremely important that the participants understand they are
NOT to say the word COME unless the puppy is already doing just that.

Play as long as the pup is interested. Main rules, Do not say COME
unless the puppy IS coming, hold the treat up CLOSE to your body, and
you must be holding the collar to feed the treat.

This simple game does more to build a reliable recall than any other
training you can do. Your pup will quickly learn that his name and
the word come means TREAT. Each time you call the pup and reward him
for coming quickly to you, you build a more ingrained and reliable
response. If you are consistent and train this game at least 2 to 3
times per week, you will have a dog who will ALWAYS come when you
call it. Most owners list this as a top priority for their dogs. Here
is a fun and simple way to attain this goal.

Practice often! Your pup will love this game, and so will your friends.

COPYRIGHT 2005/2006 Rebekah L. Pless * all rights reserved
Free for use or copy by anyone as long as author info remains intact

Answer by Riley’s Mom
I noticed with my puppy that is 6 months old that in order to get him to listen to me or come to me. I had to change my tone of voice with him. When he got to where he wouldn’t come to me if I said come here in a stern deeper voice that it would catch his attention and would come.

Answer by jennifer K
you should try clicker training