Why teach "Come"

  • Safety

    Being able to successfully call your dog could stop them from running into oncoming traffic, approaching a dangerous animal, or prevent them from encountering other life-threatening situations

  • Rewarding

    Learning new cues and tricks can be fun and rewarding for dogs, and "Come" is no exception

  • Explore off-leash

    Once your dog has reliable recall, and assuming they're social with other dogs and people, you can consider letting them off leash

Come - Level 1

Setting your dog up for success

When teaching "Come" it's really important to set up your dog's training environment to help them be successful. This means:

• Practicing in a quiet area with with no distractions

• Offering your dog high value rewards such as lamb lung or whatever your dog loves

• Staying inside, using a long leash or practicing in a fenced in area until your dog reliably comes when called

Objective

The objective of level 1 is for your dog to start to associate the word “Come” with good things like treats!

Follow these steps when practicing level 1

• Grab a handful of treats, stand in front of your dog, say “Come!” and drop a treat on the floor by your feet. The treat you choose should be something your dog LOVES

• To practice, schedule at home training sessions 3-5x per week, and repeat the exercise 8-10 times for 2 weeks


Come - Level 2

Objective

The objective of level 2 is for your dog to reliably come when come - in a low distraction environment.

Follow these steps when practicing level 2

• Grab a handful of treats, stand in front of your dog, say “Come!” and drop a treat on the floor by your feet

• Once your dog has eaten the treat, toss another treat 5-10 feet away

• As soon as your dog eats the treat, say “Come!” and then give your dog another treat when they come to you

• When your dog is eating the treat, toss another treat 5-10 feet away 

• To practice, schedule at home training sessions 3-5x per week and gradually increase the distance and add in distractions over time.


Example

Alisonjoy from School for the Dogs practicing "Come"


Products we love

• Lamb lung. Dogs love these and they're perfect because they're very small.