This is a handout I created years ago and have given to many clients. If you are struggling with “come”, check to see whether you are doing these things first.
Tips for Come
Always reinforce, always with something special. Your dog’s preferences determine what is special. Maybe it’s a game of tug, maybe it’s a special treat, maybe it’s some nice neck scratches or some time to sniff a light post.
Do not only call for possibly unpleasant events such as a bath or leaving an off leash area. Instead calmly and gently go get your dog. If there are events that are consistently unpleasant for your dog, work with a (professional, positive) trainer to work on that! Even bath time can be enjoyable with training.
Call and release back to the activity your dog was enjoying as often as possible so that coming to you doesn’t end the current activity.
Surprise reinforcers! – Treats around the house, extra special treats, or other unexpected fun for your dog.
Call only once. Only call after you have your dog’s attention (I use a name cue for attention first – if they don’t look when you call their name, they probably won’t come to you). If you repeat their name or the “come” cue over and over, it will just become background noise. The word will quickly lose its meaning.
Only call if you are sure your dog will listen. (Would you bet $50 she or he will come?) If you aren’t sure, gently go up to him to get him instead of calling and practice more.
Teach your dog that touching their collar is a positive thing! Some dogs will mouth, nip or growl when you take their collar – if this is something your dog struggles with, work with a (professional, positive) trainer to teach this one.
Dan has a cyst on his toe that he is licking constantly. The vet said he needs to stop licking. A cone is the easiest way to do this, but Dan hasn’t worn a cone since he got neutered as a puppy. He’s 8 now. I haven’t done any training around wearing a cone with him, although it is now high on my list for both Dan and Doug.
Because I want the cone to be as low-stress as possible, I decided to introduce it slowly. Putting it on and leaving it on right away could be unpleasant and might result in all sorts of avoidance-behaviors or escape-behaviors like pawing it, rubbing it on the ground, or hiding when we pick up the cone to put it on. In the meantime, that we have had to use socks to prevent licking (vet-approved) for now. This is not ideal because they don’t stay on well, but Dan is more used to the socks and it seemed like the least intrusive solution while we work on the cone training.
The cone training is going faster than I expected. My best guess is that maybe our muzzle training is similar enough that there’s a bit of generalization there. We began Saturday morning and are still working on it, but I wanted to share some of the training sessions we’ve done so far.
Generally the steps I’ve used have been:
Introduce the cone, yes+treat for sniffing or interacting with it. (Video 1)
Put head into cone voluntarily–> yes+treat and release word “ok” for pulling head back to take it off. (Video 2)
Wear cone while doing known tricks. This is something I learned from Muzzle Up!’s Maureen Backman. That by doing tricks and playing little games while wearing a muzzle, dogs can contact reinforcement for moving while wearing the thing. (Video 3)
Wear cone while doing the “bed” behavior. This one I decided was critical because ideally he will wear the cone while relaxing and just hanging out. I wanted to be sure Dan could easily navigate to his bed, lie down in the cone, and get back up. It was also a way to add a little bit of duration with a stay on the bed. (Video 4)
Yard walk. We did a few laps around the yard together, frequent treats for coming to me when I called, a chance to try munching on grass and sniffing while wearing the cone. This went so well that I left it on for about 30 minutes while we sat in the yard together. (No video, but photos at the bottom).
Sunday afternoon we tried to have him wear the cone while we watched a little TV. After about 15 minutes he began to paw at the cone. So we took it off immediately. This might be the most important part of the training. I want to be sure that Dan does not practice lots of pawing, or pulling the cone off. This is information to me that he wasn’t ready for that situation. This is one of those escape-behaviors that I want to prevent from popping up. It could be the context of the TV room while wearing the cone doesn’t have enough reinforcement behind it yet or maybe the duration was too long or maybe his foot itched more during this time. Licking has been more likely during TV time than during yard time, so that could be playing a role as well. Cone on during TV time is what we will work on next. (No video)
These steps might be different for different dogs – this isn’t meant to be a training plan or formula. I just wanted to share what I’ve done with Dan so you can see how I gradually introduced the cone. So far, he comes up to us, tail wagging, when we pick it up. My goal is for that behavior to be a lasting response to the sight of the cone and for Dan to be able to wear the cone for longer periods of time, comfortably, so that we can get a bit of a break from putting his sock on over and over again.
1. Introduction to the cone, begin head-in
2. Practicing head in and out of the cone
3. Tricks with cone on
4. Practicing “bed” with cone on
Dan on deck with cone – first time leaving it on for a few minutes
Dan and Doug, hanging out in the yard. First longer duration for wearing the cone.
Last week, I asked the question “why do we teach sit?” The question was really meant to re-evaluate why we teach a dog any behavior. So many things we teach seem to be just the standard – a set of things every dog should know. But why?
Here’s what I think. I believe the reason we teach our dogs to sit isn’t always the reason we should have for teaching them to sit. If you take a basic obedience class, chances are you will learn to teach your dog how to sit, down, come, stay, walk on a leash (maybe), and leave it. But then what? I betcha that most people go home and don’t use most of these behaviors ever again, because they aren’t really taught how to use them.
So, why should you teach your dog to sit? Because it is a great tool! You can ask for a sit before your dog has a chance to jump up – do that every time and soon she will learn the pattern “approach person, sit, get petting”.
Some other uses for the sit behavior:
To get your dog to stop moving forward on leash (and therefore stop pulling)
To keep “4 on the floor” when there is food on the counter, a person walking in the door, or someone carrying a casserole to the table.
To prevent door dashing
To keep your dog from rushing up to another animal/child/person
To have your dog in a stationary spot before asking her to release a toy (can’t tug on a toy or run away with it if she’s sitting!)
I hope that by now you are thinking “hmm, every one of those items is to prevent unwanted behavior”. Yes! Exactly. The behaviors we teach our dog are all tools to ask them what we do want them to do in a specific situation. By teaching sit, down, come, stay, walk on leash, leave it, etc – and teaching them well – you have tools to direct your dog to good behavior when they might otherwise do something undesirable (to us). These are all communication tools to help our dogs understand how to live in our homes and communities without causing trouble.
I think that we need to shift our thinking about training our dogs. The purpose of taking a training class should be to learn how to live with your dog, how to ask your dog for good behavior (and therefore reduce the bad behavior) and to build a relationship with your dog.
So, the next time you teach your dog something new – think about all of the ways you could use your new tool to ask for something good from your dog!
Over the past few months, I have spent a lot of time updating my group class curriculum. I have two big projects in the works that are going to require a more robust curriculum than I currently use.
The first is about to launch! I have a brand new set of classes that I will be teaching at Doggone Fun Daycare this spring. There are two main sets of classes, one for basic training and the other for agility training. These classes provide a way for students to continue on past the first class they take in a more cohesive way.
The other project is not quite ready to be announced – but check back soon for the grand reveal. It’s a big one!
One of my goals in restructuring my curriculum is to provide more useful classes for my students. To me, this means a class where the content is applicable to daily life with your dog. In the more traditional content I have been teaching, we go through all of the standard dog behaviors – sit, down, come, stay, walk on leash, leave it, etc.
But why? Why have these behaviors become the standard? Why do we teach our dogs to sit?
Leave your ideas and comments below and I will follow up with my answers to these questions next week.
Sometimes, a toy can be more practical or more rewarding than a food item. However, it takes practice to use a toy as an effective reinforcer. Remember – the dog decides if it is reinforcing, not you! If he isn’t interested or the target behavior isn’t increasing, then it isn’t a reinforcer.
Before you can use a toy as a reinforcer you need to understand what about the toy is exciting to your dog. There are several ways for your dog to interact with a toy:
Holding the toy
Chomping/Chewing on the toy
Tugging with the toy
Chasing the toy while you wiggle it
Chasing a tossed toy
Catching a toy in the air
Here’s a video example of Dan doing each of these:
Try each of these little games with your dog and see what he enjoys. Try to rank them in order and mark games your dog didn’t have much interest in with an “x”. Now, play each of them again in a brand new place and rank them – did the order change? Are there more or less “x”s?
Sometimes the type of toy alters the type of game your dog might like – for example, he might like to chomp on a ball better than catching it in the air. But he might like to catch a Frisbee in the air better than chomping on it.
List 5 of your dogs favorite types of toy and try to write down the top game for that toy.
How you deliver the toy can affect the behavior you get, just like the placement of a treat can affect the behavior. For example, if you are working on “4 Feet on the Floor”, be sure to present the toy from below your dog’s nose. If you hand it to him from above, he will be likely to jump up to get it!
Just like with treat training, you should use a reward marker for the behavior you like with toys too. You can use a clicker, the word “Yes!”, or the word “Good!” with both toys and treats. Just be sure the toy/treat is reinforcing so that the clicker doesn’t lose it’s meaning to your dog!
Another important piece of training with toys is to be sure that the toy is valuable. One way to help with this is to purchase 3-4 toys that are just for rewards in formal training sessions. Most dogs prefer new toys to the toys they play with all the time. My dog even prefers a new Chuck-It ball to an older Chuck-It ball! Be sure to have a variety in your toy reserve – a ball and several tug toys with different textures might be a good idea. That way you can add variety to the toy reward too. This is just like the concept of choosing a high-value treat for practice with distractions or difficult behaviors. I often suggest using boiled chicken or string cheese when you aren’t training at home, because these treats are extra special for most dogs!
Finally, and most important, be sure to carry out the game for a bit with your dog during each reinforcement period. Most of the time, just giving your dog the toy won’t be reinforcing and therefore won’t accomplish anything. The interaction with the toy is the reinforcer, not just the presence of the toy.
One Last Note: What if your dog doesn’t like toys or doesn’t play any of the games? You can teach him to enjoy these things, but it will take a little practice. One strategy is to use a toy that can hold food so that you can transfer the value of food to the toy. Another strategy is to give food as a reinforcer for engaging in play (you may have to shape this in the beginning). Squeakers, fur-like material and even the scent of a toy that another dog used can all increase interest in the toy for some dogs. It is worth your while to work on building value in at least one or two of the toy-play games so that you have a variety of reinforcers in your toolbox.
