We have just returned from the park, my 11 mos. old
standard poodle and I. We were working on his obedience around
distractions. With mild distractions, he’s pretty good. We
have quite a way to go before he is performing in a high distraction
area. While at the park, I witnessed a scene that compelled me to
write this article.
On one side of the park we were working on our
obedience, and on the other side was a man and his
Rottweiler. We were using them as our distraction, unknown to
them. I’ve seen this dog before and felt for her. She has
made several attempts to come and visit my dogs, only to have her neck
choked very hard. Today he was doing some sort of training.
I’m not sure if the owner was trying to get the dog to retrieve or just
to come to him. I was very involved with my guy when I heard the
scream. A scream of pain, there was no mistaking it.
After being stopped in my tracks, I proceeded to watch
what was going on. The scream had come from the Rottweiler, while
they were training. The man was letting his dog wander to the end
of an extendable leash and choke collar. He would then call her to
him. When she didn’t come, he would inflict an almighty
correction. This correction is where the scream came from.
It was repeated, the dog didn’t come, the correction did and so did the
scream. Each time, the dog sensed his owners aggression, she hit
the ground, cringing and rolling over. This was supposed to entice
the dog to come? I wouldn’t come, I would try very hard to escape
this situation.
I find it very difficult not to step in and educate
people, but, I have learned when it is best not to. This man was
very angry. After attempting the come several times, he looked
over at me and then dragged his dog home with him. With every come
command, his dog had gotten worse and worse. By the time the man
was leaving, the dog was straining at the end of the leash, trying to
maintain a good distance from her owner.
This is an all too familiar scene. A long time ago
I trained my dogs the same way, before I knew. I never achieved a
reliable recall with this method and had very unhappy dogs. Why do we
expect a dog to drop what it is doing and rush to us? Because we
say so? And if they don’t come fast enough, we choke them.
Think about this. If a friend of yours kept calling you over while
you were in the middle of something very important, just to say ‘good.’
Would keep going over? Or would you finally stop going, would you
not get aggravated at this friend? Now, if the same friend called
you time and time again. Every time you came you received a
chocolate truffle, you would keep coming happily wouldn’t you?
To get and keep a reliable recall from your dog, you
must reward it for coming. You must train and train and train.
You start out in a quiet area until your dog gets the idea. You
then move to more and more distractions as your dog succeeds. You
must never, EVER associate anything that your dog would consider
negative to the word ‘come.’ A negative association to ‘come’
slows down the dogs response. Do use the command ‘Come’ when
feeding, walking, playing or petting your dog. When you don’t
follow the command ‘Come’ with a positive activity, you should ALWAYS
reward your dog with a food treat or favorite toy. ‘Come’ could
someday save your dogs life, but not if they don’t come.
Some dogs, like my
Jack Russell need to be rewarded for a longer period of time.
Even now at the age of 5 years, she is still rewarded for coming when
highly distracted. She will stop, mid rabbit chase and come when
called. But, this is only because it is well worth her while to do
so. This goes against what her instinct tells her to do. But
it has been ingrained so well by training, training, training, that it
overrides her instinct. Pretty impressive in my books.
This does not happen overnight, this took a lot of
training and rewarding good behavior. You cannot make a dog come when
off leash, they must want to come. This is done by patient
training. Having a close bond with your dog is definitely a key
factor. If you are an unreliable, unpredictable leader, you will
have an unreliable recall. Be a patient, kind and fair leader and
you will have a dog that wants to come to you. Consistent,
positive ‘come’ training will give you a reliable recall.
Sherri Regalbuto is a professional dog trainer in
California
Copyright©2001 Sherri Regalbuto
Used with Permission
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