Teaching Your Puppy To Come When Called
One of the principal skills you will teach your puppy is when to come when called. Puppies love to explore, and smell things, and if you want them to pay attention to your command you need to make it rewarding for them to do so. In other words, make yourself more interesting than the surrounding attractions.
The best place to start training your puppy to come when called is inside a confined area. A garden is good, but you can do it in a room as well. If you can’t use a confined area then keep the puppy on a long leash. If you don’t then you are likely to end up chasing the puppy as it runs off to explore and doesn’t respond to your calls. It may take a little longer to train the puppy in an open space as there will be more distractions there such as other dogs.
The trick is to get the puppy’s attention away from the interesting things around it. Call the puppy’s name and say “come”. When your puppy does come to you (and it may take a little while) give him or her lots of praise and a treat. Over time you can phase out the treats as the puppy will come to you just for the praise.
Keep the lessons short; a puppy has a small attention span and prolonging a session won’t do the puppy or yourself any good. In fact, you may find yourself becoming impatient. Use a light tone, not a stern one, as this is likely to confuse the puppy or make him think you’re angry. At the end of the lesson give more praise and lots of hugs.
A puppy instinctively wants to please. If you carry on teaching your puppy to come when called in a steady and consistent way, it won’t be too long before the puppy has more freedom and you have the peace of mind knowing that he or she will obey your command to come when called.
