Congratulations! You’ve made a good start with your dog. You’ve addressed some issues and have listed others that you’ll be working on.
One of the most important commands is “Come.” This command can save your dog’s life. Wouldn’t it be great if your dog came to you, no matter what? No matter what distractions might be around, if you had a reliable “recall” (what people who compete in obedience call the command “Come”), you could go out and about and not worry about your dog.
In this course you’ll learn 5 fun and easy games to play with your dog to reinforce the “Come!” command while relying on his instincts. Yes, his innate instincts!
Have fun!
And don’t forget to print out a couple of worksheets to keep track of your progress (this one is 2 pages).
And here’s a short video of Simon playing the “Catch Me” game. We started in a very small space with no distractions. We’ll be increasing distance separately from distractions.
Here’s the Hand Touch game in a very small, distraction-free space. Increase space and distractions separately once your dog loves this game. Notice that Fran’s hand is low, and Fran is not moving it, so Simon has to actively smack his little pushed-in face into her palm. (Your dog may not be quite as enthusiastic in sticking his nose into your palm. That’s OK.)