DOG Training TOYS

The Second Month

Moving into the second month, a number of improvements will be added to the “come” concept. First, you will start to use the command when the dog is farther and farther away from you. Second, you will start to wean the dog off food rewards.
At this point, you are working on some exercises with no distrac¬tions and others with distractions. Assuming you’ve done this consis¬tently, most owners should have close to 100 percent response with no distractions. This means when you coax your dog, she comes zipping to you every time. If your dog falls into this category, you’re going to start to do what the top trainer at Animal Behavior College, Debbie Kendrick, calls “upping the ante.” This means you are going to stop rewarding the dog 100 percent of the time with food or play. Instead, you are going to reward only the best responses. This will cause the dog to work that much harder to receive the reward. You will slowlycontinue to up the ante, meaning you will only reward better and bet¬ter responses.

Variation Five: Teaching Come From a Distance, Weaning Off Food, Continuing to Work With Distractions

To start off, do the group come game with distractions. Watch your dog. When she comes to you, does she sometimes come quickly and other times stop to sniff or come more slowly to you? If yes, she should only receive the food reward for coming quickly. This does not mean she shouldn’t be praised and petted for coming. It simply means the food or toy reward should be withheld until you see the more desired fast response.
If speed isn’t an issue, look at other possible weaknesses. Does the dog sniff and stop during some part of the come game? If so, when the dog does get to…