Teaching Come

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Does anyone have any tips for clicker training and "COME". My 7 month old will come for awhile and then gets bored with the whole click and treat thing. I use some really tasty reinforcers, liver treats,(I bake) cooked chicken, turkey dogs, and if he's had enough, he's just not coming. What do you suggest.?

[Adina P]

Are you still in the teaching phase where you're not quite sure if he understands what behavior he is to give? Or have you already named the behavior and he understands the word 'Come'?

Also tell us how you taught or are teaching it. What is your criteria for come so far? What do you want the finished product to look like? Where have you practiced? Have you used luring? Do you practice when he's hungry? Is he generally food motivated? How many repetitions do you do in one session (since he seems to be getting bored)?

:)

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Adina, I started when he was very young and before DK started the clicker training course, so I did use lures and I did name it. He seems to come when he feels like it so I think he understands the word. I then started with saying Murphy come, click and treat, He caught on quickly that clicker meant treats and I started the teaching around the house where it is quiet and few distractions. Criteria has been just coming towards me, no matter the pace and yes I have repeated the command at times. I want the finished product to be a "stop in your tracks and come quickly" to me. Both for safety and convenience.
Hungry....well he is somewhat food motivated, but after several treats, he seems like he's had enough and then stops paying attention. I have been guilty of trying to train COME for more than 20 mins at a time and I keep hoping that i will find the magic trick to accomplish this command.

[Adina P]

Hmmm...I'm just throwing ideas out...not sure which will quite be the solution:

1) It might work better if the criteria were a position rather than a movement. For example, in competition obedience, come means = arrive in front of me as soon as possible and sit straight facing me until I give you further instruction. I think if you aimed for that it would increase your chance of success. Come is not 'running' or 'walking' in a certain way, but getting into that key position ASAP. You have to define 'come' as a specific result (so you can't say come means 'come quickly' to me ...because that still leaves 'come' undefined).

2) If you want to go the clicker training route, which is the only thing we're covering in THIS group, you might consider changing your word entirely in order to teach it brand new with NO luring and with this new criteria you work up to gradually. I haven't taught the recall like this myself so I'm guessing at it. I am sure if you email the canis clicker training folks they will have some ideas...if you do, please share it with us here =) If not, then this site on Training Levels has a really nice step-by-step clicker outline for training the recall .. first in a very easy way and then more and more advanced, might be worth checking out: http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Levels/LevelBehaviours/Traini... -- you'll have to play around with the set up of the site, it's not always plainly obvious how to proceed.

3) I would keep sessions short...better to repeat 20 times a day than to drill it 20 min at a time the same exact way.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

I am playing with the clicker training too. The clicker is to help the dog understand what you want by marking the exact instant that he does what you want. In clicker training it is really impportant to remove the clicker once you have shifted the behavior to a word or hand signal. Since your dog already seems to understand come, I think the clicker is needlessly complicating the training.

In my experience this only way too get a truly reliable come is to NEVER use the word come unless you can enforce it. By that I mean a long ( start with 10-15 feet and increas slowly over time to 100 ft) lead hooked to his collar. That means probably two years of consistently working on Come with a lead on. Say come and if he comes treat. If he does not come, pop the lead, hard, and turn and walk away from him at the same time.

Since I ofter want some cooperation when my dogs do not have their lead on, I use "lets' go" for the unreenforced come, meaning treats will be forthcoming if you go with me. I still always turn and walk away when I say let's go, as a dog is much more apt to follow a moving away thing ( chasing squirrels, cars, toddlers, etc) as it activates an instinct. Teaching a truly reliable come with you standing still facing the dog is one of the very hardest things to teach. Come should always result in a pleasant or neutral experience - no nail trimming , scolding etc. Use breakfast or dinner for the reward when you are really working on come and save the "goodies" he gets bored with for lets go. Dogs who are hungry don't get bored with food, so stop when he is still really excited about eating and let the last come have the rest of the meal as a really big reward.

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Thanks ladies, I really needed this to get back on track., I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong. !. Have been luring, 2. have used the word COME much too much without reinforcements and without being able to enforce the come if he just doesn;t listen, 3.Standing facing him and expecting him to come 4. have used it to put on his leash or stop him from playing with other dogs to go home....all no-no's. So I will start over the right way and will email canis clicker and share that as you suggested and also I printed out the level one from dragonflyllama.
2 years you say...OY!
Thanks again....let the training begin...again....

[Lynne B]

Some things that have helped me: Don't ever use 'come' if the dog will experience something negatve if it does come to you. i.e. don't use come and then grab the dog and trim it's nails lol. It's not entirely natural to a dog to 'come' if you are facing the dog, you might get better results initially if you turn away from the dog when you give the command and start to walk or run away from him. When you use 'come' get really excited, clap your hands, whistle, even give the dog a play bow. Initiallly it doesn't matter what you do to get him to you, it's the fact that he does come that will allow you to build on that success. With all that said, you might have a lazy doodle like I do- when he gets bored he just lays down and does nothing lol, when that happens I know that the training session went on too long so I shorten the next one

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

Oh Lynne, that;s funny....I have been putting off the "L" word as I need him to be energetic enough to run with me.,..but sometimes he just plops down after even a few feet and gives me the "Are you kidding me?" look. Lazy is a possibility. Or it's just too hot, or the session has gone on too long.....I am making notes of all the ideas and tips and see what works best for us. Thanks

[Lynne B]

Beck is seriously lazy, even his instructor agrees. For example, when he plays tug of war with our australian shepherd, Beck will get up on the futon that we let the dogs lay on and lay there with the toy in his mouth and make the aussie stay on the floor and do all the work. A few weeks ago we took to a shopping center so that he could practice not jumping on people when they greeted him. After about 15 minutes of having people come up to him and pet him and stuff, he just laid down on the sidewalk and went to sleep and we had a really hard time waking him up to take him home. I have NEVER had a puppy like this! I love him to death and wouldn't want to change anything about him, but wow..he is lazy