Preschool Puppy Training: Teaching Your Pup To Come When Called
On August 25, 2010 in General
You must make sure in your preschool puppy training that your puppy should be slowly conditioned to expect his daily 10 minute walk, while learning that rewards like treats or praise go hand-in-hand.
While having each walk with the puppy, take notice to see if he is lost in thought with the sights or sounds around him. When this happens, repeat the following maneuver: kneel down, say your puppy’s name, followed by the command “come”. Gently pull him to you, give him the tasty treat and then praise him. You have 10 minutes, and four tidbits, to get four “come” maneuvers in during each daily walk for days 4, 5, 6, and 7 - of the pup’s ninth week of age.
Why So Many Treats?
You may question, why it’s necessary to give the puppy a treat in each instance that the “come” maneuver is executed. We don’t want the tidbit reward to become the prime motivating factor in later training, as would happen if we were to give the tidbit all of the time - and for all responses.
Consider this thought: we’re teaching the pup how to learn, knowing that using the praise alone, just isn’t that big of a payoff at his being a puppy.
By the end of your puppy’s ninth week of age, he will realize that the play toy doesn’t get tossed for him to retrieve until he allows himself to be placed in the sitting position. The fact that you will again toss the toy becomes the prime motivating factor, with praise being secondary. As the game must be ending, there must be some reward at the conclusion - thus, the tidbit treat.
Even though praise is not sufficient to use in motivating a nine week old puppy, we must motivate him something else when teaching “come”. For a puppy to give up his sight and scent excursion, and come running to you when commanded, it must be something more in it for him than a pat on the head, or simply being allowed to continue his walk. So, the treat, of necessity, is the biggest factor in motivating. Yet again, it is just secondary to use a praise.
An ideal way to reinforce the “come” command - at times other than when school is in session - would be at feeding time. Call the puppy’s name, followed by the command “come” as his food dish is placed on the floor. Do not take the food to the puppy; instead, make the puppy come to the food dish as you command him to come. Do not clutter his chalkboard mind with “come on boy, it’s time to eat” and expect it to reinforce the come response.
While it is necessary that you talk to your puppy to assist him in developing his vocabulary and also his personality, it not needed to use any other word except the command word when reinforcing your pups response in your training.