Come command - in the field vs. at home

[EmLove]

We got our first hunting dog this year. He's a vizlsa and is currently 9 months old. He is a great dog overall, listens really well in the field, but one issue we have is with the command "come". When we are hunting he listens really well and comes the first time we call him. At home sometimes he can be puppy-ish when outside if he doesn't want to come in yet, so when we call him, he looks at us then goes the other way. It doesn't happen often, but we'd like to get him to a point where he does things on the first command all the time. Any suggestions for training that out of him?

He doesn't wear a check cord hunting, and we haven't transitioned to the e-collar yet, but he comes well with his check cord in the yard. Will transitioning to the e-collar help him understand he needs to listen off leash as well?

[Steelcityred]

yes the e collar will help. Make sure you follow the proper collar conditioning and you will rarely have to use the ecollar as well. one thing that you can do now is reward hi for when he does come back to you in the yard with either lots of praise or a treat. You also mentioned a big part of it. he's a puppy, my V is 2.5 and and still shows a lot of puppy as they are slow to mature. Don;t let him disobey but remember he is still a pup. some of the greatest advice a fellow owner/trainer gave me is "never give a command that you cannot enforce or willing to enforce.' So if you know that he will not come back set yourself up for success in that he always has the check cord on in the backyard. a lot of times i would turn it into a game of being in the yard with my V and when it was time to go in I would call her to get her attention then turn and sprint towards the house. she would start to follow I would then turnaround and get her to come to me giving her a lot of praise. after a while she would just come straight to me. hope this helps

[S&J gsp]

My suggestion is to get a good program and follow it. I like Training With Mo it is a good program for softer dogs. As far as hunting if he were mine I would still have a check cord on him till I was 100% sure he would listen every time no questions. Then transfer it to the e-collar but that is just my opinion.

[slistoe]

It doesn't matter if you use the CC or the e-collar, if you use it on again, off again neither one will have satisfactory results.

[EvanG]

He doesn't wear a check cord hunting, and we haven't transitioned to the e-collar yet, but he comes well with his check cord in the yard. Will transitioning to the e-collar help him understand he needs to listen off leash as well?

Those are the issues: NO e-collar, and no consistency with the tool you have used. It's used sometimes, and not at others. Dogs are situational learners, so very soon he will become wise to the tools he's been exposed to, and only respect the tool you're using when it's on, rather than respecting the command. E-collar condition, and then keep it on him whenever he's out of the kennel.

EvanG

[Toster]

Never give a command you can't enforce.... That is a HUGE one. If the pup is playing in the yard and you don't have a CC or e collar on, just turn and walk in the other direction, maybe call his name if that's that your going to use to turn him. Just walk on, and the pup will soon learn to look at you when he hears his name. But unless ruling a e collar or cord don't expect him to think he has to come in if told so.

[BellaSpinone]

In the field we use "Here" and or whistle. Dogs are on ecollar. Dogs are expected to come ... No exceptions...

In back yard we say kennel for them to come in and go into their "kennels". Who ever gets in their kennel first gets the fist dog biscuit. It is pretty much a race. We buy them from the local mill USA made in 20 lb boxes. We have 6 dogs.

So for one dog, I would use a different word for your pup to come in from the outside, "house" . Have piece of cut up hot dog. When the pup comes in the door have it sit and treat. Build it up to where you pick up each foot before treating. That way if it is muddy outside you can wipe its feet before releasing it.

Just something we do.. Works for us.

[Sharon]

"in the house when we call him, he looks at us then goes the other way. "quote

That's when you leave whatever you are doing, and go and get him and take him (leash) to the spot from which you called him. .( I actually drag him some but can't say that on here. Be consistent and he'll get the message pretty fast

PS Only say "come" once.

[Nutmeg247]

All good advice on here. As regards recalls at home, even after transitioning to the e-collar you'll likely have the dog outside some with the collar off. I personally found conditioning the recall by following instructions you can find by googling "Shirley Chong recall" to work well with my pointer in terms of getting him to recall. I don't generally like instructions with that many words, but actually found the process easier than the write-up appears.

I've also found that calling him in and then releasing him again both gets more recall reps, and means he doesn't associate recall from the back yard as necessarily being the end of play.

[EmLove]

Thanks for all feedback. I think part of the reason we've been slow to transition to thee collar is because he listens really well while hunting. We haven't had an issue calling him off birds or the occasional bunny. He was starting to wear it at the end of the season so he associated it with having fun. We still plan to introduce because I'm sure someday there will be a skunk or porcupine that he will be much more interested in than us.

For now we have been using 'in the house' when it's time to come in. We started with some treats, and now If he doesn't listen, then we go out and get him. It's been a lot better the last few days but we are going to keep working!