My Dog Isn’t Great at Coming When Called
It’s pretty common for me to hear, ‘well my dog used to be great at coming when called, but lately less or or not at all’. Let’s think about two key questions to ask ourselves as we contemplate this topic.
Dogs are amazing observers who quickly figure out associations. How long did it take your dog to figure out when you go to a certain drawer in the kitchen that a treat is going to be produced? Or what does your dog do when they hear the magical crackling noise of a treat bag getting opened? Or does your dog start doing a happy dance when the leash gets pulled out as they know that a fun walk is about to happen? These associations often happen pretty quickly because the consequence is usually consistently positive –yes, it’s true that sometimes getting a leash out doesn’t mean that a fun walk will happen and maybe you’re doing somewhere that your dog will be less enthusiastic about, but I might wager that the positive association is with the initial bust outside moment and less impacted with the destination that happens later in time. Sure, if every time Fido got leashed up and every time went somewhere where it’s no fun, then in that case the destination will likely impact Fido’s behavior when the leash comes out.
All of these examples illustrate how quickly dogs make associations. So what does that have to do with coming when called? I want you to think about the first key question: ‘what has your dog associated with the cue to come?’ Does Fido immediately respond as if a treat bag is being pried open? Does Fido waffle because more often than not, coming to you means the fun ends? Does Fido maybe pause but chooses to trot over to you because they know they will be aptly compensated. If you want to have a solid come to you cue then I think the question isn’t ‘why isn’t my dog coming on cue’ but rather what are you doing to create an amazing positive association to return to you.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this scenario, a dog manages to slip away and is missing for a while. The pet parent may be scared that their dog has been running around near traffic or just freaked out at all the things that could go wrong while their dog is loose, so on the one hand, I can understand why the pet parent may lose their cool when the dog returns and vent on their dog. The message, however, to the dog is, yikes, why come home when your human is going to be upset and use loud words that can be pretty scary? Now more than ever we should be heaping on the love, treats, upbeat words to communicate, thank the goddess that you came home safe and sound, boy oh boy let’s both be happy campers and then some. Whatever caused your dog to get loose needs to be behind you at the moment when you reunite and your focus should be on making that reunion be the best thing in the world. Sure, later you can reflect on what happened and how to prevent it from happening again but that’s for later.
The other key question we should ask as pet parents is, ‘have we practiced the cue under all the conditions and situations in which we expect the behavior to be fluent?’ Think about when you were learning to drive a car. If you are older like me, it actually might be difficult to remember all that you did to learn to drive and in all the various conditions. At this point, you may find yourself in auto-pilot where you can drive and be thinking about other things, drinking your coffee, hopefully not texting on your phone but not really needing to focus on the act of driving. To get to auto-pilot took loads of practice in a lot of different scenarios. Coming when called is a skill like driving, so in order to perform the behavior your dog will need lots of practice in different conditions with appropriate consequences to reinforce a positive association to coming back to you regardless of what’s happening.
The next time your dog is playing off leash, don’t wait until it’s time to go to cue them to come to you then leave, but take the opportunity to call them (pay them) and then send them off to run around some more. This gives you a two-fold win, you are practicing the cue and associating it with a treat/payment but also in this case you are building history that the cue doesn’t mean the fun has to stop because they get to go back out for some more fun.
So ask yourself these two questions to shift how you think about why maybe your dog isn’t great at coming when called…….
What has your dog associated with the cue to come?
Have you practiced the cue under all the conditions and situations in which you expect the behavior to be fluent?
And reflect on what you might do differently to tip the scale so coming to you is the next best thing to top sirloin :-)
Cheers, Tracy
