How to Teach a Dog to Come When Called

We all know there are highly obedient dogs who come to their owner's call in any situation, and other dogs who, on the other hand, play deaf, completely ignoring their owner no matter how much they call them.

This is genuinely a bad thing, because if the dog happens to be off the lead and in a dangerous situation, if we call them and they don't obey, the situation could end badly — chasing a cat, crossing busy roads or wandering too far off…

Here at SoyUnPerro we're going to explain what you need to do to teach your dog, with a few simple tips.

Use Food as a Lure

A dog's weak point is food, since their sense of smell is incredibly well developed. If we take, for example, a sausage and cut it into small pieces, we'll have a stack of rewards for training our dog.

The exercise for teaching your dog to come when called is very simple; we'll start by taking a walk down the street or in the park with the dog on the lead. A medium lead is enough, between one and two metres long.

We'll always use the same word to call them, using their name first and then the command. For example, if our dog is called "Rufo", we'll say "Rufo, here!" and when they look at us, we'll give them a reward (a piece of sausage) and praise them a lot. This is called training with positive reinforcement.

It matters a great deal to give them plenty of strokes on top of their reward, so they feel our positive energy, so they feel we're genuinely pleased. We'll carry on with the walk, repeating this technique every five minutes.

We can also practise it at home with no lead, since there's no risk of them running off. On the street or in the park, though, always with a lead for now, to avoid escapes and accidents.

This exercise needs repeating for five or seven days, so the dog fully links the command to a reward and to something positive. After that time, we'll swap our dog's lead for a longer one — a retractable one or one over five metres.

We'll let the dog wander off while we walk, knowing it's not a danger since even if they wander off they'll have the lead on. When they're far off sniffing their surroundings… we'll give the command "Rufo, here!" and give them their reward and plenty of strokes and praise, as always.

We'll repeat these sessions for at least three to four weeks; this way our dog will learn to always come when called. Later on we can go to a dog park or a mountain area where it poses no danger (cars, roads and so on) and practise with the dog off the lead.

Remember you should always give them their reward when they obey, since this is entirely necessary for them to build a positive association with the exercise.

Reasons a Dog Doesn't Come When Called

Even if we teach our dog this exercise correctly, we need to remember they're animals guided by their instincts, and some of those instincts are sometimes stronger than their human's command.

Cats, for instance — plenty of dogs chase cats on impulse as if they were prey to hunt. Most of these dogs become entirely fixated, since the instinct is stronger than everything else.

The more we practise the come-when-called exercise with the dog, the more likely the chase will stop and they'll listen to you. Don't get too angry if they ignore you, though, since dogs' primal instincts have astonishing power over them.

Another reason a dog might not listen to you is fear — if you've ever used violence, the dog won't trust you. Never, under any circumstances, should you be aggressive towards your dog, because they'll always remember it.