Level 1 Trainer Level 7 Dog: COME

Come Level 1

Step 1: The dog looks for treats at your feet

Step 2: The dog runs between 2 people standing 10 feet apart
Training Concepts:

• Chutes & Ladders
• gradually moving further apart until dog makes a mistake; then "bungee" back close where the dog understands the game again and begin moving apart again
• "If you get too far apart for her to be successful, go IMMEDIATELY back to your original distance and start again"
• Breaking eye contact
• "While Allan is caling the dog, Bob is looking up at the ceiling.  Why?  Because even an untrained dog has difficulty moving away from a person who's staring at her."
• "The plan isn't to see how fast you can get her to do the behaviour, but to make sure she understands each bit of the behaviour before she moves on to the next bit."

Step 1

Step 3:  "When the dog figures out the Game, she'll eat Allan's treat and spin to run to get Bob's treat.  NOW she understands!  Now she's VOLUNTEERING to run back and forth between you, without waiting for you to call her."
Training Concepts:

• "This is a HUGE step in her training!"
• "She has realized that SHE controls what happens next."
• "SHE makes the next move.  HUGE!"

Step 3c: The Come Game
Training Concepts:

• When and how to add the cue ... again!
• "NOW you can start telling her what the behaviour is called.  As she's turning to come to the next treat, call out Binkie or Come or C'mon whatever you've decided to use."

Re-teaching the behavior in a new environment with greater distractions

Training Concepts:

• All of the obvious distractions: grass, wind, a dog run with all its smells, the ocean and .... the biggest distraction of all .... Phil (who was handling the video camera)
• We begin by dropping the cue, using "Pupper! Pupper!" and we begin close together.
• Lily is In the Game and Lily understands The Come Game, so we add the cue as Lily is committed to coming and use Chutes and Ladders to add distance.

Cold Test Come Level 1 Step 3
Training Concepts:

• How to test a behavior
• "A real test is to see if you've taught her the behaviour to the point where you can actually get her to give it to you "cold" - when you weren't just practicing it.
• "Test behaviours on days when you were NOT teaching them."

Step 3 Comeafter: Shape the collar touch with her standing in front of you.  When you can touch the collar while she remains calm, check it off!