Getting Your Dog to Respond to Calls

If you've ever called your dog using a command phrase like "come here!" only to watch your dog give you a blank stare like you're an idiot, then this article is for you. We're going to learn exactly why dogs give you this blank stare, and how you can fix this so that your dog can respond more effectively when you call it over.

A dog can intuitively respond to nonverbal communication, but verbal communication has to be taught. It's easy for dogs to pick up words like "sit" because we're willing to teach them simply by patting them until they sit while repeating the command. But what about commands that some dogs don't seem to respond to?

Oftentimes, the problem isn't the dog; it's that we haven't trained the dog to respond to a new word. We as humans know what "come" means, but there's no reason to expect a dog to know that. A dog responds to what it has learned, plain and simple.

Have you ever notice that if you have a treat ready and you say "Rex!" expecting the dog to come over, the dog will come over? But if the dog is staying still and you say "Rex!" again, trying to get it to come, the dog looks at you without understanding? It's because of what the dog already knows - if you have food in your hand, some other communications are being sent out like your tone of voice or the sound of a treat wrapper.

But if you call for a dog using its name at another time, the dog only hears its name, not what you want it to do. If I were to come up to you and start shouting "Bill! Bill!" would you understand what I meant? Then why should a dog understand that?

That's why you have to train the word "come" to have a specific purpose and meaning for your dog. Just like "sit," you'll want to constantly reinforce the word "come" when your dog responds to a call. At first, start repeating "come" when a dog does come to you; reward the dog with affection or a treat when it comes the whole way over and completes the action. Eventually, the dog will begin to associate "come" with moving over to you. It may seem like the dog understands the word, but really it is simply responding to a taught command.

It's easy to be tough on our dogs if they don't seem to respond to us; sometimes, however, we forget that dogs might want to respond to us and simply don't know how to. Train your dog with patience and ask yourself how you can teach it a new word.

Photo Credits: greg westfall.

This post involves:

affection, blank stare, dogs, nonverbal communication, phrase, rex, tone of voice, verbal communication

... and focuses on:

Dog Training, Tips for Dog Owners

Posted by Dog Training Pet on September 1, 2010 in Dog Training, Tips for Dog Owners. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.