May 27th, 2010
By Eric Letendre
This is the best time of the year. The weather is getting warmer, the leaves are back on the trees and it’s a great time to be outside with your dog.
Where I live, there are acres and acres of land that I can go hiking on with my dogs. I love hiking with them through the trails and fields.
They spend the whole time off-leash and get a lot of exercise.
This was not always the case.
Last year, when my wife, Rachael, adopted a little maltese, poodle mix, she was awful every time she was off-leash.
She would run in the other direction and it would take me 45 to 60 minutes to catch her.
I hate hiking with my dogs on leash. So the first thing she had to learn was the command “Come.”
It took me about two weeks, but now she can be off-leash every time I go hiking and I’m going to share with you how I did it.
The first step was teaching her that she had to come to me every time I said the command come. I did this by never allowing her the option to ignore the command.
You see, when your dog is off-leash and you call the command come, your dog has options. They quickly learn that they DON’T have to come to you.
In fact, many dogs learn that when they come to you the fun ends. Your dog is running around having fun and then you say “Junior COME!”
Junior trots over to you and the first thing you do is put him back on leash.
Your dog just learned a very valuable lesson. Coming to you equals end of freedom.
So the first step is to keep a long leash (20 to 30) attached to your dog’s collar. Now when you say “Come” you can use the leash to guide your dog back to you.
The next step…
…will be covered in my next email so stay tuned.
All the best,
Eric
P.S. If you’d like to see videos on how to teach your dog to come when called check out Dog Training Inner Circle!
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States and has been training dogs for over 20 years, teaching regular, average, every-day owners all over the world how to get the training results they want as fast as possible. Eric is also the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Improve Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
Eric Letendre is a professional dog trainer from the United States. For more than 20 years, he has been developing dog training "hacks" that have worked for dog owners all over the world. Eric operates from a home office or a laptop while traveling and draws on his experience and passion for dog training to show others how to develop a dog that is truly “Man’s Best Friend”.
Eric is the author of numerous reports, the E-Book “101 Ways to Hack Your Dog’s Behavior,” “The Amazing Dog Training Man Book,” and produced and stars in his DVD “Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer.”
