1. COME

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LEVELS BOOK

LEVEL ONE

The dog must play the Come Game between the handler and a friend or stranger standing 20’ apart. An actual cue to come is desirable but not necessary.

DISCUSSION: If I could only ever play one game with a dog, this would be it. It's difficult to believe that one easy game can have so many amazing benefits. The Come Game teaches the dog to go to people (aside from the millions of times a day I call my dog, if I ever lose her, I'd rather see her living a long and happy life with someone else than creamed on the road because she was afraid to approach another person). It teaches her to go to the person who's actually calling her. It teaches her to leave treats that she knows are there. It teaches her to approach people looking down, rather than jumping up. It teaches her to sit to greet people. It teaches her anybody calling her is a great person to meet. It teaches children a useful and fun way to interact with a dog. This is a GREAT game!

For more information on working behaviours without food, you can start at Level Two Sits and Downs.

EASY BEGINNINGS: You can play this with any number of people, but for the sake of discussion, we'll talk about two. If you're in a room by yourselves, please play it off leash. If you're in a roomful of other dogs and people, or out in the park, one person can hold the end of a long line attached to the dog.
Stand a little bit apart – how far apart depends on the dog. If you pretty much think he'll come, stand maybe 15' apart. If you pretty much think he won't, stand 5' apart. Both people have treats and a clicker (or, if you're playing with a young child or stranger, you can click for both people). Person A calls the dog. Since we're JUST starting to teach the dog to come, DO NOT say the "C" word ("Come"), or use the dog's name. There are lots of other ways to call a dog – "Puppy, puppy, puppy!" or "Yo, doggy, doggy" – use your imagination.
While Person A is calling the dog, Person B is looking UP at the ceiling. Why? Because even an untrained dog has difficulty moving away from a person who's staring at her.

So, Person A calls the dog. When the dog is partway to him, he clicks and drops a treat between his feet. Doesn't matter if it bounces, you'll get better as you go along. Dog eats treat. End of round 1.

Now Person A looks at the ceiling. I don't see a dog, I'm not interested in a dog. Person B looks at the dog and starts calling her. The dog doesn't want to leave Person A because Person A gave treats. LOOK AT THE CEILING. Person B keeps calling until he gets the dog to come toward him. When the dog is partway to him, he clicks and drops the treat between his feet. Dog eats treat, end of round 2.

Repeat these steps until the dog realizes that it is the OTHER person who has the next treat.

When the dog figures out the game, he'll eat the A treat and spin to run to get the B treat. NOW he understands!

PROBLEM SOLVING:

      SHE WON'T LEAVE TO GO TO THE OTHER PERSON:
Relax, part of this game is People-Who-Have-Food-But-Aren't-Interested-In-Dogs Zen. Keep standing and looking at the ceiling. If the dog absolutely won't leave because she's so interested in your treats, the other person could come over, stick a treat in her face, and do ten or twenty Rapid-Fire Reinforcements to change her mind.

      SHE DOESN'T NOTICE THE TREAT DROPPING:
This is a normal thing for young puppies, whose eyes aren't mature enough to follow something dropping across their field of vision. And it's pretty common for older puppies too. Try using hard treats or kibble on a hard floor so she can hear the treat fall. Or make a big arm motion – here it is, here it is, aaaand THERE it is!

     SHE'S RELUCTANT TO APPROACH A PERSON:
We've played this game with dogs who had years of training NOT to come behind them. One dog was so suspicious of the entire event we started by making a noise to get him to look at a person, then tossing the treat right at his feet. After several minutes of that, he was able to take a step toward a person to pick up a treat, then two steps, and within fifteen minutes he, too, was racing joyfully back and forth.

ADDING A CUE:

The time to add a cue is when you're getting the behaviour you want ON A VOLUNTEER BASIS. What this means is that you can say anything you want to get the dog to come to you, but do NOT say the "real" words you want to use for the rest of his life. For myself, I want the dog's name and "Come" to be her "real" come cues, so I don't use those when I'm teaching her this game.
Sooner or later, the dog will figure out what's going on, and will start anticipating that, after one treat, the other person will call her. Then she starts grabbing one treat and running for the next one. NOW she's volunteering the behaviour you want, NOW you can start telling her what the real words are. So, as she's turning to come to the next treat, call out "Stitch!" or "Come!" or whatever word you want to use.

There's a real benefit here for kids. Dogs usually know that kids are pushovers, while mom and dad are involved in housetraining and other unfortunate events, so usually a dog will start volunteering to come to a child before the parents get the volunteer behaviour. At that point, someone can say to the kid "Wow, she must like you best! You're the very first person who can say 'Come' to her!"

When you say your cue as she's turning to volunteer a come, you aren't telling her what to do. She's already doing it. You're only telling her what it's called. "Oh, by the way, that thing you're doing? We're going to call it 'Come', OK?"

Play this game every day for a week, then sometime when she's not thinking about coming toward you, ask her to come. If she comes, EE HAH! If she doesn't, that's OK. Play the game for another week. And of course if you play it periodically with her throughout her life, she'll ALWAYS have a reason to come when you call.

CONTINUING EDUCATION

It's a game! Make better rules! Move further apart (think what great exercise a pup can get playing the Come Game long before she's able to walk down the street with a loose leash!). Go up and down stairs. Hide in different rooms. Inside the house and outside the house. Play with more people. Play with total strangers. Play with young people and old people and people wearing hats and nuns in habits and people with turbans and people in uniforms. Play by yourself by dropping one treat between your feet and tossing another way over THERE.

You can also change what happens when the dog arrives at your feet. If she comes all the way and you haven't clicked or dropped the treat yet, what's going to happen next? She's right in front of you, looking down. No treat. She'll probably look UP next, to see if you died, or forgot to click. Nose goes UP, tail goes DOWN, bingo, you have a sit. Or you could play so you have to touch her collar before the click happens. Or put her collar on and off.

LEVEL TWO

The dog comes from 40’ away with no more than two cues (voice, body language, or hand signal). The dog may be left on a Stay or held by someone else. The dog must come close enough to catch without moving. A “Front” is not necessary.

DISCUSSION: We started in L1 teaching the dog to come to us. Now we're changing the scene a bit. This might make it more difficult, and it might make it easier. Having a dog held by someone else in racing sports is called a "holdback" and tends to inspire the dog to move faster. On the other hand, with only one person playing the game, it might look less interesting.

EASY BEGINNINGS: If you were playing the Come Game at 20', start single recalls at 5 or 10'. Remember any time you change ANYTHING about a behaviour, you have to make everything ELSE about that behaviour easier. And don't use your real cue until you're sure you have the behaviour the way you want it. So start out just getting the dog to come to you, click and treat. The first few times the dog comes, drop the treat between your feet as you did in L1.

When she's coming eagerly, put your (treatless) hand out so she has to brush past it to get into position for you to drop the treat with your other hand. This is an important part of the behaviour, so practise it until she's very good at it. Then start closing your hand on some part of the dog briefly before you click. Don't push her or pull her, just close your hand on a bit of her. That's all there is to it.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

      SHE WANDERS OFF TO SEE SOMETHING ELSE – ah, you went too far too fast – lumping. Start closer to the dog. Cut down your distractions. Make sure she's hungry before you start practicing. Use great treats. NEVER give her an opportunity to think that you calling her is an opportunity to go visit someone or something else.

      AS SOON AS I LET GO OF THE LEASH, SHE RUNS AWAY! Same story – too far too fast. Since the leash has nothing to do with this game, there's no reason for the dog to focus on the leash as a means of control. If she's learned that in another life, think what you could do to make the leash unimportant. You could put her on a long line and attach the line to a fence or post. Now the leash has nothing to do with you. Then you could let her drag the leash back and forth, but not attach it to the fence. And finally, you could start cutting the length of it down a little bit each time you play.

           Or you could play in a room or training area where there's nothing of interest to attract her. Or you could let her interact with the area first and then call her (this MUST be a secure area). Or you could reward her for coming by taking her around to visit interesting smells in the area. And go back to doing a billion recalls where there are no distractions, then add one distraction at a time, not getting any more complicated until she can handle what you're asking her for.

ADDING A CUE: Remember this is NOT the Come Game. From her point of view, it's a whole new behaviour, so you didn't use her name or your real cue when you started it. When she's coming the distance, fast and eager, ignoring anything on the sidelines, and coming close enough for you to touch, only THEN should you start using your real cue or her name.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: Ample opportunity here for variations. You can call her with your back to her. Increase your distance and the number and intensity of distractions. Grab her on different parts of her body when she comes. Put on and take off a collar before she gets the treat. Hold off on the click when she comes and wait for her to look up at you, then cue a Sit.

LEVEL FOUR

The dog comes from 40’ away on one cue only through milling dogs. The dog may come from a Stay, or may be held by someone.

DISCUSSION: This one might be more difficult. Try to pick dogs, especially to start with, who will ignore her if she approaches them. Many puppy classes regularly call the puppies out of a throng of marauding puppies, to reward and then release them back into the group. This is a super start.

EASY BEGINNINGS: The trick here is to first get your dog in the game. Get her thinking that Come is the best thing that's going to happen to her all year. Have REALLY GREAT treats for this, don't fool around with dry kibble and a MilkBone! She's got a good grounding in Come, or she wouldn't have made it this far. If she's not a dog freak, this won't be any more difficult than getting her to come through people. If she IS a dog freak, you'll need to work a bit slower.

Start off with one other dog, a dog that can be controlled, or a dog that's on a leash. Get your dog's attention ­ if you can't get her attention, she's too close to the other dog, start farther away. And farther. And farther, until you CAN get her attention. This is dog Zen, Loose Leash stuff. If you don't have what you want on leash, don't for Heaven's sake turn her loose and start bellowing "COME" at her! Start in a relatively small training area or a large room. So, you got her attention. As a reward for attention, turn her loose to play with the other dog. And let her play. If you think you have to keep stepping in to settle disputes or calm everybody down, either think again or use a different dog. Leave them alone and let them play. Wait for a moment when YOUR dog is calm. No matter how frantic the play is, there will be times when they're both tired, or thinking about a new game, or the other dog has the toy and won't let her have it. At that moment, call your dog. Call her to tell her that you've got something wonderful. Get excited about it. And when she comes, GIVE HER THE TREAT AND LET HER GO.

This is a classic case of the dog having her cake and eating it too ­ or having her play and eating the treat. You aren't making her decide between you and the other dog, you're only asking her to come over here for a sec and get a treat. Before you actually catch her and put the leash on, you should have called her at least a dozen times, and she should be getting tired. Once you've got that handled, you'll need a couple of dogs to play with, both under the same kind of control that the first one was. In fact one of them can be the first one, just add a second one to the mix. And, when you have her coming again, add a third, and so on.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

       SHE JUST WON'T COME! This can't be a problem with her coming, because she came in all the Levels below this one. So it must be a problem with the dogs. If you have to, put your dog in one area, and the other dog in an adjacent area, then go back to working the Come right from the beginning as you did in Levels One and Two.

ADDING A CUE: As always, don't use your REAL cue until you know she's going to come. There are lots of ways of calling a dog without using your precious "I really need you!" cue. Start adding your real cue when she's barreling toward you as fast as her little legs can carry her.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: Slowly add lots of dogs, more people, children, maybe a bicycle or skateboard, until she'll come no matter what else is going on. At that point, everyone you know is either green with envy or really, really hates you.

LEVEL FIVE

The dog does a full Novice Recall - Sit-Stay, 40’, one cue, Front, Finish, appropriate cues. This behaviour must be done with no food or clicker anywhere in the room or area.

DISCUSSION: Now we're starting to put behaviours together into a chain. There are few distractions at this level, but the dog must give you the entire chain with no rewards in evidence.

EASY BEGINNINGS: Be sure that you have ALL the pieces of this chain JUST the way you want them before you put them together into a chain of behaviours. The dog is responsive to the Sit cue. Your SitStay is firm, not only close up but as you walk 40' away and turn around to face the dog. Your Come command is terrific no matter what else is going on. Your Fronts aren't where you need them yet, though. You’ve worked on the Bullseye and Front Rays, but you'll probably have to do a bit more work to be sure your Front is as good as you want it to be for the Recall. If you're planning on entering Obedience Trials looking for a qualifying score, your Front is probably as good right now as you need it to be. If, on the other hand, you're looking for scores in the 190s, you'll want to spend a lot more time making sure you have perfect fronts before you add them to the Recall mix. Feel free to try the whole Recall ­ TWICE ­ just to see where you are. If you want really great Fronts and Finishes, you might only practise the whole Recall chain less than ten times before you test it for this Level, then go on working hard to perfect the Front and Finish for trials.

Put three behaviours together. You've already done the Sit and SitStay while you walk 40' away, so you shouldn't need to work much on those two. Try putting the SitStay and Come together ­ call your dog out of the SitStay. If your Fronts aren't where you want them yet, that's OK, you can kneel down to greet her as she comes in, or turn sideways to meet her (don't always turn to the same side) rather than asking for a Front. Then put four behaviours together ­ Sit, Stay, Come, Front. Or, if you're having a little trouble with your SitStay, you could call her from general living and, with your body language, ask for a Front and then a Finish. Play around with it a bit until she's ready to give you the whole thing.

PROBLEM SOLVING:

      AS SOON AS I PUT THE CHAIN TOGETHER, HER FRONT FELL APART! Sure, that's normal. You put it together a little too fast. Maybe you were practicing Fronts from no further away than 3', and suddenly you're asking for 20' Fronts. Back up, and for Heaven's sake, TAKE THE CHAIN APART. Go back to working your Front Ray and Bullseye patterns again. When she remembers them, put some distance on them ­ which you can do by tossing the treats further away. Work your distance out until she's really good at the Front again, and then try calling her once FROM VERY CLOSE ­ maybe 5' away ­ while standing in the same spot you were previously working the pattern from. If she comes and doesn't hit a reasonable Front, stand still and wait for it as you would do if you were working the pattern. Build it back up, and when she's ready, plug it back into a short chain.

      SHE TRIES TO KNOCK ME DOWN WHEN SHE COMES! Isn't that SPESHUL! What's the problem here? All Come, all the time. No Front. Take the chain apart, and work your Front diagrams a LOT more, then put the Come and Front together in VERY short distances. Be VERY careful that you do NOTHING to reward the Freight-Train Recall ­ no jumping around, no squealing, no batting at her, no smiling, no laughing, no yelling. Just step out of the way and go into another room for two minutes. Then work a lot more Fronts.

      SHE ANTICIPATES THE FINISH AFTER THE FRONT! Yes, of course she does. This has been the bugaboo of obedience trainers since the dawn of competition. The funny thing is, it's really easy to fix. Think of it as Finish Zen. When you're playing Hand Zen, she doesn't get the treat in the hand by going for it, she gets it by staying away from it. What happens with the Finish is that most dogs find it rewarding in itself, or because it clearly marks the end of the Recall chain, signaling a treat or a release, so they want to get to it as quickly as possible.

      The other problem with the Recall chain is Ailsby's Principle Of Laziness, which says that corners will be cut if possible. This works for us on the Retrieve, but against us in the Recall chain, so we have to pay attention. When the dog starts cutting out parts of the chain ­ such as the Front or remaining IN the Front until cued to Finish ­ you need to first go back and take the chain apart. Put some more effort into rewarding the part she missed ­ the Front. Make it a great thing to be able to Front. Make it a wonderful thing to be allowed to practise duration Fronts. When you've put more importance on that, plug it back into the chain, and DO NOT ALLOW THE CHAIN TO CONTINUE IF SHE BREAKS IT!

      In Agility, for instance, if you lead out and the dog breaks the Stay at the start line, you do NOT run the course, you walk away. Staying at the start line gets to play Agility, breaking the line doesn't. Start Line Zen. In Finish Zen, if she breaks the Front Stay, she doesn't GET to Finish, because the Finish disappears. You turn away, go retie your shoes or get a drink of water or something. Try again. She makes the mistake once, she didn't get to do the Finish. She makes the same mistake twice, you're rewarding the Front as soon as she gives it to you. She makes the same mistake three times, bang, it's out of the chain and you're working Front durations again.

ADDING A CUE: There's no new cue here. This is an easy chain, as each part except the Front has its own specific voice cue. Sit. Stay. Come. Finish. Some people use a different cue ("Front") when they want a Front, but I've never bothered. If I'm walking along holding my hand out, the dog will come and nose-target my hand. If I'm holding two hands down, she'll come into my hands for a schnoogie. If I'm standing up straight with my arms at my sides (Front position), she'll come Front. I just let my body language cue what I want. If you want a separate cue, though, it's no big deal, because you were using the different cue right from the beginning when you first starting using a cue for Fronts.

CONTINUING EDUCATION: More distance, more distractions, straighter Fronts, snappier, straighter Finishes. You'll naturally lose some speed on the Recall as the dog starts to think about the control necessary to hit a good Front. How to get the speed back? Take it out of the chain and work on it. That's the glory of recognizing the situation as a chain ­ chains come with links, and you improve each link separately.

LEVEL SIX

The dog Downs from a Sit-Stay 10’ away on one cue, then comes to a Front with one cue only. This is an optional behaviour.

DISCUSSION: This is the start of the discussion of the Drop On Recall or, if you're not planning on obedience competition, practise in getting the dog to assume positions at a distance, without coming to you first. If you're concerned about telling your dog to Down in the middle of a Sit-Stay, doing it from a Stand, or even starting with the dog at ease 10' away would be acceptable.

LEVEL SEVEN

The dog does a complete formal 20’ Drop On Recall. This is an optional behaviour.

DISCUSSION: Obedience, agility, herding – there are many times in life and in competition where parts of this chain will be useful.