kathleenloveschrist
New member
Hoping this serves as a laugh to some of you. But also, please advise on how to proceed.
Tl;dr- I say “Come” and my dog thinks the command involves high fiving my thigh/crotch. He did it to my poor dad and their relationship may not recover.
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I started recall training with my dog after some of his early escape attempts. Naturally, I was freaking out that my 9 month old dude was going to run away and get hit by a car. So I taught him “come.” Our trainer at the time said to 1. Put a treat right between my legs at his eye level, 2. Back away from him, 3. Say Come! once, 4. Give him treat when he came.
Little dude did it but instead of stopping in front of me, he would smack my thighs with his front paws and accept his treat. Trainer said not to correct him or confuse him with sit as introducing and reinforcing the recall command was the most important at the time. I didn’t want to introduce “no” or any words at the time that would diminish his recall.
Well, he’s now 18 months and over 50 lbs. Eveiry time I say “Come,” he paws me in the thigh or crotch before he sits/stands in front of me for his treat. As a woman, I don’t really care because I don’t have sensitive equipment there. However, he did it to my dad a few weeks ago and I’m sure you can imagine the look of pain on dad’s face after the incident…
lately, I’ve been backing away, waiting until he’s coming towards me, and saying sit when he’s pretty close. Unfortunately that seems to confuse him because instead of coming all the way to me, he’ll sit wherever he is at when he hears “sit.” I’ve tried “heel” in place of sit but he’s used to heel meaning left side specifically, so he’ll go to my left and pass me or just smack me on the left thigh before sitting.
Tl;dr- I say “Come” and my dog thinks the command involves high fiving my thigh/crotch. He did it to my poor dad and their relationship may not recover.
—————————————
I started recall training with my dog after some of his early escape attempts. Naturally, I was freaking out that my 9 month old dude was going to run away and get hit by a car. So I taught him “come.” Our trainer at the time said to 1. Put a treat right between my legs at his eye level, 2. Back away from him, 3. Say Come! once, 4. Give him treat when he came.
Little dude did it but instead of stopping in front of me, he would smack my thighs with his front paws and accept his treat. Trainer said not to correct him or confuse him with sit as introducing and reinforcing the recall command was the most important at the time. I didn’t want to introduce “no” or any words at the time that would diminish his recall.
Well, he’s now 18 months and over 50 lbs. Eveiry time I say “Come,” he paws me in the thigh or crotch before he sits/stands in front of me for his treat. As a woman, I don’t really care because I don’t have sensitive equipment there. However, he did it to my dad a few weeks ago and I’m sure you can imagine the look of pain on dad’s face after the incident…
lately, I’ve been backing away, waiting until he’s coming towards me, and saying sit when he’s pretty close. Unfortunately that seems to confuse him because instead of coming all the way to me, he’ll sit wherever he is at when he hears “sit.” I’ve tried “heel” in place of sit but he’s used to heel meaning left side specifically, so he’ll go to my left and pass me or just smack me on the left thigh before sitting.