How to get my 5-month-old puppy to consistently come when called?

Question

I have a 5 month old dog. He knows and understands come, but sometimes when we tell him, he doesn't listen. He will sit there and watch us call him. We say come and use a hand gesture once, then wait about 10 seconds but we usually end up having to go get him. What should we do? Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 5 months and 5 days old | 30 lbs

Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA · Accepted Answer

This is a very common problem with puppies! You need to teach Finn that coming when you call him will always lead to wonderful things for him - this means high value treats (like cheese or lunchmeat), play, and lots of praise. Most of the time, if your dog isn't coming reliably when you call, it's because you haven't practiced enough in a low-distraction environment with lots of rewards - it's important to work on this quite a bit before you can expect him to come to you at other times. It's also very important that you reward him every single time you call for him, at least for the first year or so of his life - if you don't, he will quickly learn that it isn't worthwhile to leave what he is doing and come to you.

How to get my 5-month-old puppy to consistently come when called?

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