Stella Wants Her Treat Before She Comes

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Poedogruns

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My one year old sheltie is a treat hound! I have this problem with her assessing the situation before deciding if she wants to come when I call her. So when I get ready to take her outside, she dancing outside of my reach, sometimes going halfway up the stairs, sometimes all the way upstairs and under the bed. I call her to come, but if there is no treat; then there will be no Stella. It can pretty annoying. I am wondering how I can get her to consistently come when I call her whether or not there is a treat. I always give her an enthusiastic response, plenty of praising, but it does not seem to be enough.
 
So many of us have fallen into this trap! The first thing you need to do is start random rewarding, that means sometimes you gve a treat for coming and sometimes not, so she never knows whether 'this time' she gets the reward.

I would work on her come throughout the day, not just when you want to take her out. Have some treats in you pocket, but not in your hand so she can't see them and call her. If she comes instantly give her a treat, if not I would just ignore her and try again later.

Pick moments when she is likely to come, and you can even cheat and reward her just for coming towards you of her own accord.

You also need to be strict about what warrants a reward. A quick recall earns a treat, a slow recall gets nothing.

It will take a little while and then it will click and she will respond.
 
Work on recalls separately, and on a leash. Only go as far away as you can without losing her attention. Throw a huge party every time she has a solid recall - lots of praise, pets, and treat. Only increase distance when the current distance is absolutely solid. Getting a long field lead will be helpful when she gets to that point. Maybe try alternating a toy, like a tug toy, with treats. I started that with Olive a few weeks ago and she's figuring out that toys can be as wickedly awesome as treats.

My sheltie, Olive, has a solid recall outside on the field lead, provided she knows there is the possibility of a treat. I have instilled this idea of possibility by treating early and often in her training, and always have some sort of treat on me so I can reward randomly. And I always throw her a party. It's only huge now if she has responded to a recall that required her to take her attention away from something else to come to me (she likes to chase cars, shadows, etc). It is still a challenge to get a recall from her in our house, but lately I've found that including one of our cats in the training helps (he gets his own treats!), as does mixing it up by calling her through hallways, up/down stairs, through rooms, etc.
 
Also mix up your rewards - sometimes treats, sometimes praise, sometimes play, sometimes you run away (and of course sometimes nothing at all).

And also try not to have treats in sight when you get her to do something. Don't hold it out and "bribe" her with it. Keep it hidden! Treats should magically appear from nowhere! :biggrin2:
 
congratulation on becoming human cookie dispenser:wink2:
yes it could be quite annoying to many humans, my DH is one of them:lol: Che won´t go into car´s crate if DH does not have treat in his hand...
you might find these books in your local library, they are excellent and are original Dog Whisperer series- no relations to CM
http://www.raisewithpraise.com/
here is few articles
http://www.apdt.com/petowners/choose/usingfood.aspx
http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/is...rd-Based-Training-Without-Treats_20304-1.html
http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/2008/09/25/treat-training-dogs/
 
Thanks for the quick replies. I have had collies for 15 years and never had this problem. They always wanted to come, no question about it. But this sheltie thinks faster than I can. I am going start working today on keeping treats out of sight and more random, selective rewards. A dog simply must come when called.
 
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