Can your dog call off of a full bowl of food and come to you? Can your dog stay in front of a full bowl of food and not take it? Can he do this off-leash, in a new place, without getting distracted?

These are no magic skills – they are simply a question of distributing the value for his choices correctly. If your dog understands that eating food is good, but coming when called is even better, he will pick to do the second one.

All living beings will always decide to do the things that work out the most for them.
If your dog has only experienced so far that eating food is good, he will decide to do this.
If we can however communicate to him that coming when called will result in much greater rewards and a party, he will come to us! This is no question of scolding him for not coming, not at all – it is a question of rewarding him like a king whenever he comes to us.

This is the last lesson of our Outdoor Games and Focus Online Class – check it out if you want your dog to develop the same skills. You don’t need to be a master trainer to have a wonderfully trained dog – just a systematic approach to showing him that you are the one who holds the most reinforcement in his life.

Happy Training!