What's the best way to train a puppy to "come"?

Training a dog is pretty simple if you know some basic principles. The best way to get an animal to perform a behavior is to use positive reinforcement. The "positive" refers to the fact that you are adding something (as apposed to negative in which you would take something away) and "reinforcement" means you are increasing a behavior (as apposed to punishment where you decrease a behavior). I explained that because some people tend to think positive reinforcement just means you are being nice when you train your dog. So how do you use positive reinforcement? You need something that your dog likes (like food or a treat and lots of praise) and you need to add it every time he does the behavior you want. So in the case of making your dog come to you when you call it, you can give her a treat every time she does what you want her to do. Here is what I would suggest for your dog:

This works best with two people. Have one person stand at one end of a room and the other one at the other end. You may have to start off pretty close to each other. One person should call the dog. You may need to get pretty excited, squeak a toy, slap your lap, show her the treat, etc. Once the dog comes to that person, make sure to show her lots of praise and then give her the treat. Then the other person should call the dog using the same technique. Make the dog go back and forth between the two of you. Try to eventually get the dog by only calling her. It's best to use a "cue" word so the dog can get used to it. Say something like, “Pixie (or whatever your dogs name is), come. If you mix up what you say every time you want the dog to come to you, it could confuse the dog. It’s also important to use a consistent tone of voice.

As far as your dog refusing to come inside, that because it's more rewarding for her to be outside than to come inside when you call her. Once you have mastered the "come" command using the techniques above, make sure to reward her when you comes to you from outside. Otherwise, you'll find that your calling her will only work while she is indoors. Never punish her if she doesn’t do what you want. That can make training her in the future very difficult.

Here are some other resources for help training your dog:

http://dogs.about.com/cs/behaviorissues/a/bltips00...

http://www.ehow.com/how_69_train-dog-come.html

Hope this helps!

Get small sized teats that he can eat quickly. Make sure he is hungry when you train him and only train for 5 - 10 minutes at a time. Also buy a clicker. When he comes to you on his own click and give him a treat. After he catches on to this give click/treat for coming over to you and right after he eats it toss one a few feet away so he can see it. He'll run and eat that. When he turns around, click and say "Come". When he comes back click/treat and praise. Continue this game and he will soon associate coming to you as a good thing. He'll also learn that if he comes to you he is also allowed to leave and not be trapped.

It is critical to click/treat when he BEGINS to do what you want, not AFTER he does the task.

Check out clickertraining.com for more info.

Look At her and show her her favourite food and if she comes reward her with it, when she refuses never simply give up and let her do what she wants, once you start a command always follow through with it, if you tell her to come and she doesnt no matter what simply pick her up and carry her inside( or lead if she is heavy) then tell her she is a bad girl. Eventually she will learn that she gets rewarded when she "comes" and will do it.

Put it on a leash with a choke chain, take it outside, say come, holdout a treat and it will usually come. keep repeating it and pretty soon you will be able to drop the leash and say come and it will start to come. It is just repetition. get a book or dvd to help. The dog whisperer

We trained ours with a leash. Put her on leash, get her to sit, then back up the length of the leash and say come. If she doesnt give her a little tug, when she does, reward her. When she starts to get it, move back a little more each time, eventually dropping the leash and having her stay until you say come.

It's much more fun to stay out in the yard and goof around than to come in. You'd want to practice those recalls with your dog in places where your dog will be much more excited to come to you, and not call and call and call your dog when there's no way she'll come.

Work a lot on restrained recalls (link below) in places where she doesn't have distractions like the backyard to go to....

Get her favorite food out and show it to her. Then, tell her to come and reward her with the food. That usually works with most dogs. If she still refuses to come to you can take her to an obedience school.

Get some bologna or cheapo meat she likes. Then say come, force her to come, then give her a treat. After a while, she will come automatically. Also depends on dog, I had a boxer and this was a smart dog. Sucker held me up for pork chops though. No cheap bologna for that dog. lol

i think the best way to tran a puppy to stay is to call it ver and over agin and to sit in front of it and say that your a good and say its name and say its name constly in front of it.

I'm not touching that one! See? A couple of drinks and my mind is in the gutter again.