This is going to sound like the simplest of questions, but I'm still a newbie to training.
Our 1 year old pup knows all the basic obedience commands - sit, stay, down, come, shake, etc. However, he does not interpret them as commands but rather as suggestions. When you say "come," he'll look at you and you can see he is thinking about whether to do it or not. It's obviously much worse when he is distracted. It's like he becomes deaf when he goes to the dog park or goes on a hike or sees a cat. Not only is this important in general, and critical for safety, but I'd also like to be able to have him off leash. He is very adventurous and I'd like to trust him to go swim in the lake or do whatever, but I need to know for a fact he will come back when I tell him.
So what is the key to getting from understanding a command to ALWAYS executing it? We've been doing lots of training but it seems to only teach him the meaning of the commands, not that he must always do them.
Thank you!
Our 1 year old pup knows all the basic obedience commands - sit, stay, down, come, shake, etc. However, he does not interpret them as commands but rather as suggestions. When you say "come," he'll look at you and you can see he is thinking about whether to do it or not. It's obviously much worse when he is distracted. It's like he becomes deaf when he goes to the dog park or goes on a hike or sees a cat. Not only is this important in general, and critical for safety, but I'd also like to be able to have him off leash. He is very adventurous and I'd like to trust him to go swim in the lake or do whatever, but I need to know for a fact he will come back when I tell him.
So what is the key to getting from understanding a command to ALWAYS executing it? We've been doing lots of training but it seems to only teach him the meaning of the commands, not that he must always do them.
Thank you!