So I have read that huskies are notorious for not coming when called, which is why they should not be trusted off leash. Well I wasn't able to find any recent threads about how you teach your husky to come when you call him/her. I definitely need some advice for my 11 week old . She is so stubborn and won't come unless she wants to. I am curious to know the various ways you guys trained your dog to come when called!

good luck- sorry but the only way I get mine to come back when I call for her is to pull the leash back...lol. What I have heard is starting close is to have them sit and with training treats work your way back. But I dunno if that really works. I have only had adult dogs they kinda know how to come...she looks at me when I call her name to come back alot of the times w/o leash, but majority I call her and say come back and clap and give her verbal praise while she is running back is all I do.

again Good luck!

Good luck lol I tried to teach Kale but he only comes if I have food or if he wants to. or if I threaten his life...

Start small, tell her to sit, say "stay", take one small step back and if she stays sitting, give treat. Gradually increase the space, and eventually turn around and walk away. If she follows you, take her back to where she was sitting, and repeat until she stays. Next teach the come. When she is sitting a little from you, say "come" in an excited voice (she should come ) and treat. This worked until Kale hit around 6-7 months (his defiant stage) lol If you figure out the secret let me know!!

Definitely something to try. I will try anything and everything! Luna knows how to sit, stay, shake, high five, lay down, and as of today she learned roll over !! So i know she's not stupid....she just refuses to come !!!! silly girl.

Is she food motivated? I learned to keep treats on me so I can randomly call them over to me showing them the treat. They always come when food is involved! Reward her with the treat and give lots of praise and then walk away. Every once in awhile, call her to you without the treat but still give her tons of praise when she comes to you. Just keep doing this off and on and over time she wil associate that when you call her she gets rewarded whether it's by a treats or loving. Avoid calling her to you for any negative reinforcment or punishment. If she comes to you and you punish her for something, she won't want to come to you. Do not expect this to work 100% of the time especially if she finds something way more intersting. That's just the reality of a Husky.

She is definitely food motivated ! That is a very good idea. I should keep a stash of treats in my pocket at all times for this purpose

You'll have to learn your dog's ranking of people and things. For instance, for Sabaka it's like this:

Dogs > coming to me with treats

Cats > coming to me with treats

Heck, all moving creatures > coming to me with treats

Me with treats > digging

Me with treats > playing with a ball

I usually bribe him with treats to get him to come. He will NEVER be allowed outside unleashed without a fence. Without distractions, they can be taught to come nicely when called. I'm just not sure that many people can call a husky back from a good squirrel chase!

I taught mine through food. Id yell "come" and then say good come and give them a treat. Embry stil does well with it, Zoey not so much as she has a mind of her own..

We made a game of it! My boyfriend and I would both have treats, and call the dogs back and forth. One person would tell the dog to come, and the dog would get a treat. Once the dog is done eating, the other person would call the dog, and we would just repeat this. Once they got the hang of it we would make it harder and hide a bit, and make the distance they had to come further. Luka still loves this game!

Ditto to the "come" game and to add to that our trainer has us walk a few steps backward as the dog nears us and then has us give them the treat. It is supposed to help keep us interesting. Another suggestion is to have them sit , lay down, or some other skill they have down after you've treated them for coming to you and then treat that. It is supposed to help with "drive-by" comes where they come to us, snag the treat and then run away again.

Lu&Katsmom wrote:

We made a game of it! My boyfriend and I would both have treats, and call the dogs back and forth. One person would tell the dog to come, and the dog would get a treat. Once the dog is done eating, the other person would call the dog, and we would just repeat this. Once they got the hang of it we would make it harder and hide a bit, and make the distance they had to come further. Luka still loves this game!

That is a very good teaching tool! My trainer highly suggested it.

When you are first starting out, instead of having the dog sit/stay and then have it come, just drop some food, rush away, and as the dog is eating the food, tell it to come and reward it with even better treats! It's hard enough to teach stay without confusing the puppy by telling it to break the stay to come to you. It won't understand why it didn't get a treat for staying and think that it's supposed to get up and come to you when it "stays."

Use lots of treats and practice it a lot. If the puppy starts getting it and then is a bit slow to get to you or decides it doesn't want to listen, say Oops! real loud to get its attention and then feed the treat to another dog or look like you're eating it yourself. Be like Oops! You could have had this! Too bad! That will make them decide to not ignore you as much if doing so means someone else gets that awesome treat they wanted. Oh and you can let them smell the treat a little first (like if they were really slow about getting to you) and then give it to another dog, so they really know they missed out.

Both of mine know "come," but like other huskies, they pick and choose when they want to listen. They are both pretty darn good about coming when called at the dog park and at dog class, but Siku likes to ignore me when she's out in the backyard sometimes and once Siku slipped her collar and took off. Yeah, she pretty much said screw you when I told her to come. Thank goodness I had a bunch of treats to throw in her face when she stoped to sniff a stop sign and then she came to me for more! So as my story shows, even a dog who has a great recall some places, don't trust them where they can actually run off.

i just quickly read the relays and all great advice, you can also work with her on a long leash and if she does not come give a little tug on the end and see if she will come, this is a good one to do in a big yard, and if you want to get her to do it with out treats. you can work up to this after you get her to come in the house and with treats.
ours come 50% of the time. and i KNOW they know come its just when they want to....