You can't have a therapy dog until you have an obedient dog. They don't train themselves. Find someone who has trained dogs for obedience trials not someone at PetSmart or PetCo. You can go to the AKC website and do a search for clubs in your area that can get you in touch with someone near you for some training classes.
As was mentioned the come command has to be very exciting to the dog and met with a big encouraging reward when they do come. I would take the dog out on a leash for now and walk him around the yard until he has finished his business.
As a starter, put your dog in a sit and then say "stay'. Oh, yes, the sit and stay have to be taught before the come. Once you have taught your dog to sit and stay you can attach a 6' leash and while your dog is in a sit/stay walk a few feet away and call come. If your pup does not stay you must patiently put him back in the sit until he understands stay. When you call his name and say "come" he probably will be more than happy to come to you. If not then give a gentle tug on the lead to encourage him to come. Gradually you will be able to move farther and farther away as you do this exercise. Always with a big reward when he does this. All of this is done in baby steps. No one task is learned in a day. Repetition, persistence and a great deal of patience with passionate encouragement and reward are huge in training dogs. |