[yorkietalkjilly]

I suspect that your dog fears and mistrusts you, sensing you might have a bit of a hair trigger, whether you do or not. The fact that you lost your patience with a very young dog and quickly though lightly swatted his butt says that he senses you might be not be trustworthy and are easily angered, even by a youthful, rambunctious puppy who couldn't have really known all the rules at the time he was swatted. So, I'd start all over with him and just do one thing over and over until I got success and a happy dog.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Just start out with him and teach him one thing. Just teach him to do one single thing for right now and build on that and gain his trust, let him see success in responding to you and you two will always have that between you to build upon. He'll learn that you are trustworthy, that you really are patient and that you are going to work with him.

Teach him to come the easy way. Just get his favorite treats, say warm, boiled chicken - whatever he loves most in the world. Just before dinner when he's good and hungry, sit down with him right in front of you on the floor and say "Come" and hand him a treat. Repeat - "Come" and immediately treat. Do that for 10 times in a row and stop, let him outside to play and go about your business. Repeat that lesson just before bedtime when it's time for a snack. Come equals treat - he'll be learning that for now.

Next day run through this exercise three times a day. In his mind, he's beginning to learn that saying the word "Come" means he gets an immediate treat. You are charging the word "come" to mean "treat" in his mind and associate coming to you with good food. He will hear "come" and think "treat" the more you keep having these short training sessions with him.

In a week's time, get the treats and sit down and smile really big and gently push him back from you slightly - about two feet away and say "come" and he'll quickly cover the two feet to get the treat that he now understands is what automatically should happen every time he hears that word. Begin to praise him now every time he comes running and say "Gooooood boy" as you hand him his treat. Now, push him back two feet away and say "come" and he'll come scooting to get that treat and praise. Repeat 8 more times. Repeatedly keep up those training sessions, moving him further from you away every couple of days until he has to cross the room to come get his treat and praise once you say the word "come".

Get someone to hold him and you say the word "come". He will struggle to get away from that person to come get his treat and in the process, he'll be teaching himself that he's got to overcome whatever obstacle there is to get to you and that treat and praise the minute he hearts the word "come". In time, you can go outside and practice with him just sitting in front of you just as you did when you first started and gradually pushing him back two feet away and so on until you are calling him from across the yard while he's outside playing and he comes running to get his treat and praise.

See where this is going? You've charged the word "come" to equal treat to this guy and is you train him just as described and don't jump ahead, you will have a dog that will come running to get his due - his treat and praise. After he's immediately coming to you 99% of the time when called, start leaving off the treat every 10th time he comes and in stead, really get in his face and smile, praise him happily and let him know how pleased you are with him. Really celebrate that he came to you. Be happy and let him know it. Keep treating him and praising him but each 10th time he comes, only praise and celebrate with him, speaking in a high, squeaky voice that dogs love and really party it up that he came to you, clapping your hands and rubbing his flank and chest, tickling his thigh, rubbing his ears. In time, he'll learn that coming to you not only gets him great treats most every time, you are there waiting just crazy happy and proud of what he's just done and he'll WANT to come to you for that fun time and party atmosphere you'll create. The more fun and squeaky the voice, the more excited he'll get to come to you.

Always remember to give commands in a happy, upbeat voice and make the dog actually want to respond. Many trainers think they have to bark out military type commands when it actually intimidates some dogs and they don't care to train in that mood. Keep training fun, upbeat, happy and a game to your dog - a game he wins every time he does what you've asked - in this case - coming to you for his instant reward and praise. Eventually, just his owner's happy praise is enough for dogs most of the time once they have learned the "come" command, though I still almost always give Tibbe a piece of kibble treat when he comes running from a distance when I call him. And he always gets his praise and smile - some days big celebrations and happy dances - simply for coming to me. It never grows old with dogs to make life happy for them.

Just keep building on that and before you know it, you'll have a dog whom you have taught to come to you when you say "come" because he's associated the act of coming to you with great reward and fun, even taught himself to overcome obstacles to get to you and his positive reinforcement and enjoy your smiling, happy pride in him. He'll think you are fun to come to and be around. He'll want to work for your smiles and pride in him. He'll preen under your smiling eyes. You'll be on your way to getting you dog's trust and affection back with just the one training exercise and you can build on that.