I am teaching Teek Leave it, he is doing pretty good.
Teaching your dog is come is something that took me a few dogs and a training class to get down.
You have to get a treat and then call the dog and I use the word Touch as my Come command. You have to praise them like crazy when they do come to you. I learned also to grab the dog when they do come as you are giving them the treat. That way if the dog gets loose and you need it come to you then they are used to you grabbing them.
The biggest mistake people make with Come, is when the dog gets outside and they call the dog back and the dog comes and then they yell at the dog for getting outside in the first place. I had my big dog get out and I got down on a knee and pretended I had a treat and told him to TOUCH and he saw me like that and he came running back to me. I was able to grab his collar and took him inside all the while telling him what a good boy he was and that he needed a treat (my dogs know that word!) and I gave him a treat for coming back and never said a word to him for slipping out the door in the first place.
Use treats and when they will do that take turns calling him from across a room with another person and give him a treat when he comes to you.
Training classes are an awesome experience for you and for the dog. I highly recommend enrolling the dog in a training course at a local pet center. I have done PetSmart and a local trainer and the Pet Sense classes were just as good if not better than the local trainer was. It is a great bonding experience for you and your pup too.
Because is so much older I will just continue to train him as I have been to several training courses with different dogs over the years and I even started online classes to be a trainer, but then I lost my job at a petstore and they closed down so I didn't get very far into it. I would take a new puppy to training courses because it is more for the good experience and bonding with me and the puppy.
Look into courses for the dog it is well worth the money and you will have a better dog at the end of each course you take.
