THE DOG PARK
I was recently at a neighborhood’s dog park, and I got talking with another lady, with her dog, who she stated that she was not going to train her dog the “come” command, instead, she would only teach “touch.” The problem I have with that is that come, and touch are two quite different words and two quite different meanings because touch doesn’t imply come. Touch is a doing word, and come is a flowing movement which in retrospect deserve quite different responses from our furry friends.
“Touch from a distance is much harder to train …come means come here now” Reddit
TOUCH
“Touch” is a doing word and I associate it with “helping” commands before a larger command. Let us say I have a service dog and I want the dog to push a button on the wheelchair, touch then is needed to get the dog to more complicated actions like pushing or pulling a door open, getting items out of the fridge and getting medication. I often use touch in a sequence with a of series of commands to build a dog’s understanding of an action.
https://youtu.be/DqeXX8wkux0?si=rGfFg7fARCJVN8do
COME
“Come” on the other hand is an obedience command along with sit and the reason they are the two most important commands and differentiated from touch, is because sit and come require the dog to submit to our authority, the require instructed, obedient positioning to me or beside me. Another reason we ought to teach both is simply because dogs are smart enough to understand distinct levels of communication. I cannot express enough that with different uses of words we endure different expressions of a word and Tones in our voice which dogs absolutely need to be obedient to their masters and have an understanding of the importance behind different words.
If for example I am at a dog park and a fight breaks out and I want my dog’s attention now and as the lady at the dog park suggested and failed at, coming, and touching naturally exudes a different tone, command and meaning. Come means to move towards the owner in a timely fashion and it means to obey. IT IS AN ACT OF SUBMISSION to the owner.It is for the animal’s protection as well as to come or to take recall (which is the next step up from come) but means the same thing. How do we move from touch to come then? It is not a smooth transition for how a dog learns. If for example we have our dog in sit position when I take a step come means move with me, touch does not.
It is especially important when dog training to understand some of these concepts. Dog training is not as easy as it looks!
In dog training “Sit” is the first command I teach on the very first session I have with the animal and its family. Sit teaches respect and begins the process of leadership in the family and hierarchy with the dog, which is needed for respect and for the dog to follow the leader(master).