The problem: a dog used to respond to “come” but when the dog got sick the owner used “come” to give the dog the meds. Now the dog will not respond to “come”.

Solution: the dog is obviously associating the word “come” with negative feelings. This can happen to anyone but to fix the problem is not impossible.

Change your sd ( Discriminative stimuli (sd) such as signals, targets, and cues).

In other words use a different word . The association with “come” is now extinguished and the use of a different word is now needed. Some great words besides “come” are : here or now.

Remember that the cue words are for you. You can use the word ” balloon” and you will get the same response. Is it the training that counts here not the word. Remember that !!

So now start from the beginning. Ask your dog to sit, step two steps back and say “here”. If they respond reinforce and repeat. So you are retraining the behavior.

Trainer errors are tough to fix and they are frustrating because you know it occurred do to a mistake you ( the owner) made. But it’s ok that’s life, be positive and learn from your mistakes.