I was told by an animal behaviourist that dogs understand that their owner is responding to the LAST thing it did.
So if a dog runs out the door & away...and NEXT you call it back & it comes obediently...if you then punish it, it thinks it's getting punished for coming to you. Not for running away! And you don't want a dog to learn it will get punished for coming when its called.
I loved Aly's idea of lying on the ground & screaming so the dog will come back out of curiosity!
A dog trainer on a TV program gave some advice close to this. He was talking about the problem of playing in the park with a puppy or young dog who hadn't yet learned to come every time its owner called 'Come'.
The trainer said that when the dog ran off ignoring the owner's 'Come!', the owner shouldn't chase after it. He said the dog would think it was a game & run faster.
He said the owner should hide behind a tree & perhaps, too, make a high-pitched crying sound. The dog's curiosity would lead it back to find its owner.
When we heard this advice, we imagined some poor dog-owning man being dragged off by the police because his hiding behind a tree was mistaken for some sort of perverted behaviour.
Marie