Name Game
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” - Juliet
Teaching a dog to respond to their name helps them to know when you're talking to them.
If you pair their name being called with Good things, they will turn to look at you when called.
If you pair your dog's name with bad things, they learn to ignore you when you call their name, even when you're not angry.
Benefits
- It is a great way to communicate with your dog.
- It helps your dog understand when youre asking them to do someting.
- Its a great way to navigate different instructions in multi dog households.
How to:
- Say your puppy's name in a fun, excited tone. Then deliver a treat straight to their nose.
- Repeat step one, but this time, when your pup turns to respond to their name, Mark, and then reward.
- Once your dog knows to respond to their name, mark and throw a treat towards them the second they turn around to respond to you calling their name. This will get them to respond faster.
- When your dog reliably responds to their name, teach them to give you Eye contact when called.
- Once your dog has learnt to respond to their name reliably, add in a few Distractions, distance and practice this behaviour in different settings like outside at the park, on a walk and even during puppy to puppy play.
In Multi Dog Households
When you have more than one dog in the same home, there may be times when you need to communicate, work or train with one of them and don't want the other to get involved or interfere. To accomplish this condition, the name in the same way shown above first. Now, let's pretend their names are Jack and Bella.
- Get both dogs to sit close to each other.
- Say Jack and reward in a position so that Jack is facing away from Bella, then Repeat with Bella and feed her facing away from Jack.
- Once both dogs understand the concept, repeat the exercise and reward them in a position where their faces are parallel.
- Once both dogs are confident with steps 2 and 3, repeat the exercise and reward them in a position facing each other.
- In all the steps, if either dog interrupts, they skip their turn. For example, if Jack tries to grab Bella's reward, it's now Bella's turn again and again until Jack shows restraint, and once he does, the game returns to a single turn each.
- Repeat this exercise by adding a bit of distance by putting both dogs on leashes, then throwing a treat a short distance away, saying Jack, only releasing Jack's lead. Then, repeat saying Bellas's name and restraining Jack.
- Once both dogs are constantly successful, you can slowly transition them off the leashes. You can even give them separate commands, for example, Sit Bella and speak Jack, and then mark and reward them for performing their tasks correctly.
Tips:
- Pair the dog's name with a positive stimulus, not with a negative stimulus to avoid teaching them to ignore it.
- Dont repeat your dogs name over and over if they are ignoring you as this teaches them to devalue it and keep ignoring it.
- Use your dogs name before fun activities for example "Rover dinner time" or "Jack lets go for a walk"
Check out the videos below to learn more from trainers around the world.
