Name Game
“What's in a name? That which we call a rose/ By any other name would smell as sweet.” - Juliet
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Teaching a puppy how to respond to their name helps them to navigate their new home and allows them to know when youre talking to them.
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 puppys name in a fun exited 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.
- When your puppy is reliably responding to their name, this time say their name but only mark and reward when they give you some Eye contact.
- Once the puppy gives you great eye contact everytime you call their name 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.
