WRITTEN BY: Mary Green
CPDT-KA: Certified Professional Dog Trainer Knowledge Assessed; CDBC: Certified Dog Behavior Counselor; CNWI: Certified Nose Work Instructor; K9 Manners & More, Broken Arrow, Okla.
That’s the fair and right thing to do. If you want
your partner, your child or your coworker to respond to you, don’t you first say his or her name? What if you’re out shopping and you can’t locate an item; you see a store employee nearby, so you say, “Excuse me, where’s the Lysol spray?” The best way to get someone to do something is to get their attention first.
It’s the same for our dogs. If we want our dogs to do something— or stop doing something—we need to get their attention.
Teach your dog to be responsive to her name. We want our dogs to think that their name is the most wonderful word they’ve ever heard. And when you say it, good things will follow. The name game helps to condition your dog to orient to you when you say her name. With practice, she will develop a reflexive response so that when she hears her name, she thinks treat!
How to train it:
Step 1: SAY IT. SAY YOUR DOG’S NAME ONCE IN A CHEERFUL TONE OF VOICE.
Step 2: PAY IT. AS SOON AS SHE TURNS HER HEAD TO LOOK YOUR WAY, SAY “YES!” AND GIVE HER A REALLY YUMMY TREAT. WHILE SHE EATS THE TREAT, PRAISE HER SOME MORE.
Step 3: REPEAT IT. AFTER A FEW REPETITIONS, YOUR DOG SHOULD AUTOMATICALLY TURN TOWARD YOU WHEN YOU SAY HER NAME. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
If she doesn’t look toward you when you say her name, do something different! Make a funny noise (kissing sound, clicking sound, etc.). Try not to repeat her name.
The hardest part of the name game is learning to never say your dog’s name in a harsh tone of voice or as part of a reprimand.
Once your pup is responding to her name happily and reliably, you can readily train skills such as coming when called and staying when told.
If you need to interrupt your dog because she is doing something that needs to stop, try saying her name to get her attention, then call her off.
Dogs can be very environmentally engaged, right? For example, if you need to get your dog’s attention off a squirrel hunt, you might need to use an emphatic cue. In this instance, you should not use her name. Instead say “Hey! Stop that!” or something similar, but avoid using her name in a harsh manner.
When your dog is in lizard-brain mode (no offense to lizards; I am referring to brain stem rather than limbic system response), she cannot respond to normal name-calling routine. When she is in this fightflight mode, you might need to use a whistle or even an air horn in order to pierce that focus. Get her attention so that you can ask her to do something else.
