Oh Behave!

Max, Lola, Roxie, Charlie, Pancake, Izzy, Suki! . . . When it comes to dogs, what’s in a name?

As it turns out, with the right training, quite a bit.

Your dog’s name can be a lot more than just the word you use to refer to him. With the right training, your dog’s name can serve as a cue to look at you. Getting dogs to pay attention to their humans around lots of distractions is one of the most common dog guardians’ challenges. Name training is the first step to teaching your dog to attend to and focus on you no matter where you are. Name training is also a terrific building block for teaching your dog to come to you when you call him.

To train your dog to look at you when you say his name all you need are a clicker and some treats he really likes. Small soft smelly treats work best because your dog can eat them quickly, which helps you get the most mileage out of a training session. Most importantly, use treats that your dog likes. (Every dog is different and just because one dog likes a certain type of treat doesn’t mean another dog will. A student in one of my group training classes had a puppy who would happily train for tiny pieces of apple! I tried giving my dog a piece of apple and he just sniffed it and walked away from me.)

This exercise rewards your dog for looking at you when you say his name, and will teach a newly adopted dog or pup his name if he doesn’t already know it. Your dog learns that looking at you when you say his name is a splendid thing to do because doing so means yummies are coming his way.

1. Do this exercise at home in a room where there’s not a lot of activity.
2. Have your clicker ready and a handful (about 15-20) of treats in one hand held behind your back, or in a treat pouch or in a pocket.
3. Say your dog’s name one time only in a happy upbeat voice. The moment your dog looks at you, click, then give him a treat. Be sure to click first, and then give the treat.
4. If your dog doesn’t look at you, don’t repeat his name. Instead, watch for any response to hearing his name. It might be a slight head turn, a pricking up of his ears, or a tail wag. Click the moment he responds and then feed him a treat.
5. If your dog does absolutely nothing when you say his name, try making kissy noises, clapping your hands, or using jolly talk to get his attention. The moment he responds click, then treat.
6. Continue the exercise until you’ve used up your handful of treats.

Do the exercise a couple of times a day for 2-3 minutes at a time. Practice at different times of day and in different rooms of the house.

It won’t take long for you to notice progress. Small head turns will soon become quite deliberate looks at you. Looks at you will very likely turn into actual approaches. (See what I mean about name training serving as a great foundation for training your dog to come when you call?)

When your dog is reliably looking at you at least 8/10 times when you say his name, kick the exercise up a notch:

• Randomly say your dog’s name when he’s not expecting it. Remember to click when he looks at you, then give him a treat.
• Ask a helper to do the exercise with you so your dog learns to respond to his name when other people say it.
• Gradually increase the level of environmental distractions when you do name training. Enlist a friend or family member to be the distractor. Their simple presence might be enough to distract your dog, or your helper can bounce a ball, squeak a squeaky toy, or jump around and act silly.
• Practice on leash walks and outdoors in an enclosed yard.

When your dog is looking at you 90% of the times that you say his name, treat him less often and phase in real life rewards. Treat him occasionally and randomly for looking at you in response to his name. Reward him at other times with other things he enjoys such as belly scratches, playtime with you, a special toy, or a long-term chewie like a bully stick or tendon. If you stop rewarding him altogether for looking at you, he will eventually stop doing the behavior.

Happy Training!

In an old Destiny’s Child song a woman singer, suspicious that her boyfriend is cheating on her, asks him on the telephone to say her name. If he says it, it will mean one thing – no other woman’s with him to give him grief about talking to the singer/girlfriend. If he won’t say the singer’s name, it means something else. Without much thought we understand implicitly the context of the singer’s request and that the boyfriend’s utterance of her name or not is loaded with meaning. As members of a verbal species, such is the power of language among us.

All of this nuance, context and meaning would be completely lost on dogs.

In training classes and the real world, I frequently hear folks saying their dogs’ names in a disapproving tone when the dogs are doing something the people don’t like. Someone says the dog’s name and only the name without saying a verbal cue, and becomes perplexed and aggravated when the dog doesn’t comply.

Here’s a typical scenario:

Sadie the yellow lab mix is jumping on a visitor. Mary, Sadie’s person says, Sayyyy–deeee, in a long drawn out way. Sadie continues to jump.

Mary (to the visitor): I’m sorry, she knows she knows she’s not supposed to do this.

Mary (again in a long drawn out way): Sayyy-deeee.

Sadie, unphased, keeps jumping.

Now Mary’s frustrated. Sadie, she says, raising her voice. No effect.

Mary’s very annoyed. In an angry sharp voice she shouts, SADIE!

We know what Mary’s tone of voice means. Stop jumping. I don’t like it when you do that. We’re human. Speech and tones of voice are two of our primary means of communication.

But Sadie’s a dog. All she hears is Mary repeating her name in different ways. Mary hasn’t given Sadie any guidance about what to do. Mary hasn’t asked her to sit, lie down, or do anything else.

Sadie, like most dogs, probably does pick up on tones of voice. While she may be aware at some point that Mary is upset, Sadie probably doesn’t know why. It’s a good bet that Sadie doesn’t know what Mary wants her to do or not do. These situations must be awfully confusing to dogs.

Unless you’ve trained your dog to do something in particular when you say her name, your dog’s name by itself isn’t a cue or request to do something. Saying your dog’s name doesn’t communicate anything to your dog. It doesn’t mean sit, or stay, or stop jumping.

Dogs aren’t mind readers. If you’d like your dog to do something particular, give her clear unambiguous cues for behvaiors you’ve trained her to do. Instead of just saying your dog’s name and expecting her to know what you want her to do, say her name and then say the word for a behavior you’ve trained her to do. In Sadie’s case, Mary might say, Sadie sit, or, Sadie go to your mat.

Communicating clearly with your dog will save you a lot of time, avoid frustration on your part and confusion on your dog’s part. You’ll both be a lot happier if you spell things out in a way that the dog can understand.

(Training your dog to look at you when when you say her name is a great foundational behavior. I’ll write soon on the hows and whys of doing that in another post called, “What’s in a Name?”)