Are you using your dog's name the best and smartest ways you can? In this video
I'm going to show you four things you need to think about when using your
dog's name.
Ian here or Simpawtico Dog Training and before we get into using your dog's name
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acquainted. And don't forget to check that YouTube description for notes, links,
and resources about the stuff we talked about. Now dogs don't understand the
concept of names like we do. They're pretty good at memorizing sounds and
chains of sounds and then assigning meanings to them. So, they can learn to
recognize words and phrases even though they don't process language. On average a
dog can learn about 165 words and even up to 300 in some cases. One of the
primary aims of training is to teach our dogs the meanings of words. With practice
they learn to respond in a particular way to a particular sound. Among the most
important sounds a dog needs to recognize is their name. So let's take a
look at some strategies to help you get the most bang out of your dog's name.
First, don't use your dog's name as part of a correction or a reprimand. Dogs are
really, really responsive to classical conditioning. For this reason you have to
be careful what you're teaching. You always want your dog to have a good,
favorable association with their name. Every time you say it, it should be
accompanied by good emotions in that dog's brain. This is a conditioned
emotional response and I've mentioned that concept before on this channel.
Yelling their name or hissing it with exasperation and frustration will only
pair bad emotions with it. From there reliability will start to erode. This is
an important consideration when training Come, for example. When I say my dog's
name I want them to look at me because they have good expectations about what I
want. I don't want them to pretend they don't hear me because they're avoiding
me. Many people in fact actually use their dogs named as the reprimand. [dog bark] Leo!
This is bad news because over time you are teaching your dog to believe
hearing their name means they're in trouble.
These folks then often wonder why the dog won't come when called and generally
won't listen. Using their name as part of reprimand, or as the reprimand, is a huge
contributing factor to not listening. Remember: you're correcting the behavior,
not the dog as an individual, so address the behavior you
don't like without having to make it personal. When you need to follow up, or
stop them from doing something, or communicate that you're not happy
there's usually no need to even use your dog's name unless it's an emergency,
we'll get to that in a minute. Use interrupts like, "Enough!" or "Leave it!"
or "Drop it!" or even just "Hey hey hey!" These rarely need to be preceded by the
name. Instructive reprimands and specific redirects don't need the name either. The
dog's name should only be used to: 1) proceed requests and 2) get their
attention in emergencies. We humans make a lot of mistakes so say your dog's name
nicely, always. Even when you're mad. And since we know they're making
associations use your dog's name to do fun things together, or to reward them, or
when you're praising them. Pairing their name with lavish praise, using it as a
precursor to good things and as a gateway to important requests will be
creating a conditioned emotional response in these cases - and wiring
that brain to love hearing their name. As I said in the Positive Training Trifecta
video we are always classically conditioning our dogs, so don't waste
the opportunity! The second thing to remember: don't nag them with it. When you
want your dog's attention, stop repeating it ad nauseam.
"Leo. Leo. No Leo. Leo. Please, Leo. Leo. Leo. Leo. Come on Leo. Leo. Leo."
When you do this you're denaturing their name so that it becomes meaningless background noise.
You're teaching them to ignore it which is going to give you trouble down the
road. I always work with my students to help them get their dogs to respond to
things the first time we ask for behaviors like Sit, Come, Down, Leave it,
etc. On this same token your dog should look at you right away when you say
their name. If you're having trouble getting your dog's attention then the
solution is not to just nag them and hope they remember you're there. The
solution is to go back to the drawing board and do attention and focus
exercises, and have more bonding experiences. In the meantime monotonous
repetition of their name didn't work the first hundred times you tried, it so stop
doing that and do something else! You can also use your dog's name as part
of a coding system. We can code the requests we make and assign importance
based on how we use our dog's name. Dogs learn their names but most dogs
have several familiar names or nicknames. Dogs are also capable of responding to
these. So we code requests and assign importance according to what name we use.
If we use one of their nicknames, this tells your dog that the following
request is a suggestion. We'd like for them to do it but if they
don't want to it's not a big deal. If we use their formal name we're telling them
that the following request is not optional. We need them to do it
immediately or we will follow up. This will help you share some control with
your dog and help them understand more when you need something done now.
Sharing control has been proven time and again in not just animal psychology and
behavior but in parenting, schools, and the workplace. Do we really need to
micromanage every single aspect of their lives?
Listen: not every request you make to your dog has to be an order. They're not
robots. Some things are just suggestions. We do this all the time with the humans in our lives.
Wife: "Hey honey, come sit down and watch the show with us." Husband: "I really want to
finish this thing in the garage first." Can you imagine how silly it would be if
we followed up on everything like it was life or death? Husband: "I really want to finish
this thing in the garage first." Wife: "I said SIT DOWN!!"
Think also of a mother—maybe even your mom—mothers do this kind of coding all
the time depending on the name they use. Mome: "Hey Kenz, will you give me the dog treats please?"
Child: "Sure mommy."
Mom: "Mackenzie. Stop feeding the dog."
"Mackenzie Megan you stop hitting your
sister!"
Our dogs our family and I'm betting you
have a truckload of nicknames for your dogs too, so use them as part of your
management. This will help you decide from moment to moment how much energy
you can and should expend on management, and save you some headaches down the
road. Of course the most important factor to making this work is consistency and
common sense. Don't make a big deal out of every single little daily thing
around the house, and don't give a must-do command unless you are willing
and able to follow up. And you may have a repertoire of commands that are only
given when it's a must-do situation. These are things like emergency stops, or
distance downs, or even a heel. Likewise don't use these unless it's really
important. Coding can also help you differentiate requests amongst more than
one dog.
Ian: "Dexter, come here. Yes! Good boy. Darwin, come here. Yes! Good boys! Oh, you guys are so good! Ok let's go!"
And finally, train urgency with reward scaling. Sometimes we're in
emergency situations, like if the dog is about to do something dangerous. In these
instances we will not be able to help ourselves. We will yell. We will shout
their names. However this needs to indicate that this
situation is urgent, not that they are in trouble. We can teach that using reward
scaling and practice. When I get louder I want a dog to think, "Oh man this must be
important!" I don't want a dog to think they're in trouble which is going to
make them hesitate and possibly make the wrong decision. So for example you could
practice calling your dog's name for attention and scale up the reward the
louder you get. Kibble for tone neutral, treats for calling loudly, a jackpot for
shouting, and then a $10,000 jackpot for outright yelling. Your dog will think, "Hey
it's kind of spooky that you yelled at me, but the buffet was awesome so, I'm
alright with it!" Then the next time you yell when they squirt out the front door
they'll pay way better attention. I talked about this concept in the Reward
Scaling video and I'll put a link to that one in the description. So let's
recap guys. Don't use your dog's name as a reprimand, or even as part of one. Use
your dog's name a lot during fun activities and during praise. Don't nag your dog
with their name. Actually just stop nagging altogether. Code requests with
either their formal name or their nickname depending on how important it
is. Use your dog's name to differentiate amongst several dogs. Teach your dog that
volume equals urgency with a reward scaling exercise. Being cognizant of how
these little things make a big difference is a tremendous tool in
training your dog to be happy, healthy, and well behaved. Think about how you use
your dog's name, and nicknames, and start implementing these strategies in your
daily life. So questions for you: what are some of the things you discovered about
your training in this video? And what are some changes you're going to make? Also
what questions do you have about using your dog's name? Let me hear about it in
the comments. Don't forget to thumbs up this video if you learned something and
as always keep learning, keep practicing and we'll see you next time. Thanks for
watching!