Teaching The “Name Game”
WHAT IS THE NAME GAME?
The Name Game is an exercise used to help puppies (or any dog) generalize the concept of when they hear their name, to look at where that “sound” came from. The goal is to have your dog respond to their name regardless of their environment or what they are doing, not just when they know you have food or when nothing else exciting is going on. This is important because getting your dog to listen to you is not only convenient, but can also be important at times for safety reasons. And if you can’t get your dog to look at you, then you probably can’t get them to listen to you either.
HOW DO I START?
To start practicing the name game first you want to begin in a quiet, distraction free environment. Then you are going to say your dog’s name in a loud happy voice and immediately put a good tasting treat right to their mouth no matter what they do in response to you saying their name. If you are dealing with a puppy who does not know their name at all yet that is fine, just say their name and immediately put a treat to their mouth. Dogs don’t necessarily hear their name and think “that’s me” like humans do. But you can teach your puppy that everytime they hear that sound something really good happens! After they are finished chewing their treat they are most likely going to stare at you waiting for the next one. Just ignore them, avoid eye contact or talking to them. Basically you are going to ignore them and be really boring until they stop focusing on you. After they stop focusing on you wait a few seconds to a few minutes (vary each time) and then repeat the exercise. As with all training, small sessions spread throughout the day is best opposed to one long continuous session so do 2-3 repetitions in one or two sessions a day. It is also a good idea to keep a few treats in your pocket or in a bag or jar near you and just do this randomly throughout the day.
HOW DO I PROGRESS?
Once your dog is reliably responding to his/her name in a quiet, familiar area of your home, start practicing in noisier areas of your house and around other people. By reliably responding, your dog should be quickly looking at you 10/10 times when you say their name. When increasing the difficulty, do so slowly. Don’t start in a quiet room and then go in your front yard with traffic, squirrels, and people walking by. That would just be setting your dog up for failure. After they are reliably responding to their name is a little bit of a busier section of your house then you can go to a quiet spot outside, then near the street etc. Eventually you should be able to do this exercise anywhere and at anytime. Even while your dog is in the middle of playing with other dogs, eating, etc.
WHAT IF MY DOG IS HAVING DIFFICULTY?
If your dog begins struggling with this exercise it is probably because you increased the difficulty a little too quickly. Just go back to the previous area and spend another day or two there as a “review”. Your dog should quickly catch on and be ready to progress after you do this. If you are still having difficulty though, contact your trainer and they can help you figure out what is going on.
