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Tip - 26 - Dog training
basics - Teaching your dog its name
Ignoring
commands
One
of the reasons why dogs seem to ignore their owner’s commands is simply due
to the fact that the dog has not learned to pay attention when
their master speaks to them. For example, many dogs do not even
seem to know their own name. This is a critical thing to teach
them. Your dog will indicate that it knows its name by looking
directly at you whenever you say his name. This also means that
you now have the dog’s attention, which makes it much more
likely that he will respond to your next command. To ensure name
recognition, visibly place a treat in your hand, and then extend
your arm out to the side. Now call the dog's name to get its
attention. The dog is likely to be looking at the treat and not
at you. Continue to call its name until he turns his head to
look at your eyes. Then immediately give him the treat. Do this
repeatedly alternating which side you hold the treat. Later you
can just call the dog’s name (no treat involved) and use
petting and/or making a fuss over the dog to reward it for looking
at you.
The foundation of all training is attention and therefore ALWAYS use dog's
name FIRST before giving your commands.
Your next step is to make sure that your dog has been to obedience class where
it can be socialized to be comfortable with other dogs, strange people and
lots of chaotic activity. It is important that it be a class, not private instruction,
because the presence of other dogs and people is important. The dog will then
learn that the rules do not change just because he is no longer alone with
you, and is surrounded by chaos and distracting activity. Thus the dog learns
to attend to you, and you become an anchor and a point of consistency that
he can rely on. This will also help insure that he responds to what you ask
him to do.
© Copyright
Stanley Coren, reproduction by permission only.
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