In all that there is to living successfully with dogs one of the basics is that your dog should love hearing its name. There is no better place to start than that. Say your dog’s name and they should spin around and head your way. There are a good number people who have accomplished this behavior but instead of the dog’s name the dog responds beautifully to the word ‘treat’ or ‘cookie.’ Why is this? Without even considering the consequences, whenever we say ‘treat’ and the dog comes to us we reliably give them a treat, isn’t that great? Works perfect if your dog’s name is Treat or Cookie. You will feel like you are cheating a bit otherwise, even though your training was perfect.
How can you help your dog love hearing its name? One of the best descriptions of it I had read recently was in the book Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt. McDevitt refers to this name game as the Whiplash Turn Game, because of the result of your dog, upon hearing his name, whipping around to look at you so fast he receives whiplash. You start the practice in your home where you will toss a treat and just as your dog is about finished chewing it you say “Fido!” invitingly and the dog whips around and looks at you, you then toss the food again, invitingly say name, and when the dog looks at you toss the food again. This game is a good one to play while using a clicker or a verbal marker like ‘Yes”. You would use the behavior marker as soon as you see thedog's neck turn toward you, click or yes and then reward. At first the dog only needs to look at you but ideally the dog would come towards you and sit looking at you.
Once your dog is good at the Whiplash Turn in the house you can use it on your walks, if your dog is about to pull ahead, say his name and he should look at you. In this picture you can see the dog is more interested in what is ahead, the other dog, than who is behind him, me. Let’s say I say his name and he looks at me and then I add more information like let’s go, come, or leave it. Now we are working more like a team, the tension in the leash is eliminated, the dog is looking at me and we are ready to continue on our walk. To keep building on our teamwork I might head in the other direction, talk to my dog, and reward him generously for his attention.
Keeping the sound of your dog's name in the same category as hearing treat or cookie is up to you. Never use the dog’s name in anger, which will undo your hard work. Keep it fun and lively and your dog will look forward to hearing you say it again.
