17d (edited) • ⭐️ Training Chain
Training Chain - Week 3 - learning names
For this weeks challenge I decided to pick learning names.
This is a nice add on to the hold of the first challenge, as later on you can combine the two.
The goal is that your dogs knows the names of different people. So the end picture would be you saying a name of a person in the room and the dog turns his face to the right person. This is the foundation to be able to use the names to send your dog to a certain person, search for a certain person or bring something to a certain person.
Incase you dont have helpers near to help you, you can teach this with items instead. You will find an adaptation at the bottom.
1. Decide a person whose name you want to teach first.
2. Have the person standing next to your team. Both you and the helper have treats in a pocket.
3. Say the name of the person, followed by a pointing gesture to the person. As soon as the dog looks at the other person, the helper says something encouraging, does an inviting movement and opens the hand with a treat for the dog to grab.
4.The moment the dog takes the food, you mark/cheer, so the dog turns back to you and you pay with another treat. This way the dog learns, that after completing the task, he always and immediately comes back to you to get new instructions.
5. If the dog doesnt look around and doesnt turn to the person to begin with, the helper should make an inviting noise right after you said the name. If the dog now looks, he gets encouraged and paid by the helper. Mark and reward.
6. Practice this until the dog turns to the person without hesitance.
6. Gradually increase the distance between your team and the handler. (You can here add a second cue like „Go to…“, which will mean move to the right person, instead of only looking at the person.)
7. As soon as there is a distance depending on the excitement of the dog it can be handy to use a very short leash to hold the dog, so he doesnt anticipate, before completing the cue. He has to wait the whole cue „Go to Max“ and not start running after just hearing „Go to..“. This will be important when you add other names, so the dog doesnt start running before even hearing the name of the right person :)
8. If this works well too, you can start with a second person. Start the whole process step 2-7 with the new person.
9. If the second name is established well, you can start working with both persons at the same time. Decrease the distance between team and helpers a bit to begin with, but dont stand too close together, so its easier for the dog to focus on one person at a time. I would say a distance of approx. 3 m between one another is good to begin with.
9. The person whose name gets called out, can help by making a move, or a noise, depending how much help the dog needs. The person whose name wasnt called out should stand absolutely still and ignore any attention of the dog whatsoever.
10. Once the dog can change between both persons without problem, you can increase distance and/or add another person.
Extra pro: Now you can combine the names with other cues built up seperately, such as „bring…“ to bring something to a certain person, or „search….“ to search for a certain person.
Instead of having the person give a treat when the dog gets there, you can also use a clicker and click as soon as the dog reaches the person. I prefer this way though, where the dog gets double payment, because the helper can encourage the dog more in the beginning, when he is still unsure by showing the treat and also I love to build up some more energy to go out with speed for greater distances.
Incase you dont have helpers around to teach this, you can use boxes or baskets instead. This is a great way also to teach your dog to tidy up. You can have your dog grab a toy and send them to a certain place/box/basket, where they drop the item.
You can teach this almost the same way as with the people, just put a treat in the basket before saying basket, so the dog finds the reward in the basket.
First the dog is allowed to see you putting the treat in the basket. Later you put it in without the dog looking.
In the next step you increase the distance between your team and the basket. Here you can add the "Go to..." cue, which means "move towards a certain object".
If this works well, you can teach a second item, for example card box.
Once the dog has practiced with both items, put both items out together. Put a treat in one without the dog looking. Say the items name, which has the treat in it, so the dog gets rewarded right always.
As soon as the dog knows how to change between the items, you can add another cue, like bringing an item to the basket, let it drop and come back to you for the reward.
I hope my explanations are somewhat clear 😅 and you will have lots of fun with your dogs!
In the first video you see an example with two of my kids. I first use their real names, which she already knows. At the end i am mean and add a new name for my son (Markus) to show you how he helps her get it right, if she wouldnt yet know it well.
In the second and third video you can see how I combined a "to" with the name, to have her bring an item to a certain person, and like this, helping with the groceries.
In the last video you can see her doing a combination of "search" and a name, to search for a certain person. After finding the person, she gets a reward from the person and like taught before, runs back to me. I had to make a screenrecoring of my instagram post, as I didnt find the original video 😅.
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Training Chain - Week 3 - learning names
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