How to be exciting for your puppy – and checking names

Last week I talked about being exciting for your puppy – here is my demonstration!  Ounce doesn’t think much of my first attempt to call her, so she decides not to bother.  When I change my tone though, she rushes over.  In fact I am so exciting that Sunny and Luna decide I must want to give them sweeties as well 🙂

Name Checking

I also practice ‘name checking’ my dogs, to make sure they know their names.

You can see that the puppy is not so good at staying put when she thinks I am not looking at her!  But she isn’t too bad, considering.

I love doing this exercise with the girls.  Can they wait?  Do they know their names?  Can they come, neatly?  Can they then wait again?  I do this exercise with them periodically, making it harder or easier, depending on how well they are doing it and when was the last time I practised.  Variations include:

• increasing the distance
• spreading them out from each other
• calling them in different orders (I started with Ounce as she is the worst!)
• facing away from them

Finally, I tried to get a video of them going into a ‘down’ from a distance.  This was a poor example, because they are tired – it’s the end of the walk.  Luna in particular was distracted by a cyclist mending a puncture.  You can see that they do go down, but it’s not as quick and efficient as I would like.

Treats

Don’t forget, you must always, always have plenty of treats for your dogs.  Then they will do what you want!

Remember..

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