THINGS NOT TO DO WHEN TEACHING YOUR DOG ITS NAME.
i.) Avoid attaching negative reactions especially at the beginning when calling out your dog’s name. No dog enjoys answering a call where they are going to be reprimanded. Now even though they can’t understand the language, they very much understand our body language, voice tone, and facial expressions.
ii.) When you are in a large open area, it’s best to keep your dog on a leash even as you train them to respond to their name. Dogs easily get distracted when exposed to large areas or to put it in perspective, large areas equate to more freedom, to explore and claim new territories. Also, the things that are a priority to them are just not the same for us. For example, investigating and researching a possible new site to potty. For us, that one time might be the only time we visit that area.
iii.)Avoid repeating their name multiple times when calling out to them. Doing this will create a conflict in your dog’s mind. For example, instead of answering the call “Coco”, your dog may be mixed up and start believing it’s “CocoCocoCocoCoco”. You see, they can easily get confused. Just call the name once and even if they don’t respond, give them a little time and call them again.
iv.) Avoid shouting or getting angry and aggressive at your dog when they don’t respond well to the command. Remember what we said earlier, any negative sentiment attached to the name would make your dog despise it and expect trouble when he or she hears the call.
If you suspect that your dog is being distracted or concentrating on something else during the training session, take them to another location and continue the training session.
v.) Do not use their name and other command words at the beginning of training your dog to respond to its name. The trick here is to get your dog to be responsive to his name and not to mix it up with another command.
When your dog gets good at responding to its name, you can take start using his or her name together with other commands but definitely not at the beginning of the training sessions.
A quick note, you may have adopted an older dog that already responds to a name and still decide to change the name. This is not a bad thing but you need to give this process time and lots of patience. It will not be like training a dog without a name. This dog is already responding to something and you are trying to change it.
Just like it takes people a long time to let others know when they change their name. The same thing applies to your dog. It will take them some time to respond properly to the new name. Making the process fun and rewarding for the dog is key to succeeding in the name change.