Teaching Your Puppy Their Name

The first thing in training for puppies is teaching them their name. You cant do anything if your puppy doesn't know their name. Higher results are achieved if this training is completed several times a day for a few minutes just to strengthen your puppy's understanding of their name. Equip yourself with lots of treats and toys and put your puppy on their lead. The lead is used to give you some gentle control over your puppy's movements. Therefore if you lose their attention and they start to wander, you can stop them from walking away without running after them. One thing that you must put across and is very easily missed is that you are in charge. It can be very difficult to put this across to a puppy because you don't want to scare them. But by putting you in charge and letting it be known it will become easier in the more advanced training sessions. Use your treats and toys to attract the puppy's attention and call their name. If the puppy responds by looking at you then give them a reward. Next, hold the treat up to your face so the puppy has to respond by looking up at you. When your puppy looks up at you they are rewarded. Repeating this several times a day will decrease the time to take for your puppy to learn their name.

When you reward your puppy with a treat, also use verbal praise by telling your puppy that they are good. It may seem silly but it will be a boost for their confidence and they will recognise your voice better. If it's good for us then it will be good for them. Further in to the training the sound of your voice will be the reward and the rare treat is just a bonus. This exercise should also be completed using a toy to attract your puppy's attention. Call your puppy's name and squeak their toy or tap their ball on the floor. Next try holding the toy up to your face and call your puppy's name. Fetch is a good game for using your puppy's name and is another good bit of training for your puppy to learn their name. By throwing their toy gently to (remember, they are on their lead so don't throw the ball to far!). allow your puppy to chase their toy, and gently guide them back to you to continue the game.

The best results can be achieved by experimenting with different toys, treats and tones of voice to learn what works best for your puppy. You must remember to reward your puppy when they respond to their name. This is how they will come to know that this specific sound really is their name.

When you are confident of getting your puppy's attention and holding it for a short period of time, you could start to introduce new lessons and positions into your training sessions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Stephen_Burrows