One of the first steps in training is to get your dog to learn their name and look at you so they are focused and ready to learn.
Puppies are so excited about everything in this brand new world of theirs! The smells, oh the wonderful smells of the floor, the toys, dinner in the air, the rug where somebody made a mistake a long time ago...all sorts of things to discover. What's under this chair, huh? "Brandy, come here, Brandy!" Oh, what's this, an old crunchy noodle... this is your puppy's noodle as she explores her world that revolves around her wonderful strong sense of smell. A dogs sense of scent is the most important sense she has with over hundreds of millions of scent receptors in her nose compared to our several million. Her hearing is far superior to ours as well but getting her to listen is another matter.
We capitalize on her sense of smell when we use smelly lures as we practice positive reinforcement training by asking her to look at us by putting a smelly lure in front of her and up to our eyes and say her name "Brandy"! in a happy voice! We only say her name once in a happy voice and wait until she looks at our eyes (not the treat) and say "yes" and give her a treat! Before you know it she responds to her name by looking at you and that's the first step in training because if Brandy doesn't see you, she doesn't hear you...she's probably following her nose down the hall to find a smelly sock somewhere!
Comments