# A puppy learning their name



## Damianblade (Nov 23, 2013)

Hey all... I have a 10 week old GSD puppy and was wondering if I should be concerned or not. I have had her for 2 weeks and My puppy Charlie doesn't respond to me calling her name. I can say it 20 times Infront of her and she won't even look in my direction. Same goes with like any command of "come here" only thing she does respond to is "sit"


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

You have to teach her. When she is near you, call her by her name in a happy voice and give her a treat. 
There are many good books on dog training. One is "The power of positive dog training" from Pat Miller. If you are not familiar with dog training, take her to a puppy class.


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO (Oct 4, 2006)

Damianblade said:


> Hey all... I have a 10 week old GSD puppy and was wondering if I should be concerned or not. I have had her for 2 weeks and My puppy Charlie doesn't respond to me calling her name. I can say it 20 times Infront of her and she won't even look in my direction. Same goes with like any command of "come here" only thing she does respond to is "sit"
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


What have you done to teach her her name? And what have you done to teach her "come"?


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## Breitbach343 (Aug 30, 2013)

Damianblade said:


> Hey all... I have a 10 week old GSD puppy and was wondering if I should be concerned or not. I have had her for 2 weeks and My puppy Charlie doesn't respond to me calling her name. I can say it 20 times Infront of her and she won't even look in my direction. Same goes with like any command of "come here" only thing she does respond to is "sit"
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


 
My Ridley is 14 weeks old now and still is a very distracted puppy. She didn’t really know her name until about the 3rd week after we had her and we worked on it a lot. What we did was during training, say her name and when she looks at you, hit on that, either "click" or use your "key word" like “YES”. Do this over and over but mix the tricks up, because your pup is so young they have a very short attention span, so keep the training sessions about 5-10 minutes and try to have at least 3 sessions a day. Make it fun for her, use treats sometimes and toys the other times. It will keep them interested and wanting to learn. Your pup will learn her name; she’s in a new environment and is probably still just getting use to the new home and everything. If she already know "sit" that’s good, my Ridley knew "sit" first also. Just keep working at it; she will get it, just takes some time and work.


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## Damianblade (Nov 23, 2013)

I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO said:


> What have you done to teach her her name? And what have you done to teach her "come"?


To teach her "come" I have a treat in my hand and stand a bit away and say "come" and then if she comes I give her the treat. And for her name I use treats as well. I say her name around her and if she responds I give her the treat. 

Next week I'm starting to take her to puppy classes that the vet holds every Thursday. I'm hoping that will help. 


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## I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO (Oct 4, 2006)

Damianblade said:


> To teach her "come" I have a treat in my hand and stand a bit away and say "come" and then if she comes I give her the treat. And for her name I use treats as well. I say her name around her and if she responds I give her the treat.
> 
> Next week I'm starting to take her to puppy classes that the vet holds every Thursday. I'm hoping that will help.
> 
> ...



That's a good start, there are a few more things that you can do. First, when teaching recall, keep her on a leash so that if she doesn't respond you can sort of reel her in until she does respond. If you have someone that can help you with this, call her back and forth to you. 

I would also use a clicker to learn her name (it's great for everything else too). Because you might not be rewarding her fast enough that she doesn't realize that the treat is for her name. Read up on clicker training and how to teach her to associate the click with a reward (charging the clicker).

Also, I love to teach voluntary attention. That means whenever she looks at you or comes over to you, click and treat. It basically makes you associated with good things.

When you start with all of this, make sure you are inside away from any distractions. When she masters zero distractions, go outside, and slowly build up the distractions.

I'm glad you are signed up for puppy classes, you will learn a lot! It's the best decision a puppy owner could make!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

Damianblade said:


> To teach her "come" I have a treat in my hand and stand a bit away and say "come" and then if she comes I give her the treat.


Well, what you're essentially doing is rewarding her for responding to a command that you haven't taught her yet, not _teaching_ her what that command means. Instead, try standing close to her, and then quickly walking backwards a few steps, luring her towards you with the thread. You don't want to lure too long, so only use the treat lure a few times, but you can encourage her to come towards you by clapping your hands and/or making sounds. Movement will attract her more than you just standing there. When she happily follows as you move away (again, only a couple of steps at first), you can add the command right before you do so, so she'll start to associate the word with the behavior.



Damianblade said:


> And for her name I use treats as well. I say her name around her and if she responds I give her the treat.


Same thing here, she has to respond to her name in order to get the treat, but she doesn't know it's her name yet. Lower your criteria - say her name and immediately give her a treat. Spend a few minutes several times a day doing this, as long as it takes for her to instantly look to you for a treat when she hears her name, and at that point you can wait to mark ("yes!" with a happy voice, or use a clicker as Mikko suggests below) and reward _after_ she looks at you. In this exercise you also want to be very close, don't expect her to look at you from across the room until she responds when you're right there next to her. 



I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO said:


> Also, I love to teach voluntary attention. That means whenever she looks at you or comes over to you, click and treat. It basically makes you associated with good things.


I do this too, and it's a great way to instill default behaviors of attention and focus, and the recall. It's called "capturing" behaviors - all you're doing is marking and rewarding things your puppy is offering up voluntarily, you're not actually giving her any commands, since of course she hasn't learned them yet. It's something you can start doing immediately, with a brand new puppy.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Use only one command...it's either come OR here. Commands should only be given once. For the name, say puppy's name and say yes and give a treat as soon as the puppy looks at you,...repeat a million times and they will get it.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

llombardo said:


> Use only one command...it's either come OR here. Commands should only be given once. For the name, say puppy's name and say yes and give a treat as soon as the puppy looks at you,...repeat a million times and they will get it.


If you work correctly with the clicker they will learn their name within a few hours.
I am working with a 13 week old Labrador pup and that is just what he did.


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