# How do you teach your dog to recognize people?



## ~Saphira~ (Apr 25, 2012)

I've seen a few people on here who can tell their dogs to "Go to so and so" Or "Give this to so and so" And things like that. 

How would you train your dog to recognize people by name?


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

I just said the name of the person when my dog was getting petted. Now he knows both of my sons and my husband by name. Smart dogs, those GSDs...


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## ~Saphira~ (Apr 25, 2012)

Wow!


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

All three of my dogs(1 GSD/2 Non GSD) know my family members by name Every night I tell them to go and give my son a kiss good night and they do


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## ~Saphira~ (Apr 25, 2012)

That's adorable! How did you teach your dogs that, though?


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

~Saphira~ said:


> That's adorable! How did you teach your dogs that, though?


It started as a game, I would tell them to go give Joey a kiss, then my son called them to where he was and ask for a kiss. After repeating this every night they got it....Its really no different then them understanding what bye bye means....sometimes people have to spell it and then the dogs learn how to spell O U T


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## gmcwife1 (Apr 5, 2012)

We are going to start training on name recognition this week with our obedience class 

I don't remember the steps but will try to type them out when I get home  

Koda (our Samoyed) knows 'get your girl' means to go find our daughter. But we are going to teach Nita to know us by name since there are only three of us in the house.


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## Courtney (Feb 12, 2010)

We play alot of "find it" games with our boy because he loves it. He knows myself, husband and two teenage daughters by name. All 3 can hide and the one left with him will pick someone for him to find and he will seek out that person only, we have even hidden on our property and he will find the right person everytime, he's relentless.

We just started to say "find mommy" as soon as he made eye contact, treat, then he was treated for going to that person or heavily petted, good boy! Kind of generic but he caught on quick


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## ~Saphira~ (Apr 25, 2012)

Thanks Courtney! 

Thanks everyone!


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

So when are you getting your dog?


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## ~Saphira~ (Apr 25, 2012)

Hopefully this June... I've been saving up.


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## Sunflowers (Feb 17, 2012)

Yay! Can't wait to see your new pup!


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

when my dog was a pup we taught him "go to" and
"come" at the same time. my GF and i use to sit on the floor
with our feet touching. we placed the pup between/inside
our legs. i faced the pup towards my GF. i would say "go to
Rosie" and at the same time my GF would say "come". then
my GF would face the pup towards me i did the same thing.
as the pup learned "go to" we started moving further away
from each other. then we taught him "go to your crate".
whenever the pup was crated one of us would pick him
up and say "go to your crate". we said it a few more times 
as we neared the crate. when we reached the crate the pup was sat
on the floor in front of the crate. as he was ushered in the crate
it was said again "go to your crate". as he learned "go to your crate"
we started telling him to go to his crate from different parts of the house
and finally form different places around the yard. "go to your bed".
we leashed him and said "go to your bed". one of us would walk him
to his bed. once on the bed he given a "stay", "down" or "sit" command.
"go to the car". open the car door. leash the dog and say "go to the car".
"go to the car" was easy to teach because he knew the car meant
it's time to go somewhere. i also taught him to lay down automatically
when he goes to the car. everytime i lead him to the car i told him
down once he was in the car. "go get the mail". the mail carriers helped 
with this. whenever the mail came we walked the dog to the mailman
saying "get the mail". the mailman would hand the mail to the dog
(put it in his mouth). at some point we were able to open the door
when the mailman was out front and say "get the mail". if my neighbor 
comes out our dog will go back down the driveway and get her mail
and bring it to her. my dog knows "go to our bed" and "go to your sister".
if both of my children are in the room and i say "go to your sister" he picks
one to go to. "go to your aunt", when my sister is here he'll go to her
on command. if you there's one person in a room with you walk over to that 
person and look at your dog and say "Spot, this is Bob". then wait a minute
and tell you dog to "go to Bob". your dog will probably
go to Bob because he knows "go to". he doesn't know the 
word Bob but he's responding to "go to".


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## chelle (Feb 1, 2009)

I didn't do anything very fancy.  Just said the person's name when he was interacting with them. When they drove up the driveway, he'd go to the window and I'd say, "Who's here?" then when the person got out of the car, I'd say, "Oh! It's XXX." "Do you want to see XXX?" It was really easy. Dogs pick up on this fast. They learn their own names fast, after all.  Again, I haven't done anything very fancy, but sometimes I'll say, "Where's XXX?" when they're at my house and the dogs want to go find them.

ETA -- I don't think my dogs know my actual name. All they know for me is "Mama."


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

when you get your pup don't rush training. if your dog learns one command a month that's 12 commands a year. in 2 years at 1 command
a month that's 24 commands and i think that's awesome.



~Saphira~ said:


> Hopefully this June... I've been saving up.


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## ~Saphira~ (Apr 25, 2012)

Doggiedad- thanks! Great advice


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