# Teaching Names of Family Members?



## cassadee7 (Nov 26, 2009)

How do you go about teaching your pup the names of various family members? Maybe this is simple but we have had our current dog for over 12 years and he STILL just stares at us blankly when we say "go to Josh" or "where is Cody"? He knows names of THINGS like his "fetchy", "ball," and "door." Maybe he is just not that bright (he is not a GSD!)

I'd like to teach my future GSD pup the names of my kids. Any tips? I plan to do clicker training as well.


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## Good_Karma (Jun 28, 2009)

Huh, not sure how to train it, but Niko knows Mommy and Daddy. DH will ask him "Where's Mommy?" and if Niko runs to me, I praise him and give him treats/petting. I can say to Niko, "Go get Daddy!" and he will run to DH. We didn't work on training it, but I may have called Niko after DH asked him where I was. Eventually, I didn't have to call him anymore.

We tried to do the same thing with Rosa, but I'm not sure if she gets it. She has a mind of her own, and if she doesn't want to find the other person, she just won't.


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## cassadee7 (Nov 26, 2009)

Maybe it is the same as teaching them the names of their toys. Has anyone done that? I think I read on here that some of the dogs will go get a specific toy or item when asked. How do people teach those names?


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## paulag1955 (Jun 29, 2010)

I think Shasta learned the names she knows the same way a human baby would...we use them and eventually she associates those names with the correct items. She knows Mommy, Daddy and Sissy. She also knows ball, froggie, treat and Kong.


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## Dogaroo (Mar 4, 2003)

I'm really good at hiding things from myself. It's handy to have a dog who can find & retrieve things for me when I say "where glasses" or "where keys." She'll even find the cat for me, much to the cat's disgust. I'm not sure how Kaija learned "where" or the names of things/people/other critters, but I do talk to her a lot & explain everything to her. I pretend she can understand me, and sometimes I think she actually does. (Yep, I'm yer typical hermit lady with critters!)

Right after we moved, I was sitting at the computer shivering, but feeling too lazy to get up & find a blanket to wrap up in. Kaija (who had been staring at me while I muttered about being cold) suddenly stood up & left the room. I heard her rattling plastic bags & scratching at cardboard boxes, then I heard a box tip over.... but before I could get up to reprimand her, she walked back into the room dragging my favourite blankie & deposited it right in front of me. Now, tell me GSDs aren't the smartest dogs in the world!


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## ChristenHolden (Jan 16, 2010)

Our dogs know Mommy, Daddy, grandma and grandpa. I think they learned by word association never really tried to train them they all jus picked it up.


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## sitstay (Jan 20, 2003)

Oh, I did this! And I used a clicker to do it! Here is what I did: I would sit with the dog in front of me and my other family members sitting next to me. One at a time, though. Once the dog picked up one person I would move on to another person.

So, I am sitting there with the dog and the other person. I would say, "Where is Dylan" and the second the dog would even glance at Dylan, I would click and treat. I moved from rewarding the glance to rewarding a longer look, then rewarding a nose touch, then rewarding getting up and moving to touch Dylan (by having Dylan move several feet away before asking Tanner where Dylan was). It got to the point where I could ask the dog where Dylan was and Tanner would go look for him. I never had the other person reward the behavior.

Plus, we are a talky kind of family, and we use our names a lot with each other. I wonder if Tanner picked it up so quickly because he had already made the connection between a particular name and a particular person.

It is a lot of fun and it sure impresses visitors!
Sheilah


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## cassadee7 (Nov 26, 2009)

sit said:


> Oh, I did this! And I used a clicker to do it! Here is what I did: I would sit with the dog in front of me and my other family members sitting next to me. One at a time, though. Once the dog picked up one person I would move on to another person.
> 
> So, I am sitting there with the dog and the other person. I would say, "Where is Dylan" and the second the dog would even glance at Dylan, I would click and treat. I moved from rewarding the glance to rewarding a longer look, then rewarding a nose touch, then rewarding getting up and moving to touch Dylan (by having Dylan move several feet away before asking Tanner where Dylan was). It got to the point where I could ask the dog where Dylan was and Tanner would go look for him. I never had the other person reward the behavior.


This is great! Thank you Sheilah!


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i taught my pup "go to Rosie" and "go to Tillmon".
when we were teaching come my GF and i would sit on the floor
with our feet touching. our pup was between our legs. i would
face the pup towards my GF and my GF would say "come" at the same
time i would say "go to Rosie". my GF would face the pup towards me
and say "go to Tillmon" as i said come. you might have to push/usher
him along. sometimes we would just say "come" mixing in each other names. once the pup got "come" go to was easy. after the pup got come
we started making the distance futher and futher. we trained indoors and outside. once the pup got "go to" we started giving him things to carry
to teach of us a news paper, brush, a bag, leash, the mail, etc.

once my pup got "go to" my GF or i could hide in the woods and we could say "go to Rosie" or
"go to Tillmon" and our pup/dog would find us. our pup/dog was older before him mastered
"go to".


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

our next door neighbor just came over. i took Loki in another
room and i said "go to Stosh" and he did. our next door
helped us with our pup since day one.


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## Samba (Apr 23, 2001)

Mine also learn it by association, just like the words front door, back door etc. Over the years they master several of our friends names also.

I have taught names of toys and the same could be done with people. First I 
teach them to touch the end of a dowel with clicker training. Once I have a good " 
Touch" I put the end of the stick on a toy and ask for a touch there. I name the toy, so it becomes "touch Fluff", "touch Bear",etc.This can take some time unless you have a Border Collie. Next, I gradually fade the stick and they learn to touch toys by names. This labeling could be done with people.


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## Sri (Apr 25, 2013)

Dogaroo said:


> I'm really good at hiding things from myself. It's handy to have a dog who can find & retrieve things for me when I say "where glasses" or "where keys." She'll even find the cat for me, much to the cat's disgust. I'm not sure how Kaija learned "where" or the names of things/people/other critters, but I do talk to her a lot & explain everything to her. I pretend she can understand me, and sometimes I think she actually does. (Yep, I'm yer typical hermit lady with critters!)
> 
> Right after we moved, I was sitting at the computer shivering, but feeling too lazy to get up & find a blanket to wrap up in. Kaija (who had been staring at me while I muttered about being cold) suddenly stood up & left the room. I heard her rattling plastic bags & scratching at cardboard boxes, then I heard a box tip over.... but before I could get up to reprimand her, she walked back into the room dragging my favourite blankie & deposited it right in front of me. Now, tell me GSDs aren't the smartest dogs in the world!




gosh!! no way!


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