Intro to teaching your dog his name & how to use it to curb barking at the window.
Dogs bark. Barking is a pretty normal dog behavior, but one that can be quite annoying. If you have a dog who seems to bark all the time in the house at everything that moves, or is patrolling your windows, he is in a state of arousal all the time, and that is not good.
Please note that this article is just one step in a variety of positive dog training tools to help curb your dogs excessive barking inside. If your dog is constantly aroused, anxious or stressed, please seek further assistance by a qualified and positive dog behavior counselor.
Teach your dog the value of his name. When I say, "Dexter" that means for my dog Dexter to turn around & look at me. Not for him to blow me off & ignore me. Your dogs name should be a pleasant experience, not a punishment. In other words, good things happen to your dog when they hear their name.
I start to teach a dog The Name Game during a planned dog training session. In other words, not when you are distracted, or your dog is distracted by his environment. Start your set up without your dog seeing you "set up." Place 20-30 tiny high value dog treats in your pocket. I say high value, and I mean something so exciting your dog will go crazy over like cooked chicken, steak, beef....whatever gets him to drool excessively! Then also place a small toy, such as a squeaker toy in your other pocket.
Week 1
· Start your dog training session when your dog is already hanging out with you & not distracted.
· Say your dog’s name ONE TIME in a pleasant, high pitch sing-song voice.
· That moment when your dog turns his head to look at you, immediately mark that behavior with a "YES!", "Good!" or click if you are using a clicker.
· Follow quickly with a jackpot of 10 treats as you fuss & praise over him. Dish out the 10 treats quickly, but one at a time. You want him to feel like he just won the lottery!
· Thats it! That is the fist stage in teaching your dog the value of his name. No distractions (not outside, not when hes barking, not when hes sleeping).....right now.
· Practice this 10 times a day at random times for one week. You want your dog to be successful, not blow off his name. So, in the meantime, do not call your dog with his name if you think you are going to get the blow off. You are probably re-teaching him what the true meaning of his name is.
o Oops! He didn’t look at you. Do not repeat his name, instead grab that squeaker toy you had in your pocket, start tossing it around & squeaking it while ignoring him. He does not get to play with it, you have a fun time with it by yourself. Grab his toy and go play with it yourself. Or whip out that tasty treat and pretend to eat it yourself.
o Wait about 5 minutes & if you think your dog is not distracted, try the name game again. Assuming he turns this time, jackpot as usual. If he does not look towards you, revaluate the training environment. It is important that he wins at this level & often if you expect him to be able to do it with distractions.
v Tips & Bonuses- When you practice a set, you can add more rewards after your jackpot to really bring it home. For example, after your 10 treats, he gets his dinner, or to play, go for a walk, Kong filled toy....get creative. A quick & reliable name game is a precursor to come when called & everything else involved with getting your dogs attention on you & not his environment.
Week 2-After a successful week of practicing your dogs name without any distractions, you should have at least 70 repetitions of saying your dogs name, him turning & him receiving a wonderful jackpot & hopefully some bonus rewards too. If this does not seem like the case, keep working on your week 1 homework.
· Same rules as week 1 except this time you are going to start to add very mild distractions to your dogs environment during your sessions. Again, you are looking for success, so be careful not to ask for too much yet. If you are unsuccessful, try something a bit easier & reset.
· Example-Your dog is calmly engaged in another activity such as looking out the window, moving around the house, playing calmly with a low value toy.....get in about 5 away, say your dogs name in that sing-song voice & that moment he looks towards you, your marker (Yes, Good, clicker) & jackpot of treats, 10 times a day!
You did it! You got your first distraction under your belt. Same rules as week 1, if not successful & your reward system. It is super important to continue to reward these sessions, because you are still training & you now have increased your criteria & made it harder for your dog. If you arent able to reward, dont say his name. We want your dog to love, love, his name & we are going to start building his name into a small come when called behavior.
Week 3-I am going to repeat myself.....only move on if you have practiced your sets with success. Learning takes time, practice & patience. You cant rush it, and certainly cant move on if you havent practiced with success.
Increase your distance:
· You are going to continue with your mild distractions like week 2, except this time instead of being 5 away, you are going to increase that distance, maybe 10 away as you say your dogs name (still in a sing-song voice).
· You are still marking (Yes, Good, clicker) your dogs head turn towards you. Dont wait until he reaches you. Remember that marker tells him hes done it right & the reward is coming. You are marking his head turn towards you (his attention), the coming to you is a bonus.
Increase the distraction:
· Above we only changed the distance your dog had to get to his reward, this time we are going to increase the distraction hes coming off of. But, you do not want to increase two things (distraction & distance) so this set will only be increasing his distraction, but you are once again going to be at the 5 distance from him. You may even decrease the distance to make it a bit easier.
· You know your dog best, slowly increase the distraction your dog is turning away from. So maybe there is a little activity outside the window, but hes not going bonkers. Say your dogs name in that happy tone, the moment he just turns his head towards you, mark & jackpot!
· As you are getting success with the head turn, you can start to increase the distance you are asking him to come.
Week 4 & Beyond-This is an ongoing training lesson. Over time & experience you can continue to build on your dogs behavior & response to his name. If you start to loose him over time, decrease your criteria & rebuild again. If you want a reliable behavior, you will need to practice & to keep it fresh in his head that great things happen with the calling of his name.
As you can see from the earlier weeks, you are slowly teaching your dog to come off of distractions & to come to you instead. This is how I teach dogs to not go crazy at the window. I practice coming off of boring windows & build to come off of exciting windows. Remember to pay (treat) that behavior or your dog will think the window is more exciting than you. Its all about the pay off.
You cant expect your dog not to bark, I just think we should teach our dogs to come off of the things they are barking at & to be able to settle them back down.
Tips: Management, management, management. I say this all the time but it is really the foundation of good dog training. Why do professional dog trainers get reliable behaviors quickly? Because they have good management & are not afraid to use it. If your dog is barking out the window all day long while you are at work & you attempt the name game, you will unlikely be very successful in the long run. Why? Because your dog has 50% or more practice doing the behavior you are trying to change. Practice makes perfect & if hes practicing barking out the window......you get the picture.
· Try to block off access to the windows while you are away. Maybe your dog is confined to rooms that do not have such an exciting view. Or maybe you use the decorative window film on your windows to block some of the activity.
· When you are home & you successfully call your dog off the window & he keeps going back to the window to bark....try attaching his leash & take him with you. That way he cant keep ping ponging back to the window. Or maybe give him a stuffed Kong, or treat filled toy to keep him busy.
Example out at the park with Dexter.
Good luck & I would love to see video of you practicing!
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