This 10-step plan is an essential training solution for all dogs - young and old!

A dog’s name is hopefully the single most important word that the dog hears.

Since dogs lives with humans and humans talk a lot, it is critical, both for safety and for happiness, that the dog understands his/her name.

So, teaching ‘Response to Name’ is crucial and should be very high on everyone's list of lessons for their canine family member!

Follow each of the steps in this short course and you should soon have happy clients whose dogs amaze them with their reliable and happy response to their name!

Prerequisite Skills and Training Equipment.

You/your clients will need:

• Lots of tasty high-value treats.
• A clicker (or you can use a verbal "yes" word)

Training Skills:

• No previous training skills are required.
• When you first begin training response to name, you/your clients will refrain from using the dog's name for three days - unless actively training and reinforcing name response. During this time a positive interrupter can be used to get the dog's attention. This is a great skill to train any dog!
• For those of you who are unsure what a positive interrupter is and/or how to teach one, we have included a supplementary section with a short video that is from the *DogNostics Dog Trainer Certificate Program! We are sure you will find the skill useful and have lots of fun training it!

• Please advance at a rate that is appropriate for the dog that you are working with.
• Please use the Train-Test-Train Method.
• For maximum success, please train the skills in the order presented.

*About the DogNostics Dog Trainer Certificate Program

The DogNostics Dog Trainer Certificate Program provides an all-encompassing in-depth understanding of operant and respondent conditioning, with students learning about everything from discriminative stimuli, motivating operations, setting events, the transferal of stimulus control; to primary and secondary reinforcement consequences, protocols, and schedules; to canine ethology and social behavior. Graduates of the DogNostics Dog Trainer Certificate Program are skilled in the application of science and artistic endeavor, delivering results through empathy and mutual respect for both client and pet. If you would to learn more about this comprehensive dog trainer certification program, please click on the link above.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

Can we guarantee that dogs who undertake the 10 Steps to an Amazing Response to Name will always quickly respond to their names - 100%?

No, we cannot guarantee 100% that a dog will always immediately respond to his or her name.

Neither we nor you should ever guarantee that a dog will always respond to this or any other cue!

There are too many variables, for example:

• How well has the behavior been trained?
• How well has the behavior been reinforced?
• How well has the behavior been proofed?
• How well is the behavior being maintained?
• What else is occurring in the environment when the cue is given? Have we trained and proofed the behavior for these contingencies?
• What are the motivating operations and setting events? Everything from the dog's nutrition, health, age, previous (general) training and reinforcement history, relationship/bond with human family members, and many more factors will impact a dog's response at a particular time, on a particular day, in a particular environment.
• Did the dog even hear the cue?..

Just like humans, dogs are sentient beings that have their own unique feelings and emotions. Dogs are not robots.

Even if you were taught to always come when you heard your name, can you guarantee 100% that you would do so? You will undoubtedly sometimes respond to your name more quickly than others. Perhaps you aren't feeling well. Perhaps you are resting. Perhaps you are just super busy doing something else and, therefore, there will be a slight delay...

What can we guarantee?

We guarantee that you would be more likely to respond to your name if that response had been taught systematically; in a fun way; and that all your correct responses were reinforced with a $1000!

We can also guarantee that after following all of the steps in this program, a dog will undoubtedly be happier to hear his name and will be much more likely to understand what it means - "Quick, get in front of the human, something amazing is about to occur!"