When we're trying to communicate with our dog, using his name at the right time (and in the right way), is simply huge, in terms of effective, productive communication. You want him to love his name. And if his name is sometimes used by itself, AS a correction as in: "Max! Max! MAX!!", consequently, he gets the idea his name sometimes means: "I'm in trouble". We literally give him an aversion to his own name! So the best and most effective time to use his name would be as the precursor to a cue or command, as in: "Max, sit!", "Max, come!", "Max, stay!", etc. (always with a happy, encouraging voice). Because what you want from him before you give a cue, is eye contact. Without eye contact, there's no point in even giving the cue, and the best way to get eye contact, is with his name. To break yourself of this very common habit of using Max's name by itself as a correction, when he gets into something he shouldn't, or does something he shouldn't be doing, instead of imploring "Max!", use the term "Dog!" instead. In this way, he will will always respond positively to his own name, but he'll understand when he hears "Dog!", that he really IS in trouble. Additionally, when you reward Max for compliance or for doing what you want when you want it, use his name as part of his reward. I.e.: "That's a good Max".

What will happen over a period of time is that your dog will learn to actually look at you when he hears his name, and his thought will be "here comes a cue". Conversely if he doesn't associate with his name in a positive way, it makes training much harder.

A native of Louisiana, SRQ Daily Columnist Gregg Flowers owns Dog's Best Friend Dog Training Services here in Sarasota, where he "teaches dogs and trains people." Gregg became fascinated by our relationship with dogs as a boy in the '60s, and by 1985 had developed his own unique style of working with dogs and their humans

Dog's Best Friend