Teaching the names of things

[kimbersmom]

Kimber is very bright and knows tons and tons of commands. She excelled at agility and is exquisitely sensitive to physical cues. Having said that...

Kimber doesn't know many nouns, and I'm not having much luck teaching her the names of things. This is not a terrible thing, but I'm always looking for mental challenges for her, and I decided this was a good winter task.

For a long time, I thought she DID know nouns, because here's how it's been:

Me: Where's frisbee? Go get your frisbee!
Kimber runs to frisbee, picks it up, and brings it to me.

But if you add another item into the equation, it goes like this:

I put out a ball and a frisbee.
Me: Where's frisbee? Go get your frisbee!
Kimber grabs the ball because it's closer, and starts to bring it to me.
Me: No, not ball, frisbee!
Kimber stops, understanding that she's not doing what I want. I gesture to frisbee, so she goes over to frisbee and brings it to me.
Me: Good girl! Good frisbee. (I place frisbee down.) Where's your ball?
Kimber grabs the frisbee, etc etc.

Yesterday was dreary so in the living room, I put ball on on side of the rug, frisbee on the other, and her mat in the middle. I would tell her "Get frisbee" or "Get ball" and give her a treat when she got it right. If she got it wrong, I'd send her back to her mat. She clearly knows "Get" but I can tell she's just guessing what I want her to get.

I've also tried putting down one toy and treating her when I say its name and she touches it. But still, she's not associating the toy with its name. I can tell she gets frustrated when I put out more than one toy.

Any recommendations?

[Meeps83]

I'd like to hear this too. I want to teach Maverick toy names.

[Snowshoe]

Maybe you are trying to move ahead too quickly. Naming objects is something we worked on for our CARO rally. One of the stations is we put down three objects of our choice all about equal distance from the dog and the judge tells us which one we are to tell the dog to retrieve. The judge tells us, quietly, the middle, left or right. Quietly because some really smart dogs learn left from right.

Anyway, try working on one object only for a week. Put it down, say the name of it, pick it up all happy, happy yourself, put it away. Give it to her, tell her the name, take it back while saying GIVE BALL. Or whatever. Put it a few feet away ask her to get it and make sure there is no other possible thing she can get, happy, happy. At her speed, you might find this is too slow. Work on each object individually. When you go to present two be careful to not give it away by indicating or looking or moving toward. This is where shaping really works, it takes time but if you wait her out with no bad consequence for the wrong one but a really happy consequence (which you already taught her at the beginning) she should pick it up, literally fairly quickly. That's what we did. We were training to trial so had to add in distractions and new places too but it was fun and Oban really like the reward part.

I think the part where you told her "no not ball, frisbee" may have been confusing. We learned to only ask for the one we wanted and then shut the heck up. LOL.

Also, maybe too many different terms for sending her out. Pick one, "get", or "where's", be consistent. Most of us used GET.

[POPTOP]

Been working with Archie on the names of his toys. Started with his red wubba, just called it wubba. I'd have it in my hand, squeak it, repeat the name several times, then throw it for him. OOPS, he has two wubbas so I started calling them red wubba and yellow wubba. Repeat, repeat, repeat. He's gotten the wubbas down pat. We're now concentrating on ball. I work with one for a long time. I think what helps him is the fact that he knows if he gets the right one, I'm going to throw it for him and he love that. Maybe something you can try.

[doubledip1]

Luna gets really frustrated also. I only do 2 toys at a time. I'll start with naming the toy 10 times and click-treat when she touches the toy as I say its name. I'll put another toy out and do another 10 sets of click-treat with the first toy. I'll then do 10 reps of second toy, then ask for the first toy again. Then that's it and we end the training session.

[Jeff]

I just use the name over, over, over, over, over and over. I don't really train the name. Everything also has a unique name. There is no ball or no Frisbee. There is "squeaky ball", "Flashy Ball", "Giggly Wiggly ball"

Tuffy toys are the best since they name all their toys. This helps a lot. I have difficulty naming all the toys and remembering them. So then I just repeat the name constantly when we are playing with the toys or we see the toys.

Take Larry Lobster for example. We have full conversations about him.
I come around the corner, in an excited voice "What are you doing to Larry Lobster."
As I throw larry across the room, "Run Larry Lobster, be free"
As Hemi comes back shaking the crap out of larry. "Oh know, poor Larry Lobster, your so mean to poor larry, whats did he ever do to you.
Before I go to bed at night as I pick up Larry. "What is Larry Lobster doing in my bed. I don't want to sleep with Larry, I prefer Hemi."
"Are you taking larry lobster out on the deck. Well I am sure he needs the fresh air."
Coming back in, he is sitting there like come on lets go in. "Hey you need to go get Larry Lobster you forgot him." Hemi will look around see Larry and go get him and then the door opens.

[Snowshoe]

LOL, poor Larry Lobster.

I'd just like to add, what a difference I notice in my two Labs. Jet would understand names with no training or effort on my part whatsoever. We called all the Vets at our last clinic by their first names because Jet really seemed confused if they were all named Doctor. The same with toys and other objects.

Oban either is much more dense or he doesn't care, learning names really did take the training with him. Just the other day I asked Oban to bring me his kong to stuff before I went out skiing without him. Unfortunately my ski gloves were within his reach and he brought me them instead. In this case I think he deliberately brought me the item he'd rather me use. But maybe he was being thick. The point is, something like that can apply to toys as well. One might have a more pleasant mouth feel or association for the dog. For instance if you carry balls with you on a walk, as I do, then a ball might be better liked by your dog than a toy you only use in the house.

We didn't use balls for the CARO training as the item must stay in place when we put it down and of course balls roll.

[SunDance]

Jeff and I are on the same page.

Dan has lots of toys and I just refer to them by name when we're playing (or spontaneously, "where's ?" or "find ?")....he probably wonders why I say ?'s name so often.

I've found with all training that using commands/terms as I go along are the best training/reinforcement.

Hah...I've even managed to get Sunnie to respond...and that's really saying something. (She seems to think that if you're telling her to do something, she's doing something wrong...and she starts to shake. She's actually getting better through repetition, mostly with Danny, but still...)

[SunDance]

We called all the Vets at our last clinic by their first names because Jet really seemed confused if they were all named Doctor.

I've never noticed confusion but use "uncle" and "aunt" to denote people who are OK for Dan/Sunnie to greet etc.....done this with all of my dogs....vets and regular people (my friends, obviously) are "uncle"/"aunt"first name....delivery men are all "uncle" brown (UPS is their favorite, so...). I think they just focus on the uncle/aunt, which is my intention.

[xracer4844]

i just use the name over, over, over, over, over and over. I don't really train the name. Everything also has a unique name. There is no ball or no frisbee. There is "squeaky ball", "flashy ball", "giggly wiggly ball"

tuffy toys are the best since they name all their toys. This helps a lot. I have difficulty naming all the toys and remembering them. So then i just repeat the name constantly when we are playing with the toys or we see the toys.

Take larry lobster for example. We have full conversations about him.
I come around the corner, in an excited voice "what are you doing to larry lobster."
as i throw larry across the room, "run larry lobster, be free"
as hemi comes back shaking the crap out of larry. "oh know, poor larry lobster, your so mean to poor larry, whats did he ever do to you.
Before i go to bed at night as i pick up larry. "what is larry lobster doing in my bed. I don't want to sleep with larry, i prefer hemi."
"are you taking larry lobster out on the deck. Well i am sure he needs the fresh air."
coming back in, he is sitting there like come on lets go in. "hey you need to go get larry lobster you forgot him." hemi will look around see larry and go get him and then the door opens.

i want a larry lobster!!!!!