This morning we went for a walk in the woods - a location we go to at least once a week (although we'll be taking a break as they're closing the main path for up to ten weeks!) Usually we see pretty much the same people and dogs, which is at least one of the reasons we go there😁 Today we met a new dog, let's call him 'Fred'. Peak was the first to meet Fred; he'd gone a little ahead of me and Ripley, and I heard the owner say something along the lines of 'oh hello' before Peak was on his way back to me. With Fred in tow... His owner was now calling Fred, by name and also with a whistle. Fred was busy trying to get Peak to play and saying hello to Ripley. Then Fred spotted another dog a bit further along, and off he went to greet them. From what I could hear, that dog's owner knew Fred! His owner is behind us at this point, still calling Fred. We headed along another fork in the path at this moment, having shaken Fred off.
We caught up with Fred and his owner as we approached the footpath heading back out of the woods. His owner appeared to have plans to head down into a different part of the woods. Fred meanwhile was happily trying to engage Peak in play. Ripley completely blanked him😂 Peak was also getting a little fed up at this point, he just wanted to carry on with is walk. Fred's owner asked if Peak was quite young. She then went onto explain that Fred was one, and since being neutered a month earlier had become a bit of a nightmare. She continued to call Fred by name. Fred continued to ignore her🙈 I had Ripley on lead by now, just in case. I also called Peak in and had him sit. This enabled Fred's owner to come over and put him on a lead - even that was a struggle as he danced about with her saying 'sit, sit, sit'...
Here's the thing - I lost count of the number of times Fred's owner called his name. He ignored it each and every time. Let's generously say it was twenty times. Having ignored his name twenty times, his owner now needs to reinforce Fred for responding to his name AT LEAST twenty times. This is known as matching law; a great analogy I once heard is 'You can't walk ten miles into the woods and expect to get out in five'. If your dog has practised something multiple times, you're not going to fix the issue in one or two sessions. But that's not all - this was just a couple of incidences whilst out on a walk. Pay attention as you interact with your dog, or watch others interacting with dogs. How many times do they use the dog's name? What is the dog's reaction to the name? How many times do they simply ignore it? If you have multiple people in your house, it can be surprising how it adds up! Eventually, it just becomes white noise...
Now I'm not saying that my dogs are perfect by any means! However, my behaviour is different. I won't just call their name and keep calling in the hope that it will eventually get through. If they're in sight I will wait for a moment of disengagement before calling; this gives me a greater chance of getting through to them and getting the response I want (at least acknowledgement, ideally some sort of effort to head in my general direction). If they're out of sight, I might call /whistle depending on what I can hear. I call verbally once, I may or may not follow up with a whistle recall. If I don't get a response, then I DO NOT REPEAT the calls. I start making my way towards my dog. This may be at speed if they look like they may be in, or causing, trouble! I try to avoid calling my dog if I think there's any chance that they won't respond - I don't want them learning that they can ignore me.
I don't really use my dog's 'normal' names for their recalls; as already alluded to above, they hear their names multiple times through the day, and it does have meaning to them, but I want something stronger for a recall. I also don't recall my dogs frequently times when we're out and about. I might say 'this way' or use an attention cue, but I save recalls for when I really need them. This conserves their value. However, how I train and maintain recalls isn't the point of this blog, so I'm not going to go into much more detail right now.
The point of this post is to highlight the futility of repeatedly calling your dog's name if you haven't built a HUGE amount of value into it. In fact, it can do more damage as they just get to practise ignoring you🤷♀️
Don't forget, I have a mini-course all about getting your dog's attention (and keeping it!) - you can find out more here.