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Summary: Learn how to teach Golden Retriever puppies their name in this free video.
Views: 7,638 | Tags: training, dog, obedience, dogs, golden, retriever, golden retrievers, pet obedience
About the Expert
Melanie McLeroy She attends conferences regularly, particularly those sponsored by APDT, Tufts and others. She is a trainer in the Head Start program at Town Lake Animal Cent... read more
Hi! I’m Melanie McLeroy with Taurus Training for Expert Village. Today, we’re going to talk about training golden retrievers. This is Bodie, this golden retriever I just grabbed out of the play yard here at Taurus. So he has some dirt and slobber on him, and he’s also a dog that I don’t know at all. So the first thing I need to do with this golden retriever is to teach him to pay attention to me. Now, I’d like to use his name. His name is Bodie, and what I’m going to do to teach him to pay attention to me, a brand new handler, a new trainer, is to say the name and then mark when he makes eye contact. Then I’ll reward him. If you haven’t already, by the way, please check out the pre-training videos before you start working with your golden retriever. So, he’s very intent on his environment, and I think he wants to go back to the play yard. So I want to do something to get his attention and keep him from pulling on the leash… hey… hey kiddo there we go, Oh! Now he knows I have food. “Look at those beautiful brown eyes, what a pretty golden retriever!” Bodie, good… okay. Now I’m having to use the food as a lure to get his eyes up to mine, but that’s alright. It’s a good first step in training your golden retriever how to pay attention. Wait till he looks away… Bodie, good, so that time I did use a little bit of hand signal to get him to look at me. Bodie, good… okay, Oh, Excellent! This golden is very bright and responsive. Bodie, good… okay. So, you can see there I waited a little bit longer before I gave him the treat. That’s how you teach your dog to make sustained the eye contact and really pay attention to you. Bodie, good, he looked away, give a little help, good, up. Now I’m waiting too long, I need to reward Bodie a little bit more quickly to set him up to succeed, and then start gradually increasing the time between giving the command marking it and giving the reward. Bodie, good… okay. We’re going to end the session with a success teaching this golden retriever to respond his name and pay attention to his trainer.