Training in a name?
What is in a name?
Well Jess and I have been brainstorming names for a little while now and we have come up with a few that we like. We now just want to wait until we get the pup to see which name most closely matches the pup's character/attitude.
One thing that we took into consideration when choosing names is the phonetics of the name.
Jess, a behaviour modification student, thinks it might be possible to use a name that can be broken down into two phonetically different "nicknames," that are still recognizable as part of the name, as back up reinforcers or "reprimands" (similar to "no") for training. Sled dogs she knew were trained to "gee" for left and "haw" for right, so maybe it would be possible to pack a little into training using a name that can be broken into dissimilar phonetics. Of course, the main purpose would simply be to provide a distinct and gentle reprimand, or even perhaps minimizing errors during training (similar to an errorless discrimmination procedure), as NK are 'handler soft'. Of course "no," may be enough, but perhaps even more salient when used in conjunction with the "negative" form of the name.
For example, my name is Bradley. Now, most of the time, my parents called me Brad. But, when I was in $h!T, Mom would say "Bradleey" with an intonation on the last syllable. Now every time I heard my mother call my name like that I knew that I needed to stop doing whatever it was I was doing.
So, for a dog's name, it could be a multi-syllable name like say... Benji, so when Benji is a good boy, you say "Oh good boy Ben" etc etc, and when he is misbehaving you say "Benji" with an emphasis on the 'ji' sound as it is so dissimilar from the 'en' sound. Now this is limiting as one could only use the name Benji when the dog was misbehaving, or else there is little point to it all. Or perhaps the dog could have a surname, because I knew I was in deep when mom used BOTH my names. Now I know my mom did not study Pavlovian or operant conditioning but she seemed to know what worked.
Just food for thought, was wondering if anyone had tried something like this.
Any and all opinions welcome,
Well Jess and I have been brainstorming names for a little while now and we have come up with a few that we like. We now just want to wait until we get the pup to see which name most closely matches the pup's character/attitude.
One thing that we took into consideration when choosing names is the phonetics of the name.
Jess, a behaviour modification student, thinks it might be possible to use a name that can be broken down into two phonetically different "nicknames," that are still recognizable as part of the name, as back up reinforcers or "reprimands" (similar to "no") for training. Sled dogs she knew were trained to "gee" for left and "haw" for right, so maybe it would be possible to pack a little into training using a name that can be broken into dissimilar phonetics. Of course, the main purpose would simply be to provide a distinct and gentle reprimand, or even perhaps minimizing errors during training (similar to an errorless discrimmination procedure), as NK are 'handler soft'. Of course "no," may be enough, but perhaps even more salient when used in conjunction with the "negative" form of the name.
For example, my name is Bradley. Now, most of the time, my parents called me Brad. But, when I was in $h!T, Mom would say "Bradleey" with an intonation on the last syllable. Now every time I heard my mother call my name like that I knew that I needed to stop doing whatever it was I was doing.
So, for a dog's name, it could be a multi-syllable name like say... Benji, so when Benji is a good boy, you say "Oh good boy Ben" etc etc, and when he is misbehaving you say "Benji" with an emphasis on the 'ji' sound as it is so dissimilar from the 'en' sound. Now this is limiting as one could only use the name Benji when the dog was misbehaving, or else there is little point to it all. Or perhaps the dog could have a surname, because I knew I was in deep when mom used BOTH my names. Now I know my mom did not study Pavlovian or operant conditioning but she seemed to know what worked.
Just food for thought, was wondering if anyone had tried something like this.
Any and all opinions welcome,
Comments
For example, my Shiba Joey is always called positively with "Jo Jo" or "Joey" in a happy, high-pitched tone. If he's misbehaving, I use "Joey" but it is short, low, and loud and almost always followed by an "AAAAYYYY" to get his attention. Similarly with Tyson. I use "Ty" or "T-bone" for good stuff, but "Tyson" (short, low and loud) for bad stuff.
YMMV though.
As for names - all my dogs have lots of nicknames, but, yeah, if we're training or being serious, then I just say Rakka. It's interesting, because I was reading that you're not supposed to just say your dog's name and then not do anything, for instance, some people call their dog's name to come, but they don't say "come" they just say the dog's name. So, I really try to put that into practice, but the funny thing is that Rakka almost always knows what I want before I even get a chance to say it. I imagine the tone has something to do with it, although I don't do that on purpose. Actually, we call her Rocket and Rocker a lot because that seems to be what people think we're saying Rakka, and she response equally to any of them.
We also have a tradition that all our pets have last names. I'm sure the pets are oblivious to this, but we just think it's fun. For instance, Rakka technically actually goes by her "last name" because her "full name" is Barack Orakka. Hester's last name is Jiskoot (I had a university prof with that name, and we randomly named our cat after her). But when we call her Barack Orakka, it's usually just when we're petting her or playing with her, so it's kind of a silly "come play with me" type of a thing.