How to train a puppy to react to its name: scientists chose the most reliable method

Naming a pet is actually a big responsibility, and as researchers have discovered, the right name is important not only for pet owners, but also for our responsibilities. Of course, animals react to their names differently than we do, but they do remember them, Inverse writes.

As with other cues, animals learn their names using good old-fashioned positive reinforcement, according to Vanessa Woods, a Duke University evolutionary anthropologist and director of Duke Puppy Animal Day Care.

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To teach your puppy his name, an expert recommends giving your puppy a treat every time he looks at you in response to his name. Studies have shown that dogs, in general, react the same way as children: An animal, like a child, knows when it hears its name that it must react: either come to you or look at you.

Scientists also found that puppies can distinguish tone of voice. Just like children, dogs respond to what scientists call “mothering,” meaning our voices become louder or more excited when we talk to children and pets, Woods said. Previous studies by scientists have shown that babies respond more to their mothers’ words than to other tones of voice. Woods now believes that puppies can even recognize their names on their mother’s language, as well as understand when a person says their name or another word. Scientists’ studies in 2022 showed that this behavior is also characteristic of cats. In 2019, scientists proved that cats, like dogs, can distinguish their names from similar-sounding words.

Researchers state that while you want to teach your pet its name using the Woods technique, you should also challenge the animal. To do this, experts recommend adding motherly or similar-sounding voices to your activities. Woods recommends not praising pets that react to other words spoken in the mother’s voice. This way the pet will learn to respond to its name and not to the tone of voice in which the person speaks.

Woods also claims that dogs can fill out more than a thousand words in total, including a few random names. Simply put, if you want to teach your dog to respond to a random name, you can definitely do that. The expert also notes that the process will go much faster if you use treats.

At the same time, scientists note that the question of what the name of our pets means to them is still difficult. Unfortunately. Scientists agree that we will probably never know exactly what our pets associate their names with.

Previously Focus wrote about very strange behavior: scientists explained why dogs eat grass and feces.