I found this little game to play with my dogs when I was trying to give them treats without mass chaos.  What was happening is none of them wanted to wait their turn to get a treat.  If I leaned down to give one dog a treat, the other three would rush in and try to grab it.  No, that just wasn’t going to work!  So came “the name game.”

Playing the name game is very simple.  I had all dogs “sit” the I started calling their name before giving a treat.  If another dog tried to rush in, they got a quick “no” for breaking their sit.  So in their mind, they are understanding that they are to “sit” until THEIR name is called.  So there I have four dogs, sitting, looking up very excitedly to get their treats!  Then I start making the rounds.  “Riyo!” he gets a little treat, “Darcy,” “Lizzie,”  “Carmina,” “Darcy,” “Riyo,” “Lizzie,” “Carmina,” “Lizzie,” “Darcy,” “Riyo” and so on and so on!  Mixing it up to keep them guessing!  You have to keep it fair though because they will notice if they get skipped an unfair number of times!

It is fun to do if you have multiple dogs and it helps them learn their individual names.  Sometimes when you have many dogs, their names start to blend together and they each think they have four names.  This little game really enforces which name is referring to them, and they love it!  It’s also really cute to see their excited little faces when they hear THEIR name called!  “OH! You’re talking to ME!” 

ENJOY!