Name Recognition — Day 2 with your dog

Yesterday you worked on…

The foundation: saying your dog's name exactly once when they weren't looking at you, then marking and rewarding the moment they made eye contact with your face (not your treat hand). 12 reps in a distraction-free room.

Today you keep the same protocol but introduce one mild distraction — a kibble piece on the floor — to test whether the name-to-eye-contact association is starting to generalize beyond perfect conditions.

What you need

✅A clean name response from Day 1 — your dog consistently looks at your face (not your hands) when you say their name. If this isn't reliable yet, run another 12 close reps before adding any distraction.
🍗12 high-value treats for marking. A handful of plain kibble for the distraction reset.
🤫The same rules as Day 1: name said exactly once. If your dog doesn't respond in 3 seconds, toss a treat to interrupt, reset, try again — but never repeat the name.

Your Day 2 protocol

Warm-up: 5 clean reps

Confirm the response is still there

Identical to Day 1. your dog looks away, you say the name once, you mark the eye contact. 5 reps. If the response is quick and reliable, move on. If your dog seems slow or distracted, do 5 more before introducing any floor kibble.

Reps 6–12: Add a mild floor distraction

Toss one piece of kibble before each rep

Toss a single piece of kibble on the floor about 2 feet from your dog. Wait until your dog goes to sniff it. When your dog's nose is near the kibble (not eating it — near it), say their name once. You want your dog to choose to look up at you over the floor distraction. If your dog does: mark, jackpot (3 treats), then let them eat the kibble too. If your dog doesn't respond: wait 3 seconds, gently toss another treat to reset, and try again. Don't repeat the name.

Critical rule — still in effect

One repetition of the name per trial, every time

The distraction might make you want to say the name again if your dog doesn't respond. Don't. Every ignored repetition erodes the cue. If the name doesn't work in 3 seconds, the trial failed — accept it, reset, and try with a slightly less interesting distraction next time. The standard stays the same whether or not there's a kibble on the floor.

If your dog can't disengage from the kibble to look at you, the kibble is too interesting relative to your reward. Either use higher-value treats for the mark (so the payoff for looking at you outweighs the kibble on the floor), or do the distraction reps with the kibble 5 feet away instead of 2. The distraction level has to be low enough to allow success — failure at every trial teaches your dog that the name is unimportant in this context, which is the opposite of the skill you're building.

Why distraction proofing starts early

Name recognition trained only in a quiet room is a name recognition that only works in a quiet room. The behavior has to be proofed across contexts — which means introducing distraction systematically, starting at the lowest possible level. Floor kibble is low level. A squirrel is high level. You're building the chain from low to high, one session at a time.

Jason made the mistake of waiting until Baelor's name response was "perfect" before adding any distraction. Then they took it to the park on Day 10 and it fell apart immediately — because the park was five levels of distraction higher than the living room baseline. Start proofing early, at low levels, so the behavior has a foundation to stand on when the real world tests it.

Ready? Go train with your dog.

5–10 minutes. Pick up where yesterday left off.

✅ Day 2 logged.

Two days in a row. That's the whole game — repetition without gap. The behavior is starting to stick.

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