Does anyone use a command?

[sixx]

I was curious if anyone uses a command to let their dog know that they are going to work? For agility I tell Seek "Let's go to gilities" (I leave out the A...sounds like baby talk and she loves it!). For flyball, same thing, I say "Let's go to flyball." She has picked up these commands and now knows wether we are going bye bye to do agility or to do flyball. I like to tell her because she gets so excited and hyped up, which is great, because it means she loves her job Good puppy Seek!

 

So recently we started Seek on sheep. She loved it so much! I wanted to make up a command for herding so Seek knows it's time to work the sheep. I was thinking of saying "Let's go to work."

 

Speaking of Seek's first herding session...

Something interesting happened today. Mine and Seek's morning ritual goes like this: She usually wakes me up by bringing the frisbee to me in bed, I open the sliding glass door in the back and Seek goes out to play frisbee. Of course frisbee consists of me in the kitchen making coffee, and poking my head out every 30 seconds or so to throw the frisbee again. Or she has this "other morning ritual" that she used to prefer (she sleeps in my bed, and has a nasa memory foam pillow... I know, she is spoiled) First thing she does is puts her head on me, if that doesn't work then she lays across my body, and if that doesn't work she will then resort to what always gets me up... She lays across my pillow, forcing my head off of it. OKAY, I'M UP!!

...the interesting thing that happened today is I told Seek "that'll do" when I wanted her to quit with the frisbee and come inside. I have only used this command on Seek one time and that was at our first herding session last Sunday. To my amazement, Seek immediately dropped her frisbee and came inside. These dogs never cease to amaze me.

 

So what command does everyone else say? I know it's a silly question, but it's interesting to me what the other dogs on the boards know

[Sue R]

My dogs that work perfectly understand what "working cattle" means (just like "go for a walk" or "play ball"). Use the word "cows" in conversation and you have Celt's (and, previously, Bute's) undivided attention. People often say to speak to your dog in sentences, and I do think these dogs pick up a lot from what you say and how you say it. There are days I wonder if they don't spell because even when we spell certain things out, they seem to figure it out for themselves.

[Root Beer]

I don't have a set word for each activity/sport that I do, but when I am leaving for a class, the dogs vie for the chance to go and they know whether they are going because I'll say, "you're going" to the one (or ones) who is (are) and "it's not your night" to the one (ones) who isn't (aren't). They understand.

[jackson's mom]

I was curious if anyone uses a command to let their dog know that they are going to work? For agility I tell Seek "Let's go to gilities" (I leave out the A...sounds like baby talk and she loves it!). For flyball, same thing, I say "Let's go to flyball." She has picked up these commands and now knows wether we are going bye bye to do agility or to do flyball. I like to tell her because she gets so excited and hyped up, which is great, because it means she loves her job Good puppy Seek!

 

So recently we started Seek on sheep. She loved it so much! I wanted to make up a command for herding so Seek knows it's time to work the sheep. I was thinking of saying "Let's go to work."

 

Speaking of Seek's first herding session...

Something interesting happened today. Mine and Seek's morning ritual goes like this: She usually wakes me up by bringing the frisbee to me in bed, I open the sliding glass door in the back and Seek goes out to play frisbee. Of course frisbee consists of me in the kitchen making coffee, and poking my head out every 30 seconds or so to throw the frisbee again. Or she has this "other morning ritual" that she used to prefer (she sleeps in my bed, and has a nasa memory foam pillow... I know, she is spoiled) First thing she does is puts her head on me, if that doesn't work then she lays across my body, and if that doesn't work she will then resort to what always gets me up... She lays across my pillow, forcing my head off of it. OKAY, I'M UP!!

...the interesting thing that happened today is I told Seek "that'll do" when I wanted her to quit with the frisbee and come inside. I have only used this command on Seek one time and that was at our first herding session last Sunday. To my amazement, Seek immediately dropped her frisbee and came inside. These dogs never cease to amaze me.

 

So what command does everyone else say? I know it's a silly question, but it's interesting to me what the other dogs on the boards know

 

I love your story! I wish that I could get my Jack to stop what he's doing when I say 'that'll do' but he continues until HE feels that he is finished. In the house, he will listen to that command and many others. He loves to ride in the car so when I ask 'who wants to go for a ride', he goes nuts. I also love to tell him to 'smile' - he has a great big toothy grin. Yes, these are the most wonderful dogs!

[Debbie Meier]

Oh me...oh my.... and I spend so much time trying to cut down on anticipation and the act of vollunteering

 

 

Ideal Jake, standing next to me flat footed as we look toward the sheep: "You want me to bring in the sheep? You really want me to bring in the sheep, are you sure you really want me to do it? Ok, I'm on my way, but just tell me if you want something else"

 

Jake today (out of nowhere) taking off first this way then that: "Ducks in the yard, ducks need to be moved, ducks ducks, Wait!!! sheep!! but...ducks"

I have some work to do before the trial in two weeks, need calm, quiet, thinking Jake.

 

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Really there's no need (as I think Debbie was saying), to build excitement when it comes to work on stock. Much of what you do with a young dog is getting them calm and thinking.

 

Eventually, you will teach your dog to "look" for stock, and most people do have a particular command. I used to use the really cool and fashionable, "Look, there!" For some reason with Ted it got changed to the really noobie sounding "Where's the sheep?" "Look!" was just too exciting sounding, I suppose, and before I got "Loo-" out of my mouth, he'd be GONE.

 

They can tell just from what we are doing when we are about to go out and do something with the sheep. Likewise, if we are in the car, they know from the smell or something we do, that we are at a "sheep place" waaaaaaaay down the road, even if they've never been there.

[Maralynn]

I'll tell Miss "let's go do sheep" but my sheep are a half mile away and Miss is a dog I would classify as mature and dependable. I don't think I'd try it with Kipp who is a bit of a firecracker

 

I do use "go to work" with Kipp when I'm doing a search with him. I started that early on as I wanted to set the tone that we were out with a purpose as opposed to a romp in the field.

[Sue R]

Eventually, you will teach your dog to "look" for stock, and most people do have a particular command. I used to use the really cool and fashionable, "Look, there!" For some reason with Ted it got changed to the really noobie sounding "Where's the sheep?" "Look!" was just too exciting sounding, I suppose, and before I got "Loo-" out of my mouth, he'd be GONE.

I use "find" if the cattle are somewhere out of sight (or a newborn calf needs to be found in tall grass or brush) and I want the dog to locate the stock. Celt is good at this because he will move out and, when he spots them, he tends to just lie down and wait for me to come and send him.

 

As for knowing when we are going to sheep, Celt never forgets a place where he has worked stock and is well aware quite long in advance that we are heading there. He seemingly pops out of a sound sleep in the car at certain turns that are not too far from the destination. I should have his sense of direction.

[Debbie Meier]

Really there's no need (as I think Debbie was saying), to build excitement when it comes to work on stock. Much of what you do with a young dog is getting them calm and thinking.

 

 

All these "Build Excitement" posts are giving me the heebeejeebees

 

Everytime Wayne sees a crazed excitement laden border collie he can't help but say "blankity blank border collie", I kinda think something different...they no not what they do....

[Soda-pop]

That's funny-- I don't have a command, per se but I have one of those dogs I had to build excitement for. It wasn't that she didn't like it--she did, but if it got to "work-y" (ie: there were rules, and things she had to do that she didn't want to do) then she'd quit and I'd have to build her up again. To this day if I say "Where's your sheep?" her pupils dilate and she's ready to go and it's useful if I need her to push more than she normally will.

[sixx]

Seek definitely knows when we draw near the farm that we are going to work. She always knows we are leaving the house when I look in a certain mirror, she will then grab my coat for me. I also think she knows we are going to work if I put on my farm boots. Either way she is a super great dog, my best friend, and I am very excited to keep working sheep with her!

 

I think I'm going to use the "let's go to work" command. It probably makes no difference, but it's cute to see her reaction to what I say, and she knows that we are going to the farm. Sometimes when I tell her something that she doesn't know she will tilt her head (like usual), but if she keeps trying to figure out what I say she will put her face as close as she can to mine while she keeps tilting her head, it is so funny Maybe she thinks if she's closer to the command that she will figure it out...

[sixx]

"Where's your sheep?"

 

that's so cute!

[RoseAmy]

OH MY GOSH! I have to agree with Debbie the thought of building excitement is tooooo much for me to bear. Personally with my pup I sneak around and try to have everything ready and not let her know until the last minute that its SHEEEEPPPP TIMMMEEEE!!!!

[juliepoudrier]

Two of my youngsters will start whining and getting clearly excited if I say "look!" more than a time or two, a behavior that I find extremely annoying. I want them to respond to the command by looking in the direction I'm facing till they see the sheep and then calmly acknowledge the same. The last thing I want is crazed excitement before we stop out on the trial field or even just into the pasture.

 

J.

[OurBoys]

I never tell ours where we're going. They do know what 'road trip' means. They also know the difference between 'road trip' and 'front door'. When I say 'road trip', they bolt out the front door and head straight for the truck. When I say 'front door', they bolt out the front door and into the woods in our front yard. (JJ & Jake hate going out to use the bathroom in the rain. Because our front yard isn't fenced in, they don't go out there often so going out front is a treat. When it would be raining and I asked them if they needed to go out, they would back away from the back door. I knew they needed to go and I also knew they loved going out front so that's how 'front door' became the command for front yard.)

 

Jake gets overly excited around sheep but his excitement is so controlled, if you didn't know him, you wouldn't know it. He will pull on his leash doing his best to get to the field the sheep are in or to get to the round pen. But once there, he'll do a little pacing back and forth with a nose touch to the latch every once in a while to tell you that's how you open the gate but that's it. It might not look like he's overly excited but he is!

[Debbie Meier]

Hmmm, what do you think would happen to this guy if I said "Where's your sheep!!!

 

 

 

I think he would say, "In your Lap....NOW!!!!!"

[sixx]

Hmmm, what do you think would happen to this guy if I said "Where's your sheep!!!

 

I think he would say, "In your Lap....NOW!!!!!"

 

 

Seriously, huh! Great picture!

[jeff77]

I never tell Emma where we're going. When we go I say "lets go". She will go out the door and get in the truck.

When we play ball I say "brake" and she will stop and get a drink of water. I love using commands with Emma.

 

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[BCDreamer]

We do "Let's go play agigity" for Agility... Or just "Let's go play!". For Bella for her obedience/dog issue sessions it was always "Let's go to class".

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

For a long time I hardly dared think about going out to the sheep with Ted, much less try to build his excitement!

 

 

He's much calmer now. It took a year of work but it's well worth it (pic courtesy of Kelly J):

 

 

"Where's the sheep?" for us means look for sheep where I am facing. Ie, they might not be visible, or there might be more than one possible groups. He does also respond to "look" in the same way but I have to be careful to say it veeeerrrrry calmly or he will just take off. Somehow he started taking it as a "send" command like "shhhhh." Alert, noobie trainer.

 

I have to say that really I'd never "rile up" a dog going to stock purposely. There's so many layers to what's going on in their brains that what you see isn't always the sum total of what they are learning.

 

A dog that looks reserved and withdrawn may actually be that way because it's trying to deal with a whirl of nervous energy and hyperstimulation. Far better, I believe, to let a dog find its own "happy place" than to add more pressure and lead it to think being calm is wrong.

 

I had a dog that was an overthinker. We (my local trainer and I) spent a ton of time dealing with her desire to run away when things got tough. It was a shame because she was a nice dog otherwise.

 

This was a mistake and frankly ruined this dog, which might have turned out decent. After I plugged away for a couple years with her, I took her to a clinician. The first time she turned tail and I reacted by trying to call her back - he corrected me and said, "Leave all that. She needs to learn to deal with what's she's learning in her own way. When she understands what needs to be done, she'll stop that." And it was true - but it was too late, she no longer really trusted me with the sheep.

 

It taught me not to try to shape the outside of the dog into what I thought it should look like. What the stock are doing is most important.