Basic Training Lessons

[Jana's Mumma]

I'm interested to know which training commands I should teach my pup (when and if I get one) . I'm confused :confused: because I've heard of so many different commands and techniques for training pups. Can anybody give me some advice?

[Jana's Mumma]

No-one's replying :confused: :confused: :confused:

[Spike's Bitch]

Sorry, love. I didn't reply because Spike & I just sort of made it up together as we went along. Like 'Where's your Frisbee? It's over there. (Point to Frisbee where he dropped it when he saw the cat) No, there . Near the tree. No, that tree..left a bit (wave my hand in a vaguely left direction) that's it! Smart boy!' We would never win in Obedience but my dog understands me!

 

It doesn't really matter what words you use, only they should be short and not confusing for the dog - for example, a dog might not easily tell the difference between 'go' and 'no' - you see what I mean?

 

Liz & Spike the Slime Bandit

[Jana's Mumma]

Thanks Liz.....

[concrete]

I like to teach a puppy to come to me first. I use "come", "come here" and "here" interchangably for a recall. Then I teach a lie down which of course is "lie down". I teach a puppy to walk on a leash but that doesn't require any commands.

You know now that I think about it probably the first command I teach is "NO".

That's about it until they start on livestock.

 

Kevin Brannon

[haflingerrider]

Naomi, One thing that we do that we like is the OFF command. Anytime the pup tries to jump up on us we say off and gently push him off. We also use it to tell them to get their feet off the couch or chair. They quickly learn that off means to get back on to all four feet. It just works better than down cause later you will want to teach the down which is to lie down on their stomach. I agree with Kevin, the first thing we end up teaching is NO

[Tassie]

Hi Naomi

 

As others have said, the actual commands you use don?t matter so much as being consistent in what you expect the dog to do. It?s only in obedience competition, and in Oz, only in a couple of cases then, where you are restricted to particular commands.

 

Since you need to be consistent, it?s better to use words which make sense to you, so you won?t forget and confuse the dog! So I use ?sit?. ?stand?, ?drop?, ?come?, ?this way? etc. etc.

 

I agree with Cyndi ? I really like ?off? ? especially to get my ?countersurfers? to leave the cat food on the bench. My other favourite command is ?leave it? ? it?s such an all purpose word, and unlike just ?no?, you can instantly praise the dog for responding well. (This doesn't mean I don't use 'no' sometimes!)

 

The most important thing of all though is to be attentive to your dog all the time when you?re training, so you can immediately let the dog know he got it right. Or help him to get it right if he didn?t.

[juliepoudrier]

I agree the first word taught was "no"! Or maybe "puppy, puppy, puppy" to get the pup to come running. Then "here" meaning to come to me. I have found the "here" command helpful in herding as well if I want to dog to flank in close toward me I can say "away here" or "come here" to pull the dog in a bit. I have dogs that were trained to recall to the word "come" and they don't usually seem to confuse that with the directional command come, but that is a possibility, which is why I use "here." I don't use off to mean keep your feet on the floor because for my two main trial dogs, off means to flank to the left wider (so if I say "off" or "come off" then the dog will kick back out and to the left). I suppose that using off in another context wouldn't confuse them, but I figure "get down" works well enough for me.

 

J.

[Shawna]

I think the three most important words to teach a pet would be "come" "no" and "down". "Off" is good but if the dog has never been allowed to ever put it's feet up it isn't as important. I know with rescues you don't know what the dog has been allowed to get away with so things are different in that situation.

 

I won't use "get down" to mean "off" because I need an instant down whenever I say the word and I would be afraid they would get sloppy. The herding has Darcy breaking her downs off livestock now but we're working on that. For getting Darcy to move wider I use "get out". "Out" was her command to give me something so I changed that command to "give" to prevent her from being confused over that one.

 

Agility also threw in a few twists with the commands that interfered with some other things we were doing (tricks etc.) so I had to use new words for some of that. My other dog wasn't nearly so picky and could use the same words to mean different things in different situations but Darcy is so literal in how she thinks I've had to get creative.

[INU]

One thing I hate teaching but I know is very important is "no jumping". Everyday I come home, she gives me this big smile and lots of jumping. Because the other dog is so big and can reach me just by standing up, she would try anything to be closer to me.

 

I know it's important to teach her and I hate when my work suit is ruined with wet dirt but I just can't tell her "NO" when she is giving me her love after hours of not seeing each other. I usually go around and get inside, get changed quietly, and come out as if I just got home. I just let her do her jumping and kissing for a little bit and then calm her down.

 

I know I know... I have to teach her "no jumping" ("no" "off" -- good word) but I am just having a hard time saying no to her affection...

[juliepoudrier]

Shawna,

In herding, I use "lie down" to mean, well, lie down, so there is no confusion between the get down and lie down, especially since the dog needs to be responding as soon as I say "lie." Of course, once you put everything on whistles, then there's less confusion over the words! In any case, if you enforce the "lie down" consistently when Darcy's on sheep or other stock then it shouldn't really lead to sloppiness in her obedience work.

 

For what it's worth, "out" to my dogs means to release the pressure while flanking to the right, or away. So as I said before, "off" means release pressure on the left flank and "out" means do the same on the right flank. I do actually use these commands as strictly voice commands because they apply to actions I want at the pen or while shedding, and at those times I am close to my dog and so don't use whistles. Because I may need a split second reaction, I keep it to the single word, that is I don't usually say "come off" or "away out" but simply "off" or "out" and the dog responds accordingly (usually anyway). They are quite handy commands actually....

 

But I realize that most people are training basic obedience without a future of herding in mind, and in that case I think you should simply use whatever is simple and works for you, with the commands different sounding enough (from each other) as to not confuse the dog.

 

J.

[Oreo's mom]

I don't claim these as original. We got them from the obediance and agility classes we take.

 

"Quick!!" means run like crazy straight to me no matter where you are and sit right in front of me so I can take hold of your collar. NEVER use punishment when he comes to this command, because you need him to want to do this.

 

 

"Flat" is to lay down like the sphinx.

 

"Sit" is the usual.

 

Adding "freeze" either flat or sit means stay that way and do NOT move. I'll come back to you.

 

"Wait" means stay put until I ask you to move. Use when you are letting him go through a doorway or at a curb, etc.

 

"With me" is to walk beside me, casually, on or off leash(as opposed to "heeling").

 

"Cold" means you didn't do what I just asked you to do.

 

"Leave it" is self-explanatory and applies to trash, food, the cat, etc.

 

"Watch me" is keep your eyes on me, which is mostly just a training exercise but good for working with distractions.

 

"Yea Oreo!" means jump up as high in the air as you can like a crazy dog.

[Shawna]

Sorry Julie,

I wasn't trying to pick apart what you said. I was trying to explain using Darcy as an example that some dogs don't do well crossing over from one type of training to another where the commands are similar and so need separate commands. I guess I didn't do a very good job .

 

I do enforce Darcy's down on stock but where I have a problem is that she doesn't have a stay command. In obedience there is no need, when I tell the dog to down it means don't move until I tell you otherwise so I've never trained a stay. However, I've started to introduce it in the herding because she has broke her down to catch run-aways. I didn't feel I should correct her for breaking the down to cover her stock, especially when she's had so much trouble in that area, or am I wrong in thinking this? (Not meaning to intrude on this thread.)

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

How about using a different command when it's ok to break? I know someone who has three different stop commands which mean stop however you want (stand or lie down) and go when you want, lie down and go if it's an emergency but otherwise wait for a command, and lie all the way down and you'd better STAY DOWN.

 

"Stand" might be a good subsitute. A lot of people use it.

 

Becca

[juliepoudrier]

Yep, I use stand with my dogs so they can be on their feet and ready to move more quickly to cover breaking sheep. I find this especially useful when there's a heavy draw on the drive and I want my dog to be ready to instantly block sideways motion while encouraging forward motion. I have heard others use "stop" as well, so you could reserve "down" or "lie down" to mean lie down and stay put and use one of the other commands when you want your dog to use some discretion about staying down.

 

Shawna,

I would not correct Darcy for trying to cover her stock. It will just lead to frustration/confusion on her part. The only exception I make to this is if it looks like said breakway sheep is heading at breakneck (literally) speed for a fence. Even then I just ask the dog to lie down. Same with a grip that occurs while trying to cover stock. I don't correct with a "no" or "aahhhht" or whatever, but simply tell the dog to lie down--all because I don't want the dog to think it's being corrected for trying to cover runaway stock. When you want to enforce a down/stay put, perhaps you need to set up the training situation so that the sheep aren't inclined to make a break for it (that is have Darcy lie down between the stock and whatever draw there may be or make sure the stock is away from any draw altogether). Remember, though, that this is advice from a novice handler.

 

J.

[Shawna]

Thank you both for the tips. She has a "wait" command on her, it would be easy to encorporate that into a moveable type down (stand won't work - an obedience stand doesn't allow them to move either). Amazing how something so simple could elude me .

 

Julie,

What I'm doing in herding right now is the "sounds good to me" method. This is where I go to my mother, who knows even less than I do, and say "This is what I want to accomplish so this is what I'm going to do." If she says "Sounds good to me." I try it. So believe me your novice advice is very much appreciated.

[concrete]

I didn't mention this and I'm sure other people do this too but I always use a counter command with the lie down. When I tell a dog to lie down I want them to stay there till I tell them otherwise. So I'll tell the dog "lie down" make it lie there for a minute or two then tell it "that'll do" and let it up then praise it. Gradually teach it to lie down for longer periods at greater distances.

 

Kevin Brannon

[Jana's Mumma]

WOW!!!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: So many ideas!!!!!!!!!!

[max3moo]

Hi

 

Pick the words you find easiest first, if I want a sit I say "sit" the shorter the command the easier it is for the dog to pick up, I also use hand signals as well as verbal commands so if the dog is at a distance you can still produce the same effect as using a verbal command. Each person / trainer etc., have their own words just use ones you can remember and keep to being consistent is most important as this with repetition will soon have your dog picking things up quickly. Have fun learning and teaching your dog.