Caption: Kramer, the Old English Bulldog above, greatly benefited from specific commands being well-defined. When Kramer’s owner adopted their mature rescue-cat Willow, there was bad-chemistry immediately! Poor Willow was hiding under the bed all day every day… wouldn’t even come out for food and was fed under the bed! She was relentlessly pursued by Kramer. Training/ therapy was offered to both animals and through my carefully defining the difference between “leave-It” and “gentle” commands, plus reforming Willow from acting out the role of “victim,” I was able to spark a bonafide friendship between the two. This far surpassed the owner’s goal of mutual-respect.
There is often much confusion regarding correct commands given to our dogs while training and maintaining training. While it’s reasonable to pick your own terminology, there are some consistent commands amongst trainers and professional dog-handlers. There will be a list of commands below. First let’s establish some rules regarding terminology:
This is what is important:
*Everyone in your household or working with your dog should use the same command.
*Be command-oriented. Always tell your dog your expectations.
*Commands should be well-defined. Commands elicit a specific behavior or set of behaviors. Some commands have similar meaning or overlap in skill-set but the differences should be made clear to your dog through training.
* The command should make sense to you. A connotation should be conjured, when you speak a command. Speaking the command should give you the vision of the desired result.
LIST OF COMMAND TERMINOLOGY:
COME + Auto sit:: travel to me, sit in front of me, give me your attention, wait for release or a next command
SIT: a benign request, requires no submissive obedience, However, it’s useful attached to COME and In other applications. Avoid asking dogs with failing joints or torn ACL’s , etc or with any rear leg maladies to sit. Instead ask them to DOWN.
DOWN: lay down by the count of 2 for a small dog 3-5 for larger dogs or dog’s with physical maladies. This is submissive obedience request and there is great value then for honing this skill with prompt compliance.
STAY; stay until I come back to retrieve you. I never call my dog from a “stay.” There is much higher expectation then when asking for a STAY vs a WAIT.
WAIT: fleeting stay/pause. Useful at curb and road-crossingss, entering/ exiting the home, exiting the vehicle and leashing, or anytime you’ll be asking your dog to move off again from a pause.
HEEL:: stay at my heel. move when I move, Stop when I stop.
LET’S GO/ THIS WAY: stay close by, follow my direction. Change your path of travel. Heel not required
“OK” “RELEASE” “FREE” “DONE”: releases dog from any and all commands, including a working walk on or off leash
LEAVE-IT: never touch this, forever and all time,
DROP-IT: let go of what you’ve got in your mouth
GET-IT: retrieve what I’m indicating
OFF; get off of furniture, human, another dog, etc
QUIET: stop vocalizing, subdue energy
GENTLE: “volume-control” for play behaviors/ play biting, playing too rough, playing disrespectfully, subdue energy.
COMMON COMMAND CONFUSION
WAIT vs STAY
DOWN vs OFF
LEAVE IT vs DROP IT
QUIET vs GENTLE
HEEL vs LET’S GO/ THIS WAY
Caption: Above video depicts a female Viszla puppy named Rusti executing an enthusiastic DOWN. She can’t seem to throw herself down fast enough! This is the type of prompt-compliance we seek from commands but particularly the DOWN command. Since the act of lowering oneself in the dog-world reveals submissive-obedience its essential that your dog not hesitate (or worse…refuse) to lay down promptly when commanded to do so.
:
Whatever terminology you use, the important thing to remember is to be consistent. Words, particularly those that have broader human meanings, take on specific meanings to dogs, when used in specific applications, repetitively. This is the desired effect. We don”t want “grey area” for our dogs. Commands are “black and white,” or clearly defined, And, be command oriented. A common error is forgetting to tell the dog what we want!
Dogs are reported by scientists, to have the capacity to retain a 450-word vocabulary. But many of us dog enthusiasts, know that some dogs have shown to have the ability to retain 1000+ words (like that Jack Russel Terrier on YouTube that can retrieve 1000+ toys each given a different name). You’ll likely not fill your dogs vocabulary-retention capacity so feel free to define many more commands that you find helpful….or fun!
…But just in case your dog has a more limited vocabulary, be fair, by being consistent & clear.
HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU AND YOUR PETS!