# Ruining commands



## CavePaws (Jan 25, 2011)

If there's one thing I hate to hear someone do with a dog I've trained, it is say "Wait, wait, wait, wait" when my dog is obviously sitting there waiting. :| Thanks, mother...Thanks for making my job harder. I'm thinking about switching all of Preston and Indi's commands _I_ use to german or something.

:frusty:

I realize that the general public (not people on this forum really since everyone is pretty well educated on training) repeats commands over and over again, not giving the dog a chance to actually do the behavior on one cue. While it is not particularly frustrating teaching a client this, it is when you live with someone who you've repeated this information to time and time again.  Repeating the command ruins the cue you're intending. "Waitwaitwaitwait" doesn't sound like "Wait" to a dog, and aside from that, wouldn't you like your dog to be able to "Wait" or "Come when Called" on the first try? Not after you've said, "Barney HERE. HERE. HERE BARNEY!" 

Sorry. My mother was walking out the door with Preston a second ago, I'm in the kitchen, and all I hear is "Wait wait wait wait" as they are WALKING out the door to the car. :shocked: I love my mother, and I appreciate the fact that she loves our dogs, but seriously mom. Lol, come on. :tongue:


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## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

What do you mean it's not the "Sit Sit Sit Sit Sit Sit Sit" command? He He. I hear you. It confuses the dog, maybe they think they have to hear the "Wait" Command 5 times before they actually do it. I agree repeating the command ruins the cue and doesn't really work.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Yeah, drives me mad. The other half; Come Mollie, come Mollie, come on here Mollie, Mollie, COME. COME, COME, COME. Please come here Mollie.
I had to change the 'come' command to 'Now'. Thats her's and my secret!


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

Ugh... lol teaching your pups the commands in German is a great idea lol! at least they would just look at everybody else like "wtf are you saying?"

my biggest pet peeve is the girls telling Tobi over, and over, and over, the same thing and i can clearly see that he's in the process of doing it... albeit very slow, he is working his way into telling himself to do what they want :lol:


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## KlaMarie (Dec 30, 2010)

My dog does know German!! To me, it makes sport training so much easier, and just training in general. I also didn't want just the average joe to be able to say her bite command. But "sit" in german is basically "sit", so that one I haven't been able to get away from  

But I get you on the repeated command thing. If the dog doesnt listen to you on the first or second time, STOP SAYING IT!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

KlaMarie said:


> My dog does know German!! To me, it makes sport training so much easier, and just training in general. I also didn't want just the average joe to be able to say her bite command. But "sit" in german is basically "sit", so that one I haven't been able to get away from
> 
> But I get you on the repeated command thing. If the dog doesnt listen to you on the first or second time, STOP SAYING IT!


My trainer says "Plotz" for sit. Or something like that.

I won't even get into my husband repeating everything 1000 times. BUT when we first started taking Rebel to the trainer I begged him to go and spend some time with him and he didn't want to. So now he doesn't know how to get him to do anything.


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## maplewood (Apr 14, 2011)

All mine are on Hand signals for this reason!! 

When I do training class all the pups are taught with hand signals as well. I make a point to tell people from day one they aren't allowed to use verbal commands/cues until further notice.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

maplewood said:


> All mine are on Hand signals for this reason!!
> 
> When I do training class all the pups are taught with hand signals as well. I make a point to tell people from day one they aren't allowed to use verbal commands/cues until further notice.


Ah... but you can repeat a hand signal! I was cracking up the day I went to dog class and there was a lady there with two Dobies and she was silent with her mouth but she was definitely saying SIT SIT SIT SIT over and over again


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## CorgiPaws (Mar 31, 2009)

I hear you. My neices and nephews no longer get to know my dog's names. It is easy to teach a dog his name as a puppy, but whenever they come see my new puppies, who obviously don't even know their names yet because they just came home... it's... "kola kola kola kola kola kola here kola kola kola kola come her kola come come come kola"

THANK YOU, children. "Kola" is now the most meaningless word EVAR. In fact, it's not even a word: it's background noise. 
-headdesk-


I'm helping my brother with his new puppy, and I swear no matter how many freaking times I tell him, " Dino does NOT know what sit even MEANS, so stop asking him to." it doesn't stick...


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## eternalstudent (Jul 22, 2010)

This reply will probably lead to some thinking that I should find a new trainer LOL but......

One of the training sets is to leave our dogs in a down-stay and walk around the room now that may sound sensible. But what happens is you get a course of Stay or Wait (for those imaginative people) being shouted out across the room.

Ok so that may not sound tooooooo bad, but we are also asked to leave multiple dogs in the down stay and then 4 or 5 of us will walk around the room. You have to now imagine the cacophony of noise coming from the handlers of the dogs to get a true picture.

People look at me strange because I say nothing to my pup. (Yes I do have hand signals and I find it much better than the spoken word simply because I have a different accent to most people around here and there words must seem like a different language to Becka  ) I have been trying to teach my pup that if I have asked her to go into a down that she does not do anything else until I release her.

(just as a bit of fun I have two sets of body language for down. One is my distance one which is simply hand raised, the other:- all I have to do is bend over forward - there is no shouting, no forcing. It is funny watching peoples reactions as they believe that I have the best trained dog on the planet when all it is is simple basic body language training that any of them could do if they thought about it !!)


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## KlaMarie (Dec 30, 2010)

xellil said:


> My trainer says "Plotz" for sit. Or something like that.


Down in German is "platz", so that's too close for me. I guess I could just make up a word for her sit command, as long as I don't try to cross-over to Schutzhund we would be ok!



maplewood said:


> All mine are on Hand signals for this reason!!
> 
> When I do training class all the pups are taught with hand signals as well. I make a point to tell people from day one they aren't allowed to use verbal commands/cues until further notice.


I wish I could use hand signals! That's what Rayne initially learned and then I layered the word on top of it, then phased out the signal. But she learned with the hand signal SO much faster. You can't use hand signals in protection sports though :frusty:, that would lose you major points.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

eternalstudent said:


> Ok so that may not sound tooooooo bad, but we are also asked to leave multiple dogs in the down stay and then 4 or 5 of us will walk around the room. You have to now imagine the cacophony of noise coming from the handlers of the dogs to get a true picture.


My trainer doesn't allow more than one command. When we put our dogs in a down stay, we leave the building, walk around outside, and come back in. If they get up, they get up. Then we are supposed to use the corrective "ought" command, not repeat the original down command.

We also don't use "stay." He believes "stay" is implied. So down mean down-stay. 

But i do know what you mean - when we do stuff where we are supposed to give a command from across the room, we never succeed because Rebel can't hear me. I don't blame him. And he's often confused about who is me, so sometimes he's looking for me and not finding me so it's pointless to use hand signals amidst all the smells and noises. Personally, I think that is ineffective and useless. Do it one dog at a time, or don't do it at all. But my trainer is so popular that even in advanced class there are usually about 80 people.


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

what is it you don't like, your mother
usuing the word "wait" 3 times or
the fact that usuing 3 words. what if she said
"wait here boy" or "Buddy, come here, now sit"
or "come here, good boy, sit". she's still usuing
more than one word for a command. when you give your
dog a command do you really use one word? after
a dog is trained to "wait" i don't think you ruin 
the command by saying it more than once. how often
does your mother give your dog a command?


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## Paws&Tails (Sep 3, 2010)

I actually worked with my trainer to teach Spike hand signals. I honestly think it works better. He has to pay more attention to me, because he has to watch me to know what to do. We taught him verbal commands too (in French!) and his name always precedes the command.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

KlaMarie said:


> Down in German is "platz", so that's too close for me. I guess I could just make up a word for her sit command, as long as I don't try to cross-over to Schutzhund we would be ok!


Well, I suspect I have it wrong then. I bet platz is down. I looked up "sit" in German and it's "sitzen" and I dont' remember him using that command on any of his dogs. Or maybe it's close enough to "sit" I didn't realize he was using German.

Shoot, I have a hard enough time in English. The only non-traditional word we use is "ought" for a kind of "no" because the trainer says we use "no" so many times in regular conversation it confuses the dog. I felt REALLY silly saying that for the first couple of months, and a hard time remembering to say it. I have over time kind of shortened it to something like a cough. It's certainly like no other sound I use for anything.


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

When Wayne and I first got together, he had a St.Bernard who he had taught all of his commands in sign language. That way, only Wayne could give commands in his way. He taught it to me and that was my first lesson in sign language. It was pretty cool!


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## chowder (Sep 7, 2008)

I taught Rocky hand signals as a puppy. When we were taking a walk one day I stopped and was chatting with a neighbor. Rocky got bored and was looking at me so I gave him a few hand signals to 'sit' and 'down' while I was still chatting with the lady, without even thinking about it really. 

I suddenly realized that she was staring at Rocky like he was the smartest thing she ever saw, when all he really was was a bored puppy. I could have had him doing all kinds of things without ever speaking to him and really impressed her!

I love hand signals! Shade is learning them now and getting better at it.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

Repeating is bad, and ruins the conditioning. If a command has to be said more then 2 times, they obviously either don't know it, or are not complying for whatever reason.


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## doggiedad (Jan 23, 2011)

are talking about Amslan or hand signals? people that know sign language could command the dog
unless Wayne made up his own version of sign language. 



naturalfeddogs said:


> When Wayne and I first got together, he had a St.Bernard who he had taught all of his commands in sign language. That way, only Wayne could give commands in his way. He taught it to me and that was my first lesson in sign language. It was pretty cool!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

KittyKat said:


> Repeating is bad, and ruins the conditioning. If a command has to be said more then 2 times, they obviously either don't know it, or are not complying for whatever reason.


My trainer says if you repeat commands they learn quickly that you don't mean it the first or second time. They are no dummies!


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