Choosing Dog Training Commands
by Los Angeles Dog Trainer Rebecca Setler
Dog training is the process of developing communication and understanding between you and your dog. A big part of the dog training process is choosing a vocabulary that you are comfortable using and your dog can clearly and easily understand. This vocabulary will be the set of dog training commands you use with your dog. While there is a vocabulary that has traditionally been used when training dogs, there is no reason why you need to use these words.
Dogs do not come into this world thinking the word "sit" is any more or less important than the word "pickle". When training your dog, you pick the words you want to use with him and use those words consistently so that your dog learns that your commands have special meaning. You can use a set of traditional dog training commands in English or a foreign language, or you can invent your own unique command vocabulary.
Guidelines to help you to choose dog training commands:
- choose commands that are short and easy to say
- choose commands that are easy to hear from a distance, e.g. "quiet" not "hush"
- choose commands that the whole family can easily say and remember
- choose commands that come to you naturally so you can say them without thinking
- do not choose commands that sound like other commands, e.g. "heel" and "here"
Tone of Voice for Issuing Commands
Many people think they need to talk loudly and forcefully to get their dog's attention. The truth is that a dog will respond to a whispered word if it is consistently reinforced. People tend to yell at their dogs (and their kids!) because they have asked nicely and gotten no result. So they get mad, yell and then enforce the request. Dogs (and kids) end up learning that a loud tone of voice means business.
But dogs can learn that a normal tone of voice means business and that responding the first time they hear it prevents unpleasant consequences. When you yell at your dog during training, you end up teaching him that he only needs to respond to you when you raise your voice, leading to frustration for you and for anyone close by who has to listen to you yelling at your dog.
When training your dog, you do not need to yell. But it is important that you pick a particular tone for delivering dog training commands. From your dog's point of view, people talk incessantly. I'm sure dogs identify with the Charlie Brown cartoons where all the adult voices blur into nonsense. Picking a special tone for your dog helps him to know when to listen for important information and when he can let all that chatter fade into the background.
Below you will find a list of basic dog training command words in three languages. Once you have chosen your command words and tone of voice for training, repetition and consistency will get you the training results you want.
| English | German | French |
|---|---|---|
| Heel | Fuss | Au pied |
| Sit | Sitz | Assis |
| Down | Platz | Coucher |
| Stand | Steh | Debout |
| Stay | Bleib | Reste |
| Come | Hier | Ici |
| Place | Bett | Chenil |
| Okay | Lauf | D'accord |
