- Hey it's Tenille here from Dog Matters
and today I'm gonna answer a question that
I get all the time
and that's which command should I use.
So this will happen when we're talking
about teaching any behavior
but I'm gonna use the example today
of the down command.
So getting a dog to lay down on command.
And often when I bring that up
a lot of people will say what word should I use.
Should I use drop or down or what?
And my answer frequently is you can use
the word pancakes if you like
because your dog doesn't come preprogrammed
knowing words when it's born.
We've got to teach them what each word means,
and we do this through a pattern
of making sure that we say the word,
and then make the behavior happen after the word.
And that's really important if you want your dog
to know the actual meaning of the sound
of the word rather than
your body language that's going around it.
And it's also really important to do it
in that pattern to avoid repeating the command.
So what we do is we teach the dog the behavior,
so the action of the down command,
the way we want it to look before we start
saying down or drop or any command words at all.
So to illustrate that it doesn't really matter
what word you use exactly I'm gonna show you that
Envy can do it with two different words.
She can do it in English, and be down.
Good girl.
Hey, here.
Good.
Or she can do it in German.
Envy, platz, good.
You can tell that her German command is
more of her formal command.
You may have noticed that she went backwards
into down with the German command
and when I said it in English,
she was a lot more casual and relaxed about it.
And that's the way I've taught it.
But if you want to, you can teach any word
for any behavior that you would like.
So making sure so that the dog knows how
to perform the behavior first than
pairing the word that you want with it.
So if it was a dog that had never
done the down before,
I would spend some time shaping it how I want
by using food lures and gentle leash pressure
and guidance and then when I have it looking
exactly how I want,
I am gonna start saying the word
just before I make it happen.
And I'm gonna make sure that I make it happen
after the first command so that I don't end
up repeating myself many times.
Another example of dogs not knowing
words automatically is that
when you get a new dog or a new puppy,
especially new puppies,
that don't know any words yet, than they don't
automatically know the word no.
So a lot of people will say to me
"I tried saying no to stop them
"from doing such and such a behavior
"and they just won't listen"
but that wouldn't be fair to expect the pup
to understand what the word no means
without prior experience to that
and showing them what you want the word no
to mean and the same goes for any command.
So it's all about making sure that you're clear
with your dogs with what
you want the word to mean
no matter what that word is.
Another thing to take into account is
your hand signals and your body language.
Your dog will always look at that first
before they listen to the word that you're using.
So if you've paired a hand signal
with a command, such as pointing down,
you have to watch that if you want your dog
to know the word, you're separating it.
So instead of saying down at the same time
as moving your hand, you say down
and then follow with the body language
part of the equation so that the dog can see
the pattern and separate the word
and learn that on its own.
That also applies if you want to change a command
or you're teaching a new command
and the dog knows the hand signal pattern
or the lure and you're trying to put
the original word to it.
So let's say we want to teach Envy to lay down
on command with a new word
and let's pick something completely random that
she's never done before so let's go with potato.
And the key is that I've got to say potato
and then use the hand signal that
she already knows.
Envy, potato.
Good girl.
So the important thing there,
is that I said the word and then moved my hand.
So it's really important that the dog can hear
the verbal word separately
and then follow the body language part
that they already know.
Because if I had said potato,
she's gonna be paying attention
to the pointing hand signal and not be paying
much attention to the new word happening.
I hope this tip has helped you today
so that you can be clear with the commands
for your dog no matter what word you wanna use.
And don't forget to get out and train your dog
because your dog matters.
And I'll see you in the next video.
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