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Using german dog commands?

3K views 14 replies 14 participants last post by  andynic 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
What do you think about training your dog using German Commands? Even if it is just for the recall command it might be enough to avoid your dog being coaxed away from you. I know that protection dogs are trained in German and that certain German dog breeds are taught that way but is this going abit far?? I found a good list of commands and how to pronounce them, (Germandogcommands.com)
 
#2 ·
German is so old school and boring. I use creole. :D Both of my dogs are bilingual in english and creole. I really don't need to worry about some random person luring them off, lol... That is actually kind of laughable. My dogs going off with a stranger is never going to happen. Zoe doesn't care about strangers, she loves the people she knows and couldn't care less about the people she doesn't. Phoenix does not like strangers and wouldn't go near one even if they knew all of her cues. :)
 
#3 ·
http://germandogcommands.org/dog-training-program redirected me to theonlinedogtrainer.com, me being a suspicious little person I stopped it from loading and ran it by google, clicked on the FAQ link to see if Doggy Dan was the person I was remembering or someone else.

The sight is very, very, limited in what they are willing to show you without subscribing, aside from mentioning "Before you do anything, you must watch this video on the left. After which you need to learn how to become The Pack Leader." Which to me is a huge red flag. He also claims this on his blog page "Podcast: Play in new window | Download This is a really important podcast because it sets up WHY you need to become the Pack Leader in your home. This is the cornerstone of my training method and the cure for almost all behavioural issues." Which just isn't true. A dog doesn't resource guard, counter surf, door dash, because it doesn't view you as pack leader.

Overall, he doesn't appear to be horrid, but I do question some of what he's saying, at least he doesn't appear to be pushing dominance based training, or not as far as I can tell.
 
#4 ·
I think you can train your dog in any language you want to. One of the main reasons for using a different language is that others do not know the commands. The dog doesn't know it is a different language. If a stranger says "come" in English, and the dog doesn't know that word it probably won't go to them. I think you can use any word for any command, as long as you are consistent. Some people use "me" or "here" to have the dog come to them. It's your preference.
 
#7 ·
In the doggy classes I brought Natasha, we trained some orders in German and others in English, so as not to say them accidentally while normally speaking.
On my own, I train Natasha with a mixture of Spanish and English, and I'm starting to use other languages because I get out of ideas for trick names.
 
#8 ·
... If you want to use a command that no one else is going to use, why on earth would you choose German in particular? That's what everyone uses when they don't want to use the normal English cue. It's a stereotype for a reason. Once it becomes that common, it completely fails to serve its purpose.

And on a less functional level: I'm not gonna lie, I absolutely judge people who use German cues. As soon as I hear someone say "Platz," I instantly start deducting IQ points from the handler. Around here, virtually everyone who cues in German is a crappy wanna-be trainer who thinks they are ~so cool~ because they watch CM on TV and their dog knows three words of German, and it pretty much instantly makes me want to punch them.

Short version: Your dog does not know what language you are speaking. He doesn't care if it's English or German or Swahili or webdings as long as you are (a) teaching him the cues and (b) using them as you trained them. That means that if you don't want your dog to come when called to anyone else (which I think is a very questionable decision for the average dog owner in the first place), then you need to do proofing for that as a specific training goal instead of relying on your abnormal cue to keep you safe, because it won't. If someone really interesting-looking is holding steak and saying "here puppy-puppy!" and you haven't proofed your dog for that level of distraction, he's going to go to that person even if your recall cue is "Here" or "Bananas" or "Dora the Explorer." It's not a problem with the cue. The person didn't stumble into some magical dog-summoning spell. It's a problem with the proofing.

My hearing dog has abnormal cues. I hate the sound of the word Heel, so we have "orient." I got lazy with my recall (I know, bad me!) and just built up lots of distance and distraction my nose-target cue, so my dog thinks "target" means Come. I accidentally poisoned Down, so we have "gravity." "Paralyzed" means pick up your leash and put it in my hand. And so on. I'm speaking English, I can remember it perfectly well, and most of my cues sound more distinct than traditional cues (e.g. "lay" sounding like "stay" or "stay" sounding like the beginning of "stand" to an over-eager dog, but "gravity" doesn't sound anything like "orient"). And if my dog goes to someone else when I'm playing a training game, I blame it on my proofing, not on my cue.
 
#9 ·
(I actually speak German...I had no idea it was a cliche to train your dog in it!)

One thing to keep in mind: it can be GOOD for strangers to be able to tell your dog come, stay, etc. If you're not around and something is going wrong, like a building on fire or a car coming down the street? HECK YES I want Calypso to "come" or whatnot! It could save her life. I am less worried about strangers coaxing her away b/c if we are out, she is on leash and I am paying attention to her. (the other problem would be if something happened to me). That is a BIG reason why, although I initially trained her in Latin :p, I switched to English pretty early. I would like to double up her commands with Spanish, because it's 21st century America. :)
 
#10 ·
I advice against using a language you are not completely fluent in and feels naturally to you. While it doesn't matter to the dog what language it is, if it's not a language which is natural for you, if you are really stressed you won't remember the cue. I had this happen to me several times, in very serious situations (not dog but life-death situations), languages I thought I knew well ( mandarin and spanish) was just gone and I was speaking cantonese/swedish/english without realising it.
 
#11 ·
I could train my dogs in Icelandic and they would still go off with strangers. If we're at a park they will literally go and lay down with a stranger, I can walk away and they don't come. Collies... so obsessed with people. They would go home with anyone.

Mine are all trained in English and French (sort of). But I had a Bernese Mountain dog that was trained in German. He came from a German breeder so that's the language he knew. We never bothered to change it.
 
#12 ·
I'm not sure it matters what language you train your dog in or if the word you use even needs to mean what you want done. If you train your dog "zebra" means come its as good as any other command as long as your dog understands. Along with that I've found hand signals and body language play a large role in my communication with my dogs.
 
#14 ·
I adopted an abused dog, Jaya, I asked about almost this same thing in her thread in the 'additions' forum.

Her old owner beat her terribly every time he had to catch her after she slipped her collar...she was kept tied up in a back yard for 5 years. When I got her, I noticed she cringes at the words 'Come here'. I'm sure she heard those words said in anger way too many times in her life.

I know some Korean, so I asked about using "illiwa" (pronounced ill-ee-wah), which means "come/come here" in Korean - I know a little Spanish, but thought that the softer vowels/consonants in illiwa might not frightened Jaya as much...she's also kind of afraid of the human voice. I think she was basically ignored by her prior owner unless she was in trouble for something.

At least with Jaya I know no one's ever going to coax her to them....she got away from me and it took me 3 days and a cowboy to finally catch her again. :p

Stormy
 
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#15 ·
very good points guys thank you so much. I have decided to create my own unique commands that are clear and distinct but very short and fluid. As for the doggy Dan guy, he seems to know a lot of useful information and I am very tempted to try it out but before I do, does anyone know of any other online dog training courses for such good value? thanks, Andy
 
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