Dutch Shepherd Forum

My neighbor just brought home an adorable rescue. She is about 7-8 months, lab X something. She is super sweet. She is very light with a light white mask. So, my neighbor asked me to help her and do some training.... So I have Bellas leash and she does seem to know some stuff. She will sit. So I am working on a heal while walking, and as I stop, showing her, she should sit. Well... She is not listening... but she will sit on command... then I pay attention to myself and what I am doing... I am telling her to "assi" um...... Im so used to training in French. Bella is looking at me all happy waiting for her bone wondering why nothing is happening. I correct myself and say "sit" Plop she goes and gets her bone.

Haha, I have a hard time remembering to use English commands with friends dogs. I use Dutch and it's just second nature now.

Couche' (sp?) probably didn't word either?
There was a huge problem at my house when I had German speaking shepherds, French speaking Beauceron, and English speaking everything else! Some cross language understanding usually happened when I'd start swearing.

whaha, same here! Dutchie training in Germany where we live now, I use all Dutch commands, except for the things I firt learned in Germany, like the barking at the helper "voran" (find and bark) in German, and than "stellen!" (get him!) in Dutch

my daugher is always trying to tell my parents Basset to Couche, she gets soooooooo mad when she dosnt. she comes running "MOMMY !!! Sootie wont couche !!!" we just laugh.

HA right Chris, I didnt get to couche yet with Bella, or apport but that will come

Just out of curiosity why do so many people use their non-native language to train their dog? I know some people with multiple dogs use different languages for each dog so the dog knows which one is being addressed but I'm sure that isn't the only reason.

For me it happened that my first dog was older and he came trained in Dutch. Though, he pretended not to know anything for the first couple of weeks til we got to know each other.

Then, when I got my second dog, it was just less confusing for me to use all the same commands.

So, when I say, Af Liggen, all my dogs drop to the floor.

The breeder of my malinois used French commands. He did a lot of French Ring Sport.

My non english speaking dogs also came as imports, already knowing the basic commands. Eventually everyone came to understand english as their second language.

same here, Both of mine came from France already trained with French so I just kept using it. Now only down, sit, stay, heal are in french, the rest is just "HEY". I taught Sadie in french for the same reason Chris and Carol, its just easier to say "Couche" and both down.

Of course, they all know English, like:

Time to get ready for work.

Who wants to go for a ride.

Dinner time!

LOL!

I use "S" at the end of everything and it works really well. "Sits" "comes!" "Downsszzsss" Dragging the S seems to work really well. I find that it gets their attention a lot better. Try it, just drag the "S" like a snake ssssssssssssssssss

lol too funny.. I just got a mal who "speaks" German. I had him out and was focusing on using the German commands (which I had to think about a bit at first), then I took Ripp out and my head was a mess. I told her Fuss! started walking, she followed in heel but had this weird look on her face that' when I clued in, later I tried telling her to platz! she just stared at me for that one. It was Sunday morning too and I don't think the coffee fully kicked in.. I had to take a minute and say all the French commands to myself and restart.

Haus is only English as he was my first dog, when we were doing Sch I considered switching him but figured it would just be a waste of time. Ripp knows French as we're training for FR.. it just seems to make it easier when every one training on the field is using the same language.. plus I just thought it sounds cool :p I have yelled at Haus before "out" while his command is "drop", gets annoying when you're giving a command because you need your dog to listen now.

Thalie is funny, I really dont need to "talk" to her. She knows that Sunday mornings are ride days so she is happy right away, she knows my bike gear and starts jumping like a puppy. Walking to the door means "we get to go outside" . Car keys jingle " we get to go for a ride" . Sadie, right now, just knows that any movement means " what are we doing ??"