Dutch Shepherd Forum

For all of your dogs? Stella came to us responding only to German we have been able to mostly change her over to English with the exception of "platz" she just won't do "down"

So should Nico have the same set of commands as Stella? He doesn't know ANY we're working on sit.... It's going going to take him a while.... I even have Stella do it a bunch of times in front of him hoping it will rub off but honestly he's just not that excited about cheese or food in general.

A. Yes. I use the same commands for all three dogs. It's less confusing for me and if I need everyone to sit or down I only want to have to say one word. You can condition your dogs to respond to their name and then a command. For instance, I can tell Baby Ruth to sit and Tyson to down. It just takes some time and conditioning.
B. Didn't you just bring Nico home? Give him some time to settle in. Just focus on the basics for now...consistency and boundaries. You may not see the real "him" for several weeks. He may surprise you.

Yes we did just bring him home. With Stella she needed adjustment time.... she was shy... timid.... and very unsure of her boundaries. It's like she was afraid to do anything... she's very well adjusted now.

Nico is a totally different story he's been I'm rescues and fosters his entire life and its made him incredibly social and very confident. He's like a little bull in a china shop... sweet as can be knows no strangers.... so I'm starting now with daily obedience work.... nothing major.... I just hold a treat in my hand let him lick at my hand and as soon as he sits I release treat and say "sit"

Every time he comes when I say Nico here he gets a treat too.... a good recall is so important to me. I'll never forget the time Stella went through (literally rammed through) the gate of or chain link fence busting off the latch while chasing a rabbit.... it was scary I thought for sure she's get hit by a car.... we live on a very busy street.... so we spent the next couple weeks perfecting her recall.... she caught on so fast.... You guys know what I mean she's just one of those loves to please ill do anything for my ball or some cheese kind of dogs.... Nico is such a puppy still.... I guess when y'all say no two dogs are a like its really true.... what an adventure this will be!

I'd say most of the commands are fairly the same. Since Odin and Elli are both rescues, they came with words they know and I've stuck with some of them to make things easier on myself. Elli came to me knowing French, and Odin knows English and German commands, but around the house, commands are given out more through body language than anything. Probably 99% of the time I want them to do the same thing i.e. get ready for dinner, sit for the leash, get off the bed, stop wrestling, etc. It only makes sense that they know the same words or signals so that it's one command and done.

I've run into a little trouble with training them both myself at the same time. I like to use Elli's heeling work as Odin's stay distraction, but they have the same release word right now and Odin will release while I'm rewarding Elli. I either need to change that up or plan their releases at the same time or just stop working them together.

LyonsFamily wrote:I've run into a little trouble with training them both myself at the same time. I like to use Elli's heeling work as Odin's stay distraction, but they have the same release word right now and Odin will release while I'm rewarding Elli. I either need to change that up or plan their releases at the same time or just stop working them together.

Stefanie -
I have run in to this a bit, too, but Odin (and Elli) will get it. If I have Tyson in a down-stay and am working with Baby Ruth, he has learned that unless I say "Tyson, here," he has to remain down. I practiced this inside first using base (place). All dogs on base, then release one at a time using their name, then command. (Baby Ruth only gets it right half the time, but she's just a crazy schnauzer ) You will be able to condition this very easily since you already use body pressure. It will be a good mental test for Odin (and eventually Elli).

HE SAT ON COMMAND!!! TWICE!

this is a big deal because I was beginning to think he was a bit of a moron (adorable moron that is love to pieces anyway but I do love having a well trained dog) he's starting to follow Stella when I call them in from going potty too so I've been saying "dogs here"

Stella recalls to Stella, Here, or Stella here..... so should I say Nico here Stella here? I'm bit confused there.... but did I tell you he sat?!?!

katm4110 wrote:HE SAT ON COMMAND!!! TWICE! Stella recalls to Stella, Here, or Stella here..... so should I say Nico here Stella here? I'm bit confused there.... but did I tell you he sat?!?!

ROFL!!! HAPPY DANCE!!!

To answer your question: if it were me, I would say Stella, here - Nico, here, just so they can get used to you giving them commands with their names. That's just how I do it and it works well for me.

And YAY!!! HE.SAT.TWICE!!!

Yippee, he sat....TWICE!!

Hahaha I find it slightly embarrassing to be celebrating a sit command on a forum full of genius dogs but as my kids always say when one of the dogs does something weird or bad "it's because they're adopted" haha I'm trying to retrain them to refer to them as rescued but it's not sticking

katm4110 wrote:Hahaha I find it slightly embarrassing to be celebrating a sit command on a forum full of genius dogs but as my kids always say when one of the dogs does something weird or bad "it's because they're adopted" haha I'm trying to retrain them to refer to them as rescued but it's not sticking

Did you tell the kids you were gonna say they were adopted when THEY do something weird or bad?

Oh, and he sat twice on command!