I use “Where’s Mommy?” and my wife uses “Where’s Daddy?” This makes our golden retriever instantly excited with her “play face” on and she approaches the nearest male/female and tries to get friendly. I always whisper this when there’s a hot chick approaching.
“Who’s my friend?” means “give me a kiss.”
When my dog is ready to poop, I always give a long, drawn out “Ooh yeah, alright” ie. “OoooOoOOoOOooh Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaah, awwwwww riiiiiiite.” I’m hoping someday she links the sound together and poops on command.
I tell my Border Collie, Gus, to “Switch”. That means that he drops his rawhide bone and picks up the other ignored bone. That way my poor old deaf border collie Mickey can eat a bone that is already chewed and mushed up.
Mickey, when he used to be able to hear better, you tell him “not good enough” and he’ll bring the toy, ball whatever closer to you. It would start out 3 feet away, give the command and he’ll bring it closer.
To go the other way around a light pole, I say “go around.” It works about half the time.
We use “move” all the time. With 4 dogs it’s very useful.
“Git” means "get back over here, " or “Get in the house!” after going walkabout.
“It’s on TV” works well for the little yapper Bichon. I swear, that dog barks at air! I hate commercials that use doorbells. :mad:
“All gone” with both hands palms facing out means “I have no more treats for you - go away!”
Simone learned “go potty!” effortlessly. I started by just waiting until she did so naturally, and saying the command each time she did. Consistency is impoortant; I’d even say “Go potty!” if I was on my cell phone when she started to squat.
I’m not sure it’s a command, though – there’s been no punishment for not doing it and only the reward of an empty bladder. I am of the opinion it works through the power of suggestion – she’s so used to hearing it when she’s peeing, that it’s like describing a waterfall or gently lapping waves to a human who has to go really bad – it makes the urge overwhelming.
It’s been a very useful command to speed things up when she gets me up in the middle of the night.
My old pooch wasn’t a guard dog but he was - territorial? Until he was sure of you he would sort of hover and act almost guard-like; which made some people nervous. “Blue water” was the command for him to just relax, go do doggie-like things, and ignore the humans.
My elder cat has been taught “sit”, “stay”, “stand up”, “come”, and “go get ____”. She usually obeys. She also obeys the Russian word for “stop!” which makes her instantly drop what she’s doing and stand stock-still at attention. It’s really cute.
She also, amusingly, interprets “<other cat>, no!” as a cue to bop him on the head if we’re not within arms reach of him and he doesn’t obey.
My dogs know MOVE and potty, and recently we’ve learned “feets on floor” because Bear is a jumper when he gets excited. Also “wipe your feet” when they come in means run up and down on the towel laid out on the bathroom floor. I do sign language for “no more” and when they want to play with toys I put my hand out flat with the palm up then flip my fingers up–that means to put the toy in my hand or I won’t play. Bear does “get the kitty” whenever Pratchett gets noisy and he also responds to my “OW” when Captain gets bitey bitey by sticking his nose into the cat’s butt to interrupt him. Both dogs also know “sing a song” means to howl along with me and Widget actually tries to stay in tune and follow my vocalizations. Border collies, so obsessive. When we’re playing ball and Widget grabs it but Bear didn’t see him and is trying to find the ball he thinks is missing I tell him “Widget has it” and he stops. They also know if there are several humans taking turns throwing the ball to them they have to listen to “take it to So and So” depending on whose turn it is to throw. And Widget will watch my hands because I’ll point to the direction I’m planning on throwing the ball next so he can get a head start because Bear is lightning fast and can outrun Widget handily.
We used “hurry up” to housebreak our dogs. Both the dogs and the cat know “I have to go to work”. We use that whenever we are leaving the house. They all come running from wherever they are in the yard. Both dogs sit in the kitchen to get a dog treat, and the cat runs to her bowl for a little snack.
Yes, that is how the training is done - say it when they go, and they then associate the word with the command. Back when we raised dogs they didn’t use treats and definitely not any sort of punishment. Positive feedback was done by saying good dog. They’ve just started using food treats to make training go faster.
Heh, that’s one that Bear taught himself–he’s a lab/husky mix with a high prey drive and lightning quick but he gets into trouble when he chases cats. Having a legal excuse to harass Pratchett (when he yowls in the house) got him to thinking that perhaps there were other naughty cat behaviors he could regulate, and since he’s wise to the fact that cats are pointier when they’re looking at you I guess the whole thing just evolved rather seamlessly in his tiny little peanut brain! The expression on the Captain’s face as he goes from “RAAAWWWR, I AM POWERFUL AND ATTACKING YOU WITH MY MIGHTY BITEY BITIES” to “FUCK, WHAT’S UP MY ASS???” is totally hysterical.
“Quick like a bunny” is Stella’s cue to pee quickly. She just gets let out in the yard to do her thing. If I don’t say anything, she is free to roam around and take her time. If I send her out with the “quick like a bunny” command, she finds a spot quickly, does her business and comes right back to the door.
My brother and his wife use “Can I help you?” instead of sit. The dogs recognize sit, but they’ll sit faster if you say “Can I help you?” and the dog’s name.
I just remembered that I kind of accidentally trained Preston a new command to release the toy because when he would fail to do so at the expected time, I would say “Excuse me?” just out of habit, as though he understood I was expressing surprise that he had not instantly done what I wanted.
I’m going to use some of these… your dogs are funny!
Digger1914 just reminded me of “*I can’t reach it!” *for when he brings the ball for me to throw (again!) and drops it at my feet. He knows to pick it up and put it in my hand.
Also remembered another… When he’s muddy we do the “shake-a-paw” and then say" 'nother one" for his left front foot, and then “You have more feet than me” prompts him to walk between the wiper’s legs with his back half sticking out front. Then he lifts his back feet to be wiped.
Rolling on the floor because I made the mistake of trying to imagine a training regimen for this. . . :eek: