I recently had a conversation with a friend about a gundog
training class she was attending with her dog. She was being corrected because
she wasn’t giving the ‘right’ commands. Her, and my opinion, is what does it
matter what word you use, as long as your dog understands what you are asking.
She felt to have to retrain her dog to the new words would be confusing. She
never intents to work her dog to the gun, the class is just to give her young
dog more focus and mental stimulation. My own dog has really bad associations
with traditional commands. In her previous situation she was obviously harshly
trained. The first time I asked her to sit to see if she knew the word, she ran
away from me and urinated herself. After much confidence building and patience
she is just now, a year and a half later, starting to really enjoy learning.
What I have done is take things really slowly and renamed commands. For example
I use ‘with me’ instead of heel. Some trainers will be fussy about using two
words. It really doesn’t matter; she knows what it means and heels beautifully.
Dogs are more than capably of understanding this.
What this highlighted to me is the inflexibility of some
trainers. If they can’t move on such a simple point, how can they be adaptable
to different dogs? Dogs like humans have different learning styles and speeds
of taking on information. Stress can block learning and everything should be
done to limit this. If the dog doesn’t understand what you are asking, a new
way of presenting the information should be sort. You may have to change the
environment you are training in or be creative, like using a prop to aid
understanding. Clicker trainers do this by using lures and target sticks. Other
trainers have been known to use a chair or their leg to lure a dog into a down.
You don’t even need words to train your dog. Think of all those deaf dogs who
understand just as many commands as dogs with perfect hearing. It’s just their
cue is a visual one not a spoken word.
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