release command

Hi Zoey-this is my first use of the forum(and I hope the beginning of great interactions with other dog owners!) I have a beautiful female GSD who is about to become 3 years old and very pampered by my husband-leading me to lack on her training a "tad"! But one bit of advice I have always found useful is to use one word commands-no matter what we are trying to train. Imagine being told to sit-then told to sit down then told down!?! Come on dogs are not humans-every SINGLE word has a lot of meaning,when they get it! I found picking the correct word for the desired effect really works after some repetition-of course! One exception,of course there has to be at least one for me is "leave it"- basically this refers to many things including the tennis ball or the cat! I have found that once she understood "leave it" means ANYTHING it has worked wonders! I am blessed with a "good girl" all in all but she has issues with fear! Believe it or not all 115 pounds of gorgeous GSD is #1 Afraid of the dark #2 ALL bark-then she backs up-needless to say she has confidence issues I would like to address! I hope we can become friends and help each other,as I said this is my first attempt at using the forum I have a lot to learn before I can help anyone else-if anyone has advice for me I sincerely would appreciate EVERY single word!

Hi angelowner25,

I agree with you on simple commands are best.

However, one word vs two words commands don't make any sense to dogs They don't spell words so they don't care if a command is a one word command (i.e., Come) or two words command (i.e., Leave it). All matters to them is the sound and your tone of voice

In fact, my dogs know most of basic commands in English and Japanese. Furthermore, when I want my dogs to "come" to me, I can use several different commands in English to get the action; "Come", "Come here", "Over here", "Inside" (as I am standing at the doorway), "Right here" (as I pointing out a spot right by me), "Finish" (to have my dogs right left side of me for the heel position), "Going home" (at the dog park when we are ready to leave", etc. Dogs can learn and associate those words with a certain action/behavior.

What we need to be careful is "using the same word expecting different behaviors". In other words, a command always shoud be used for a certain action. For example, a "Down" command is to make your dog to a "down" position. Don't use the word when you want your dog to get off the couch, or get off from you or the kitchen counter when he is jumping at you or at the counter. Another example is "Come" command. "Come" means that your dog needs to move himself to where you are. Therefore, you should not use "Come" when you want your dog to come along with you or start walking with you. These are very confusing to dogs to us as well

I hope the above makes sense to you