Semantics; Another Piece of the Equation

What's in a word? Well, that depends on who you ask I suppose. To your dog, a word equals something you want to express to him. Variable synapses, or events, take place after the word is processed. If it is a command – and if you've done some training, we hope for the corresponding action, i.e. "sit" would elicit a sit. It is a long accepted caveat that shorter phrases work best. You don't want to say, "put your bottom on the ground"…"sit" is much quicker, easier to communicate, and less likely to lose something in the translation. Translation? Yep – your dog doesn't understand English and communicate with it. Dogs communicate with body language first and sounds second. But, back to saying what you mean. You have to treat your dog like an alien that only knows a different language and that means teaching what words mean and sticking to the same explanations consistently.

When you are teaching commands, you are usually focused and saying what you want the dog to hear and learn. When you are frustrated, often you will say "down" when your dog jumps on you. Hmmm, what is the problem there? The problem is that "down" equals lying down on the ground; the appropriate response should be "off". Off would mean anything that involves your dog removing themselves off of something, i.e. off the couch, off my toes, off the bed, etc. You wouldn't tell the dog to down the couch – what, mom, you mean you want me to lie down on the couch? OK!

With that said, you can make words mean whatever you want them to mean to your dog. Maybe "purple" means to get off? As long as every time you command "purple", you really want the dog to get off of something, then that is perfectly fine. Whoever is commanding the dog to do things needs to have all of the same commands and follow what they mean or you will have one confused pooch. I feel there are a lot of training errors that can be corrected by understanding what you want the dog to do and completely explaining the process….and sticking with the same words and processes continuously.

Perhaps it would be helpful to make a list of functional commands to teach your dog and have the whole family agree on which words to use? With everybody on the same page, there is less likelihood for miscommunication.

Brief list of common commands and meanings:

Sit	Put the rear hindquarters on the ground.
Down	To put the whole body onto the ground and lie on the stomach.
Stand	To have all 4 paws on the ground and hold still in a standing position.
Stay	Freeze! Whatever position last used is in play here.
Here	Come here, to me.
Heel	To walk in line with my body- to the side, keeping pace.
Out	To drop whatever is in the mouth OR to get out of a room – see the confusion?? We use "get!" to tell a dog to get out of a room and "out" to let go of something/drop it.
Off	Discussed above; to remove the body from something.
Back	Used to tell the dog to get back or back-up.
Bring	We use this word instead of fetch.

 

Get creative! We have lots of other words that we use – "climb", "foy" (no), "wait", "find", and many more. The key is finding out what works for you and your dog and sticking to it. Best of luck!