Speaking A Different Language...

[Tokkie]

Hi, this might sound stupid...... but I have been wondering about this for some time.

I am getting a new puppy in 2 weeks and will be taking her to puppy preschool and basic obedient training (when she is a little older).

Now the problem, at our house we only speak Afrikaans.... but we will keep all her training commands in eng, even when we are at home and not at training school.

Will the fact that we speak Afrikaans at home but all her commands are in eng make it more difficult for her to learn if we decide to do more advance obedience training?

We have an almost 3 year old Jack Russell, (we adopted him from the RSPCA when he was a year old) at the beginning we did speak eng to him but now.... its just more natural for us to speak Afrikaans, we never use to speak eng before we came to Australia.

We did his basic obedience training and he seemed to be good at it.... he is very obedient, we only have to tell him something once and he listens.

Hope this is not a really stupid question??

Edit: Spelling....

Edited May 15, 2010 by Tokkie

[huski]

As long as you are consistent with her not at all IMO

I know people who have two different sets of commands, one in English and one in another language, one is used for home and one is used for training. It works well

[Seita]

what huski said. Pick any commands you like just keep them consistent and the same all the time. I'm one of these strange people who have 2 sets of commands in 2 different languages, the dog has no issues with it, it's more likely to be her owner who'll get confused!! When I was growing up we spoke Swiss German at home so the dogs all got taught with swiss commands. I think the only reason dogs would get confused is if you suddenly changed the command on them or mix the commands up regularly so they don't fully know what you want. Dogs don't understand words so it won't matter to your dog if you teach your dog to sit on the command sit, or sitz, or spazz, or goose, or honk etc etc! The dog simply learns that when you say a certain word it is expected to complete a certain task!

One day I'd love to train a dog with all kinds of weird words for its commands just for fun but I know I'll mix them up and the poor dog will be completely confused!!! :D But wouldn't it be funny to be at the park and calling your dog to come with some bizzarre command like "whoopie!?" LOL

[ness]

We were actually talking about this in the context of dances with dogs and attaching strange verbal cues to behaviors because apparently if you tell the dog sit or spin or roll over and the dog doesn't and does something else they are obliged to deduct marks - if however you told your dog bananas or apples they have no idea what the dog is suppose to do so you could get away with it.

[Mas1981]

I speak to our dog in English and train him in english but my husband speaks loads of Afrikaans to him too as it was his home language :D Cant say if he is confused or not as he is only in trialling classes now and I wont be ready to compete much before next year at the earliest.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

Mason's mum

I'm no expert but I suspect to the dog, you and your hubby speak a different language anyway, ie you can teach the dog "come" but your hubby will need to teach again for dog to recall to him. So if he uses a different word, it doesn't matter much.

The reading I've been going says clickers are good for training because they always sound the same. So when you say "Sit" when you're calm or excited or angry - it's going to sound like different commands to the dog anyway.

The other stuff I've learned is if you have (accidentally) taught the dog to avoid you when you ask it to return using the word "come", then changing your training technique and the recall word are both needed to sort the problem.

Your dog will figure it out. Be consistent with what you do and don't worry about what others are doing.

[m-j]

Will the fact that we speak Afrikaans at home but all her commands are in eng make it more difficult for her to learn if we decide to do more advance obedience training?

If you decide to do obedience trials you will need to give your commands in English.

From the dogs perspective all commands are just sounds regardless of what language they are, so if you are consistant like everyone has said no problems, except if someone else wants your dog to do something and they don't speak Affrikaans:laugh:

cheers

M-J

[huski]

Will the fact that we speak Afrikaans at home but all her commands are in eng make it more difficult for her to learn if we decide to do more advance obedience training?

If you decide to do obedience trials you will need to give your commands in English.

From the dogs perspective all commands are just sounds regardless of what language they are, so if you are consistant like everyone has said no problems, except if someone else wants your dog to do something and they don't speak Affrikaans:laugh:

cheers

M-J

You don't have to use English commands in obedience trials, you just need to ask the judge before hand if they mind if you use a different language. I've never heard of a judge saying no :D

[OSoSwift]

You don't have to use English commands in obedience trials, you just need to ask the judge before hand if they mind if you use a different language. I've never heard of a judge saying no

I have!!!!

I would use English for training/trialling as then if you do get a grumpy judge it wont matter :D

Edited May 15, 2010 by Rommi n Lewis

[huski]

You don't have to use English commands in obedience trials, you just need to ask the judge before hand if they mind if you use a different language. I've never heard of a judge saying no

I have!!!!

I would use English for training/trialling as then if you do get a grumpy judge it wont matter :D

Really?? That's terrible!

I know Seita uses German words for trialling and AFAIK she has never been told no.

[Sayreovi]

I've been wondering this myself, as I am learning another language at the moment and wondering if I retrain some parts could I have a better result with a different language. Interesting.

I know dogs don't understand words but rather the tone and pronounciation so another language for the same English word could possibly be better than retraining a command that may have a slightly negative connection?

Just thinking out loud about something I've wondered on the past few days, as when I mutter Swedish too my dogs they look at me with uncertainty as they don't know what I am "saying" rather than a "knowing" look.

Edited May 15, 2010 by tollersowned

[Tokkie]

As long as you are consistent with her not at all IMO

Huski, we try to be consistent...... but I must admit, because we have two sets of words for everything the kids sometimes forget to use the eng word, but I have seen Ringo respond correctly to the afr and eng words.

If you decide to do obedience trials you will need to give your commands in English.

M-J, that’s what I was wondering as I would love to do obedience trials in the future.

Masons mum, don’t you just love how the two languages are mixed... you should hear my kids, never mind the dog.

One day I'd love to train a dog with all kinds of weird words for its commands just for fun but I know I'll mix them up and the poor dog will be completely confused!!! But wouldn't it be funny to be at the park and calling your dog to come with some bizzarre command like "whoopie!?" LOL

Seita..... people stare at me all the time, even when I speak eng because of my strong accent.... I would love to be able to call my dog and sound just like all the other people in the park.

Thanks for the help everyone. :D

[Seita]

From my experience trialling I've never had a judge refuse to let me use my German commands. I did make sure that all my commands were nice and short so there was no way a judge could think I was saying more than one word. Most commands are one syllable except for my "over" command for directed jumping, to make it really clear to the judge that I'm only saying one word!

Taken direct from the obedience rule book: "All verbal commands must be in the English Language unless approved otherwise by the judge". So far no judge has refused me and if they did I'd simply withdraw and never enter under them again.

Tokkie - if Afrikans is what you speak at home why not just use that so your pup doesn't get confused with the kids saying commands in one language and you saying them in a different one! If you do want to go into competition later on you can always teach the dog the english commands then if you wanted to or do what I do and just make sure your commands are clear and short and get approval from a judge first. :D I use a different language for competition so that other people (mostly my hubby) can't devalue my competition commands by giving the dog commands and not ensuring the dog does it or not rewarding the dog for doing it.

[m-j]

QUOTE

You don't have to use English commands in obedience trials, you just need to ask the judge before hand if they mind if you use a different language. I've never heard of a judge saying no

I have!!!!

So have I thats why I mentioned it.

if I retrain some parts could I have a better result with a different language. Interesting

Apparently you can retrain something using another cue and fix the "bad bits". I have never done it but I can't see why it wouldn't be possible. Sue Hogben calls the old cue (the one with the bad bits) a poisoned cue.

cheers

M-J

[Mas1981]

Mason's mum

I'm no expert but I suspect to the dog, you and your hubby speak a different language anyway, ie you can teach the dog "come" but your hubby will need to teach again for dog to recall to him. So if he uses a different word, it doesn't matter much.

The reading I've been going says clickers are good for training because they always sound the same. So when you say "Sit" when you're calm or excited or angry - it's going to sound like different commands to the dog anyway.

The other stuff I've learned is if you have (accidentally) taught the dog to avoid you when you ask it to return using the word "come", then changing your training technique and the recall word are both needed to sort the problem.

Your dog will figure it out. Be consistent with what you do and don't worry about what others are doing.

Hubby doesnt train the dog so its not an issue, if he is walking the dog for eg and needs him to do something he will just ask him in English

[ness]

Putting a new cue on an old behavior is easy and mostly they pick up on it very quickly from my observation.

I have occasionally decided I'd attach a "funny" cue to an old behavior.

Edited May 16, 2010 by ness

[W Sibs]

My dogs understand some Vietnamese

They actually understand the word "cake" and "dinner" in english, vietnamese and cantonese.

[Esky the husky]

Have you considered using hand signals instead(or in addition to verbal cues)?

[m-j]

Putting a new cue on an old behavior is easy and mostly they pick up on it very quickly from my observation.

Did you change anything with the old cue? If so did you find it difficult because the dog went ohh this is like xxx and the bit you were trying eliminate/change was still there? If that makes sense

cheers

M-J

[Tokkie]

My dogs understand some Vietnamese

They actually understand the word "cake" and "dinner" in english, vietnamese and cantonese.

They sound like very clever dogs.....

Have you considered using hand signals instead(or in addition to verbal cues)?

That might work, I will look into it, thanks.....