Teach Your Dog English

One of the chief mistakes that the dog owner without a lot of dog training experience will make is losing patience with a dog that doesn't understand the language you're speaking. We sometimes forget that most of what we say sounds like gibberish to the dog, except perhaps for its name and a few select commands. If you want to increase your dog's obedience and help it understand what you're communicating, you're actually going to have to teach it English - at least, a few English words.

In order for your dog to properly "understand" a word, it actually has to make a simple association. Most dogs understand basic commands like "sit" simply because the association between the sound "sit" and the act of sitting is constantly thrust upon them by pushy owners. You can't expect a dog to totally understand what "sit" means, but simply to respond to a command by producing an associated behavior.

If you want your dog to respond to your English commands, you're going to have to choose a few select words carefully. Why? Because there is plenty of work involved in getting each word into the dog's brain; you can't simply take a day and expect that a dog will get the new word. Instead, you'll have to focus on several English commands that you can teach your dog over time, persistently and consistently training them to better understand what those words are.

Remember to say a word and to reinforce the behavior through a treat after the word has been acted out. For example, don't hold up a treat and say "come" expecting the dog to pick up it. Instead, wait for your dog to "come," and then repeat the word and give it a treat. Once it realizes that this "come" sound simply means to come near you and perhaps receive a treat, it will gladly start to listen to your command.

With that in mind, here are some great words you can start with:

• The dog's name (most dogs pick up on this anyway since it is so consistently used)
• "Sit"
• "Come"
• "Heel" or "Down"
• "Outside" (for using the bathroom successfully outdoors)
• "Wash" or "Tub" (for getting in the tub)

Notice that nearly all of these words are monosyllabic and easy to speak. Don't ask your dog to do too much thinking; make sure you choose short words with distinctive sounds.

If you take responsibility for teaching your dog how to respond to certain commands, you take the burden off of the dog, who might want to understand what you're saying but simply can't will that to be the case. The more you reinforce a word to a dog, the better it will understand.

Photo Credits: Elsie esq.

This post involves:

brain, dog owner, Dog Training, dogs, gibberish, obedience, patience

... and focuses on:

Dog Training, Tips for Dog Owners

Posted by Dog Training Pet on August 10, 2010 in Dog Training, Tips for Dog Owners. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.