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Does Your Dog Speak German?

Posted by Clare Bristow

When we choose words to use for our dog training commands, such as come, sit and heel, we'll invariably select words from our native language that mean what we are asking our dog to do.

From our point of view this is a logical approach. However, our dogs have no understanding of what the word actually means, they just learn to associate an action with a sound.

So why not teach your dog German, or French?

If your dog already understands and reliably responds to the training commands you currently use, then I don't recommend changing them as it will be confusing for your dog.

However, if you are just starting out with a new puppy, or you need to retrain a command then why not try a different language? You can use made up words, but the entertainment you get from calling out 'gazooba' or 'moooley' every time you want your dog to come might wear a bit thin after a while.

Here is an excellent resource for foreign language training commands - German, French, Czech and Dutch translations of common training commands are given. For most of the words there is a recording of the word being spoken by a native speaker so you can get the pronunciation right and the phonetic pronunciations are also shown.

How much nicer it sounds to tell your dog to 'coucher' (coo-shay) rather than 'down' or to 'los' rather than 'leave'.

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