How many commands do you use?

[Ron Ackerman]

I have a new pup that I will begin training soon. I started thinking just how many commands are necessary to teach to get the lad to perform the behaviors I will require of him. Of course there are the standard “No, Come, Sit, Down and Heel”. I always teach the “Stay”, however some trainers say it is unnecessary because Sit means Sit until another command is given. Any opinions on that? I use “Leave It” for food refusal, “Watch” to alert the dog, “Take Him” for an attack command and “Out” as a release command. Off the training field there are many commands such as “Truck” to get the lads loaded up, “Yard” to get them into the yard, “Go Home” to get them to the back door of the house and “Hungry?” to get them salivating at their eating places. Around the house I use “Look” to get them to go look out the windows and doors for trespassers and “Shake” to shake hands, their only Circus Dog trick. I have also taught them “Patrol”, from Magnum PI, so they will patrol the perimeter of my unfenced front yard and “Potty” when I think it’s time for them to go outside and relieve themselves. That’s eighteen commands already. How many commands can be learned and performed proficiently by a well trained dog. I forgot the “Up” to get on top of an obstacle and “Jump” which I use for hurdles and broad jumps, that’s twenty. Do most of you trainers use more or fewer commands? Give it some thought.

[eSPO]

Sit
Stay
Down
Here
Bring it
no
off
go see or whos here ?
watch
hit em
up
heel
Kennel
Shake
Go pee
jump
Ron ,mine are almost identical, I do believe a down or sit should not have to be followed by a stay. I never bothered with the german or dutch commands. I think they sound pretty cool. I like to keep the dogs "hit em " a quiet command. I learned this from my trainer, you can hardly hear it, if you thinlk about it there may be a good reason.

[josebrwn]

I've heard all kinds of estimates of the words a dog can learn, some really low like 60, and more reasonable estimates of 1000, and there was big news recently about a border collie who was shown to know more than a thousand, and could demonstrate understanding of sentences, like an ape, e.g. "put the bananas in the refrigerator".

my female, bessie, has a lot more commands than my male, brick, but I got him as an adult. I try to teach brick new things, like "back up" - one of bessie's favorite tricks - but he cannot learn it and it really frustrates her. she can't stand to see him not getting it and barks in frustration at him.

bess and I have a kind of private language. she can "roll over" and "speak" and knows "go running" and "hungry" and "dinner" and "you want an egg?" and "weight pull" and "don't bother getting up, I'm just going to the store, I'll be right back".

Brick's having trouble with that last one ;)

[RuthyC3P]

I've done a lot more training with Paylee but all our dogs know the basics.

sit,down,stay, kennel, stop it, no, bring it back, etc.

Paylee knows,
eat you food
drink your water
toto (potty)
desk (under desk while i'm working)
leave it/for anything she isn't suppose to get into
wait
stay
front (our personal trick)
come
go for ride
jump (in car)
look for Rachael (while we are in car)
watch it (looking out the window)

our favorite is....
Who let the dogs out...she says Ruff, Ruff, Ruff.. (Dave heard this one on the phone)

I also have done some signs with her basic commands so if we are doing something where I can't speak to her,(on the phone to a customer) I'll do the sign and she knows what she is suppose to do.

[Virtues]

My German Shepherd knows 96 commands in a total of three languages (English, German, and Spanish). This counts sit in English, sit in Spanish, and Sit in German as 3, but it's still pretty smart to me. My 7-month old Presa knows 18 so far. I've found that using a foreign language really pulls out the obedience when the dogs are distracted or you really need it. Through conversations, television, and phone calls, we teach the dog to ignore the English language. When my dogs here a command in a different language they really seem to "snap to".

[PresaRed]

I'm not sure how many commands Choque knows, but I know there is no STAY command. One of the first things my trainer went over with me is that when you give a command the dog should know that he is to follow that command until further instructed. Choque won't break a SIT or a DOWN until he gets a HEEL or a HERE..........at least that's what he's supposed to do ;)

Mark