Monday, April 13, 2009
List of Commands
What words you use for your commands, is not important. The consistency of the use of these words as commands is important. If you are planning on having your pup professionally trained or there is an outside chance of it, I suggest that early on you talk with the trainer you have chosen and find what words/commands that they use. This will make the training process go much better. A professional trainer is not going to use a different set of commands for every dog in training, he would forget which dog uses which word and end up getting himself and the dogs totally confused. Also, it will be a much easier transition from you to the trainer if the dog is being given the same set of commands: There is that consistency factor all over again.
Here is a list of commands and their definitions that we use here at Yocona River Boykins:
Whistle Commands:
You will notice that all these commands are one word commands with a couple of exceptions which are two word commands. Do not adlib by adding additional words or syllables to these commands. Remember, consistency. I suggest this list be printed and posted so everyone in the house can read over it and be very familiar with it, so not to confuse the pup.
Here is a list of commands and their definitions that we use here at Yocona River Boykins:
- Here – The recall command. To come all the way back to you. This can be given verbally, by whistle, and with hand signals. This is also the most important of all the obedience commands.
- Sit or Hup– To place your butt on the ground and leave it there until you are told to do otherwise. Sit is a semi permanent command. This means that pup can be recalled off of sit, but you must only do during certain training drills or if pups life is in jeopardy. Use caution, do not recall pup off of sit too often, this will lead to creeping, which leads to breaking. This command can be given by voice, hand signal, whistle, or silently. (Hup is derived from Britain where the most spaniels in the U.S. came from. Many spaniel owners here like using it, but it is all a personal choice)
- Stay – I do not teach this command, because I feel it to be redundant. Why add difficulty to the training process by attempting to add yet another word to the pups vocabulary. Sit taught by definition makes the command of stay and unnecessary step in the training process. For those that insist on teaching it, here is its’ definition: Stay – It is applied after the command of Sit is given and is a permanent command. A dog can never be recalled off of sit, regardless of the situation. Of all the professional trainers that I have seen that teach this command by definition, I have never seen a dog that understands the command to that degree. In other words, if they train with the command Stay, I bet that dog will recall off of stay because the dog understands recall far better than it does stay. If taught by definition, this command is only given as a verbal command.
- Heel – To walk or sit at your side, with the pups shoulder even with your leg. This command can be given by voice or hand signal.
- Place – The place command I usually give exclusively indoors. This is the command used to get onto their dog bed. If properly taught, it implies to remain on the dog bed without any other command given in sequence with it.
- Load Up – To get up onto something such as a stand, a platform, the tailgate of a truck (not recommended).
- Kennel Up – To get into something such as a crate, dog trailer, your car or truck, or an outside pen.
- Back – To turn 180 degrees and go back for a retrieve. This command can be given by voice, hand signal, or a combination of both.
- Get On – This is the use for left and right casting on blinds. It is given verbally in conjunction with a hand signal but can be given only with a hand signal.
- Hie Loss – This is a hunt dead command. Again, just like with Hup, it derived from Britain and is a personal choice. Optionally you can use hunt dead as the command.
- Dead Bird – This is not a command, rather it is a cue. Once a dog is capable of doing blind retrieves, it cues the dog that there is a bird down that he did not see fall. Dead – This is the release command. When pup is holding a bird or bumper, this command tells him to release it from his grasp to you.
- OK – This is a release command. Usually given to release the dog from sit at meal time or to release him to go back on the hunt after delivery of the previous bird.
- Look at Me – This is a term or command I use to get a dog to look at me or to focus on me. Very useful in the field on remote sit when the dog is turned looking in the direction he thinks the bird is. If dog is not looking at you, you cannot give him a cast.
Whistle Commands:
- Sit – One peep of the whistle. When pup is up close, a nice soft peep is most effective, save the hard long blast for when the pup is at a distance or when wind and other environmental noises could affect their ability to hear the whistle.
- Here – 3 or more peeps of the whistle in a fast repetition.
- To Change Direction – Two peeps of the whistle. This is used exclusively for quartering dogs in the upland field so they change direction and come back across the field.
- Hunt Back In – A slow repetition of single peeps combined with a hand signal that is patting down towards the ground. This is when a dog has gone by the downed bird, stopped with a remote sit whistle, and then used to get the dog to hunt back towards you.
You will notice that all these commands are one word commands with a couple of exceptions which are two word commands. Do not adlib by adding additional words or syllables to these commands. Remember, consistency. I suggest this list be printed and posted so everyone in the house can read over it and be very familiar with it, so not to confuse the pup.
# posted by Clay Black @ 7:21 AM 
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