# Alternatives to the current poisoned cues?



## sarahmurphy (Mar 22, 2012)

I've heard "drop" for down, and am looking for others - words that we who need the dog to obey know and that "Others" do not use... 

What do you use instead of the standards - sit, down, heel, stay, etc.?

sarah


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## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

I use hand signs a lot instead of words - mine are pretty subtle and/or particular so my dog doesn't respond when other people do it. Anoter thing to do is to "sing" the command to the dog, that is, to always use the same pitch. I have a good musical ear so this comes naturally for me. It makes positions exercises more clear for my dog. It also makes him unlikely to respond to any other person. Even if you're tone-deaf, you can pronounce your word a little differently to help your dog hear it. I use "out" from the german "ous" for a drop it command. But I say it "ouT" with emphasis on the T. My fiance says it in a normal tone and gets no response. My 5 year old son mimics the way I say it and gets the response.

My favorite down command word is "splat!" for a fast down where the dog practically falls to the ground (in excitement). 

I use the german "fuss" pronounced "foose" for heel often.

I rarely use a verbal stay command. My stay command is dropping the leash, or absence of another cue. (My sit means sit and stay until I tell you to do something else). But when I do use a stay command, the word "wait" comes naturally. 

Use whatever comes naturally to you. I know trainers that use hawaiian, dutch, german, french languages. I even know some that use nonsense words they've made up! As long as you remember it and its easy for your dog to differentiate commands, it doesn't matter.

Careful on similar sounding commands. I taught a dog "watch" instead of "look" and "platz" instead of "down". I got a lot of confusion until I retrained one with a different word.


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

I use mostly the typical words, but I've tried to be careful to not add a cue to the behavior until I really like its execution. 

The very first command Sugar was ever taught is his release word, "Break," and that's pretty much the foundation of everything else. Like tortoise, I don't have a stay command: the control position commands carry the stay inherently until the release is given.

A couple of cute ones: my husband uses, "Bang," for Down, and I use, "Beep, beep, beep," (like a truck backing up) for Back up.

--Q


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Lots of German Shepherd and other schutzhund people use german commands. Ian Dunbar also uses another language for his obedience commands (French I think). Although I haven't used another language I like the idea of it since the dog will never hear these words unless they are really supposed to do something right then.


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