# Differentiation between sides?



## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

I use two different words for such things.

Many Agility people teach their dogs the terms "Left" and "Right" for turns. For these, I do work on them more or less simultaneously, consistently getting a turn in the appropriate direction before adding the cue. (With plenty of "Go" for running straight out so as not to teach a curved go out, of course.) I think it would be the same for paw tricks. I've also taught "Spin" and "Twirl" for counter-clockwise and clockwise turns. The hardest part with all these directional commands is for ME to be cognizant of which way we're going or which paw he's using!

I use "Close" for right-side heeling and "Heel" for left. For now these are accompanied by a pat to the appropriate thigh, but eventually he'll be able to come to the correct side with a verbal alone.

--Q


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

That's what I was thinking. I use "spin" and "twirl" as well, and for pivoting, I use "pivot" and "counter", so I was leaning toward two different words. 

An acquaintance of mine has a border collie who knows "wave" and "paw" and "cross". Her automatic is right paw, but when the handler says "switch" she will change to using the other paw for all of those commands. I'm thinking this would be much more complicated to teach, though. 

I also thought about trying to teach Sookie the same word, but with different hand signals. For example, when I offer my right hand and say "paw", she offers her right paw, and when I offer my left hand and say "paw" she offers her left, but this seems like it could confuse her, and make it difficult for her to learn the basic concept, which is to offer the paw.

And I absolutely agree with it being most difficult to keep them straight in my own head! I always have to stop and think about which way I'm asking her to go!


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## CT Girl (Nov 17, 2010)

I use "heel" for left and "side" the right. I also use switch for changing direction with spin or giving a different paw. Swizzle seem to pick it up reasonalbly fast. I did help the "heel" and "side"command with a knee slap.


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## outwest (May 1, 2011)

I use wave to wave hello, shake for the right paw and 'other' for the left. It doesn't matter what words you use, but they should be different. You can also use different hand signals. For me I use palm up for shake, palm down for the other paw and I flap my hand in a hello wave for waving. I haven't taught her to cross her legs. 

I should teach to heel on either side now that you mention it. Both Bonnie and Echo heel on the left and when I walk them both they are both of the left. If I teach Jazz to heel on the left and try to walk all three myself (yikes), I would have them all lined up over there!


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## BorderKelpie (Dec 3, 2011)

I have also had to switch words for the sides I want them to walk on. Since I do herdng (with my other dogs, not the poodles, yet lol) I need to be able to tell them which direction I mean. The only problem I have is remembering that their left and right is THEIR left or right. When they are facing away from me, I sometimes forget that I now need a right instead of a left. I have gotten some strange looks from my herding dogs in the past. lol

Did you know a sheltie can roll their eyes at you when you tell them the wrong direction? lol Thank dog, my Kelpies are much more willing to let little oopsies pass with out the sarcasm the shelties had.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

outwest said:


> I should teach to heel on either side now that you mention it. Both Bonnie and Echo heel on the left and when I walk them both they are both of the left. If I teach Jazz to heel on the left and try to walk all three myself (yikes), I would have them all lined up over there!


LOL I'm having fun picturing that in my head. Actually, all of mine (Sookie, Nova, and Juniper the lab) have been taught to seek out my left side when we are walking. Juniper gets SO confused when we try to make him walk on the right, to the point of being nervous (he's sensitive) so he always gets to walk on the left. Nova will heel on the right, but doesn't like too. Still working on Sookie heeling at all lol. 



BorderKelpie said:


> Did you know a sheltie can roll their eyes at you when you tell them the wrong direction? lol Thank dog, my Kelpies are much more willing to let little oopsies pass with out the sarcasm the shelties had.


That's bizarre! So funny. 

I've decided that I *think* I'm going to attempt the paw-using commands ("hey" for waving, "paw" for given a paw, "cross" for crossing the paws) that I'm working on with one word commands and use hand signals to differentiate, possibly also using "switch" to differentiate. She may not be bright enough to pick up on it this way, but I'm going to try it and see what happens. She's pretty darn smart so she may surprise me. And if it doesn't work, I can always fall back on teaching different words for each paw.


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## tortoise (Feb 5, 2012)

Body language / hand signals are easier for dogs to differentiate. However, as long as you have your cues straight in your head and use them consistently, your dog shouldn't have problems. Plus you can add a lot of cues to any behavior so you can change your mind later!

I've used hand signals with this puppy. If my palm is up it's high-5 or wave (I'll separate these someday) and if my hand is outwards it's shake. You can also use marching cues. At heel or facing your dog, you can teach your dog to lift its paws when you lift your feet. 

This is an awesome how-to video and examples at the end: 




It's fun to use words that are incorporated into phrases. For "shake" or wave you could use "Be polite! Say hello" or something silly like that. For "cross" you can say (in a mock horrified voice) "Be a lady!"

Tricks are all about how you set them up. Simply changing the word you use as the cue can make a common trick funny and special.


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## Sookster (Apr 11, 2011)

tortoise said:


> Body language / hand signals are easier for dogs to differentiate. However, as long as you have your cues straight in your head and use them consistently, your dog shouldn't have problems. Plus you can add a lot of cues to any behavior so you can change your mind later!
> 
> I've used hand signals with this puppy. If my palm is up it's high-5 or wave (I'll separate these someday) and if my hand is outwards it's shake. You can also use marching cues. At heel or facing your dog, you can teach your dog to lift its paws when you lift your feet.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the video! And the tips. For two years, she's been strongly discouraged (and probably severely reprimanded at guide dog school) for pawing or using her paws for things, so I've been working on building that response since I got her back. It's going more slowly than it did with Nova for that reason, but Sookie loves to learn so we are overcoming it. Marching is definitely going to be our next "paw" trick, after we get these basics down. 

I love making silly phrases out of tricks. Nova's waving trick is "Hey girl!", crawling is "sneaky sneaky", and playing dead is ... wait for it... "would you rather be a Florida gator or a dead Dawg?" and you can all guess what her response is. The actual cue for that command is "dead dog". I LOVE "be a lady" and may be using that one in the near future. 

I also want to do "naughty" and have her cover her face with her paw. I'm hoping I can get her to pick this out of a sentence.


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

tortoise said:


> Tricks are all about how you set them up. Simply changing the word you use as the cue can make a common trick funny and special.


Ya it's fun. I had a buddy once with a big bully breed. He would say to Champ... "what would ya rather be bud??? Married or dead..."

At which point Champ would roll over and play dead.


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