# Life Saving Emergency Commands?



## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

So, last night around midnight, I took Noelle out to potty like we always do. I had her on a leash so she could just do her business and come back in the house. We go out front at night because it's dark in my backyard and there are coyotes. Last night we were walking down the sidewalk out front and whamo! Noelle bolted after some kind of fast moving wild animal. The leash flew out of my hand. Noelle raced after the animal toward the street.

I yelled, "Noelle! Wait!"

Instantly, Noelle stopped chasing and froze in place. She stayed in place on the parkway under our tree until I got to her. Wait is a command that means don't move until you're told what to do next. I use it all day long. I had no idea saying wait would stop her while bolting after a wild animal, but I'm glad it worked. 

I know about emergency recall and emergency down. After last night's scare, I'm wondering if there are other emergency skills I need to train. Any ideas?


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Thanks for sharing Click! I haven't started any emergency commands with Luna yet, but I know that I need to soon! Are emergency commands different than the regular command? For example is the emergency come different than a regular come? Or is it just when you can 100% reliably use the word come to have your dog come to you, then you would be able to consider it an emergency come? 

Good girl Noelle! You are such an awesome poodle  And quick thinking Click-N-Treat! You are an awesome team!


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Wait! is my most used command, and the one I tend to use in an emergency. The dogs once dashed out of the gate and across a busy road in the dark - when I eventually found them I was very grateful they'd had the good sense to ignore my shouts of Come! and stay safely under the hedge on the far side of the road. Since then they also know Cars - Dangerous! which has Sophy looking around for the nearest safe place off the road and Poppy climbing up me into the safety of my arms. For us the big advantage of Wait! is that it works well both for Sophy, who always likes a bit of a think before deciding whether what she is being asked to do is sensible or not, and for Poppy, who is much more amenable.


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

Generally I don't use "Come", I use their name in a high pitched voice to get the girls to come from where ever so "BEA" or "PEEE". Also "STOP" means immediately stop what you are doing and hold position no matter what, and most important is "DROP IT" because my mom, god rest her soul, would occasionally drop pills.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Emergency commands are said in a more freaked out pitch, so, it's important to train sounding freaked out. There's a difference between, Noelle, wait, and NOELLE, WAIT! So, I train for both. My cues are the same, but my tone of voice is most definitely not the same. 

The thing I have trained myself is not to yell is NO! Because the word no has no meaning attached to it. If Noelle was sprinting after an animal, toward the street, and I yelled, NO, she'd have kept going. How does a dog do a no? Wait means do a specific thing: halt in place. Halt in place was what I needed her to do, and thankfully she did. 

FJM, I like CARS. That's a good warning.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Twyla,

Drop it! good one. And Leave it! Also good emergency cues. I dropped a chemotherapy pill on the floor in front of Francis. Leave it! Kept her from, gasp, eating it. Pills are scary, aren't they? Thanks for the reminder. I like Stop! That's a good one, too.

So far, our emergency cues are:
Dog's name in loud/high pitch
Come!
Drop it!
Leave it!
Wait!
Cars!
Stop!


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## twyla (Apr 28, 2010)

Click-N-Treat, pills are scary, mom was on heart meds, pain meds etc. I also trade out for treats for pills, dead mice and in Pia's case pooh,


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Click, that was scary - and I'm glad you brought up this topic. I'm petrified of something like this happened to Babykins.

I also never thought to train with a panicked voice for a situation like this - but obviously it makes sense to do so. 

We have a "leave it" command that is practiced often outside and occasionally inside. We have Obedience/Rally commands for "stay" which she is really good at, but I'm not sure if it would work like yours did in an emergency. We also have a "wait" for when she is in the car and wants to jump out - she has remain in the car until I give her the release word "okay" before she can jump out. Maybe the "wait" is a good command for emergencies because I'm already using it to stop her from doing something (jumping out of the car) that she wants to do. The "stay" for Obedience /Rally is used under very controlled environment, inside where she has learned to behave a certain way (no zooming, we need to heel and follow mom's instructions etc.).

One of my obedience trainers recommended calling "come" every few days, randomly - and always have a really good treat. And when you call "come" (you call it just once) - go hide in the house - bend down behind the bed or go to the basement near the furnace, or into rooms you rarely go. You'll notice that often your dog will have a hard time to find you because your voice may be echoing around oddly or coming from unusual location. When you hear your dog come close, you might hear them walking the wrong direction as they are confused - so you call "come" again as necessary to help redirect them to you. This is in case there is a fire in your house, you can call your dog and have them come to anywhere because they are used to searching you out in odd places.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Yes, the panicky terrified voice is important to practice because our dogs may only have one chance to obey and survive. If your dog is running toward a truck, your voice is not going to sound the same as it does in a training ring, or practicing in your back yard. That frantic, hysterical, sound must be trained.

Put some drama in your voice once a week, pretend your dog is running toward a rattlesnake, and shout Wait! Then reward like crazy. 

Hide and seek is a fun way to train out of sight recalls. Leave the dog in the kitchen, sneak off and hide somewhere, Come! Hiding in the bathtub is a favorite of mine. Oh, you found me, clever dog.

I learned with my husky mix that when she was bolting she wasn't going to Come! That word lost all meaning when Honey was running. Wait! was far safer, because she would wait, down at a distance and stay. In an emergency, as I found out last night, I'm far more likely to want my dog to halt in place and wait for me, rather than turn around and come back.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

That was scary but a great example of how important ongoing training is. It also illustrates how important it is to use different tones of voice, different places, different background noise, different lighting, different, different, different everything...........

I don't particularly have a set of orders for casual vs. emergency situations, but as Click-N-Treat said different tones of voice for the same words to convey different meanings. Do this please, I would strongly prefer it. You Must Do This Now. *DO THIS NOW OR ONE OF US IS GOING TO DIE!!!!!!! *You all can read the meaning in my typing: Polite, firm and crazy person screaming.

I highly recommend an emergency down or wait (if it means freeze until you hear from me again) instead of a recall.

Practice all scenarios frequently and pay well for the best responses always, but only for the best responses. Okay recalls = one cookie; brilliant speedy recalls with a sit when they get to you = five to ten cookies.


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## Markbthompson (May 24, 2012)

Click-N-Treat said:


> Emergency commands are said in a more freaked out pitch, so, it's important to train sounding freaked out. There's a difference between, Noelle, wait, and NOELLE, WAIT! So, I train for both. My cues are the same, but my tone of voice is most definitely not the same.
> 
> The thing I have trained myself is not to yell is NO! Because the word no has no meaning attached to it. If Noelle was sprinting after an animal, toward the street, and I yelled, NO, she'd have kept going. How does a dog do a no? Wait means do a specific thing: halt in place. Halt in place was what I needed her to do, and thankfully she did.
> 
> FJM, I like CARS. That's a good warning.




Good point and good job! My go to is Tropken, drop in German, and it is usually effective but Hope has a high prey drive and those pesky squirrels are just too tempting. I've had to pluck her off a huge tree in my front yard she was climbing before. Ever see a 55 pound dog shimming 4-5 feet up a large tree while a squirrel was slinging nuts at her? I was glad I had her on a 30 foot lead that day.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Markbthompson said:


> Good point and good job! My go to is Tropken, drop in German, and it is usually effective but Hope has a high prey drive and those pesky squirrels are just too tempting. I've had to pluck her off a huge tree in my front yard she was climbing before. Ever see a 55 pound dog shimming 4-5 feet up a large tree while a squirrel was slinging nuts at her? I was glad I had her on a 30 foot lead that day.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


haha, that’s something I think my Babykins would do. Wish you had a video, that must have been so funny to watch although you were probably a little annoyed too.


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## Mufar42 (Jan 1, 2017)

Good job and good Noelle for being such a good listener. I use NO and my dogs stop whatever and freeze, and they also know Leave It. That comes in handy in many situations. We used it also when teaching the dog to leave the cats alone.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I too, use tone of voice to get across to Molly my commands. "Wait" said in in deeper sharper tone means stop whatever you are doing NOW! "Waaaait" in a normal but drawn out way means slow down Molly you are going too fast. My absolute "STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND FREEZE" is a very loud, deep, I mean business voice, "MOLLY! NO!" I've heard it said you shouldn't use the word 'no', but it is not a word I use unless it is used as a disapproval cue, and I don't have to use it very often anymore now that she is older. Just the tone of my voice and to some degree my facial expression and body movements pretty much gets what I want from her now!


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

If you've trained Molly that no means something, which clearly for Molly it means, 
stop doing the thing you are doing, by all means use no.

I don't say no very often. It has no meaning for Noelle. Do this, do that, is pretty much how I train. By yelling, WAIT! it meant halt and freeze. Which she did. 

I can't picture sweet Molly being bad, though. I don't believe that is possible. She's an angel in a dog suit, right?


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## LizzysMom (Sep 27, 2016)

Click-N-Treat said:


> I can't picture sweet Molly being bad, though. I don't believe that is possible. She's an angel in a dog suit, right?


^^What she said!^^ 

Also, "Good girl, Noelle!!"


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Click-N-Treat said:


> If you've trained Molly that no means something, which clearly for Molly it means,
> stop doing the thing you are doing, by all means use no.
> 
> I don't say no very often. It has no meaning for Noelle. Do this, do that, is pretty much how I train. By yelling, WAIT! it meant halt and freeze. Which she did.
> ...


Thank You for the sweet compliment but it is all 'Molly'! I've had dogs in my life since I was a baby and I can honestly say only one other dog in my life has had what I call 'humaness'(a black lab named Jay) My family refer to her as a 'human disguised in a fur coat' ..........raising her to adulthood was no work at all..........a little time/effort went a looooong way with this girl LOL!

P.S. I truly believe Noelle is your little human in a fur coat too.......she tries so hard to give you what you ask for!


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