Teach Your Dog To Speak English

It's useful to teach your dog that certain words mean do a certain behaviour. Remember, your dog doesn't speak English, they are just pairing a certain sound with an action, such as "Sit" = put your bottom on the floor. The words you use can be anything you wish. To ensure your dog learns their commands correctly it's important to teach it properly. Here you can read our tips on doing this correctly!

Additional and more in-depth training advise is taught in our Obedience classes. To learn more and book on visit our website here!

Simple & Clear

• Decide on a command and keep it the same. 
• Use a different command for different behaviours.
• Ensure that everyone who interacts with your dog uses the same command, you could write out a doggie dictionary and put on your fridge.
• Try to use one word only or two at most for each behaviour.

Doggie Dictionary Example

Command.     Action.

Sit                    Bottom on floor

Down               Belly on floor
Off                   Get off the sofa/bed
Paw                  Put your paw in my open hand
High five         Touch your paw to my open         palm held high
Left                  Spin in a 360 circle to the left
Tunnel             Go through the tunnel
OK                   Release from a still position, e.g. from a wait

Teaching the English words
We teach our dogs new tricks by guiding them into a behaviour and rewarding, or just rewarding the behaviour when it is being displayed naturally.

To add the English word (the command or cue) that you wish to pair with this behaviour then firstly say the command at the same time as rewarding the dog.
You should only say the command while the dog is performing the behaviour, so that they associate the word with the behaviour they are doing.
Once you have repeated this a few times then start to say the command just before you give the reward.
When your dog is happily repeating the behaviour, hold the reward in your hand and ensure you have your dogs attention, and then say the command without guiding the dog into the behaviour. Wait to see if your dog performs the correct behaviour, and if they do then reward them generously.  If the dog does not perform the correct behaviour then go back a step, guide them into the correct behaviour and then reward and say the command at the same time.

Example - Teaching the dog to "Sit"
Hold a treat in your hand and guide it toward and above your dogs nose so that they tilt their head up. When their bottom touches the floor immediately say "Sit" and reward your dog.
Repeat this a number of times.
Once your dog is quickly sitting each time, hold the treat in your hand close to your body and ask your dog to "Sit". Reward generously when the dog sits.

Remember! Dog's can hear a lot better than we can... you don't need to repeat yourself and you don't need to shout.