For well over a year, I've been teaching my GSD "gerade aus" which means 'straight ahead' in German.

I.E. the ball he can't find is straight ahead (of him) so I say "gerade aus" and point. Over time, I've increased the distance with this command and he seems to get it for the most part because it's very repetitive...always in my back yard, always with a ball, etc. When I say the command he tends to travel in a relatively straight line but will sort of wander a tad off that straight line as he's searching for the ball. His nose is to the ground the whole time.

Do you guys think he gets it in that I can expect him to be able to translate that into the concept that no matter where we are, if I say "gerade aus", he'd know to travel straight ahead? Or is his comprehension of this concept not possible for him and he's really reacting to the scent of something(the ball) or the gesture of my hand pointing in the direction I want him to go? I cannot for the life of me decide if he gets it or not! With "sit" or "stay" it's quite clear. Asking him to travel in a straight line, it's not so clear to me if he gets it .

My dog generalizes his "place command" as an area of ground which feels different than the regular ground. It can work on a manhole cover, a frisbee on the ground, an old license plate etc.

I can put two "places" on the ground, give the command, point, and he will go to the object to which I point.

Does that answer your question?

My dogs understand some pointing. For example, if I point to the ground in front of me, they know to come and stand there. Some times when I send Rusty to search for his ball in the woods, I try and use hand signals to direct him. Mostly, he just follows his nose, but I probably just don't know how to teach him.

Hi Steve,

Does it answer the question? I'm not sure. Is your dog trained to go to his "place" by seeing an object and then going to it? Is it the object that he's been taught to recognize as the place he stops and parks his butt? If so, then I'm going to say I don't think it answers my question. Why not? I'm guessing because an object is concrete...it's tangible, it's clearly different, as you put it, then the rest of the grass/carpet/asphalt around him making the distinction for him possible. In a way it's no different then telling him, "Go to your crate" which my dog understands quite clearly. It's an object to which he relates the word "crate".

Going in a specific direction, be it zig zag or straight ahead or in a circle is maybe more abstract to them. I'm sure I could teach my dog to zig zag between my legs or go in a circle but somehow there is a difference to me in telling him go straight ahead. The other two directions are really cute/fun commands. No different then telling him to dance and teach him some particular movement. But straight ahead? There's nothing at the other end. Even if there was a toy or treat, can he make the distinction between his walking "straight" toward the object as opposed to his getting to it by wandering/meandering 10 or 20' off to the right?

Good grief, am I making any sense ??

of course dogs understand commands for directions, Oxen learn direction commands, "GEEE" means go left, "HAWWW" means go right. Shepherds(people) tell thier dogs to move the FLOCK left or right, sled dogs I believe are directed left or right, Trick/dancing dogs are taught left and right spins

hi judy iuse alot of directions in my search dogs (especialy at the explosives ditection) my dogs know come' right' forwerd' up' down' and left.
and in the operational level my dogs reacat perfect to the commands actully they get it so good that you should becarfull not to direct to much or adog may loss hes independets in the search and just will wait to your orders.
you can see an litalle exemple in aclip ihave posted recently in the short bio section called alitlle clip of me and jagger you can specelly in the end at the fence crossing and in the reach road opening that icommand "kadima" (forwerd) and yemin (right in hebrew).
another point is acording to what the dog learn the directions: acording to himself or acording to the handler. in my case and in all the cases ihave seen the dog learnd the directions acording to the handler direction i.e when he face the handler and the handler say right the dog will move to the right of the handler and to the left of the dog. the up and down thouh are difrent the dog allways move to hes down and up ovcourse.
ihave met peapole that claims that they thouth the dog to move acording to hes self directions but never saw that in person.
sefi.s
israel

here is the link to my post with the link to the movie check the fence crossing and the r.r.o at the explosives part in the end.
take notice to the movment of the body which is very importent when you work at distance (you cant see me but the cammera moves with the body). http://www.leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=146&Number=125034&Searchpage=1&Main=13654&Words=&topic=1&Search=true#Post125034

 Quote: dennis jones

of course dogs understand commands for directions, Oxen learn direction commands, "GEEE" means go left, "HAWWW" means go right. Shepherds(people) tell thier dogs to move the FLOCK left or right, sled dogs I believe are directed left or right, Trick/dancing dogs are taught left and right spins

Yes, I get that and said as much in my other post...going in a circle, zig zag, reverse, etc. all is easy enough to teach. Right and left, same thing, easy.

Maybe I'm just being thickheaded or maybe I should have named my thread "Straight Ahead Mates" . Having said that, have any of you taught your dogs some version of "keep walking but walk in a straight line until I tell you to stop" kind of command without the aid of you (as in heeling) or the aid of pointing your finger or the aid of an object placed at a distance straight ahead of your dog?

Sefi, I did not get a chance to view your link so if you are someone whose done what I've just described on the video, didn't mean to ignore you. I just didn't get a chance to view it yet.

The Schutzhund send out is a straight run for a dog.
If you want to really see a straight send out with left right directions, go watch a Water Dog trial. A couple of hundred yards, straight, is no big deal.

i ithink now iget your question better.
think on the command as aregular obiedience command and the ball as atreat: you have first created the wanted behavior with the ball. than you hade thouth your dog that runing forward to the command means theres aball out there than you can gradually get
the treat off than you can move to another command in the end of forwerd command (like sit or down) and than treat the dog in thos stages the dog moving from running forwerd for the ball to runing forwerd for the command.after that stage you can corect if the dog dont responds after that stage iguess you can make it from forwerd and search ball to just forwerd with no search or search somthing else than ball if you want. if you train it in diffrent surroundings and with distractions ithink that your dog will obey any way and any place you will use the command.
ihope igot to the point now.