Hi. I am new here and do not have a dog yet. I've been looking at giant schnauzers and am looking for a decent one to purchase in the near future. My goals are not to create a champion, but to cultivate the dog to his highest potential....but none of this really has anything to do with my question.

I know that most people teach their dogs sit, stay, heel, down, come, etc...and literally use the same words. I wonder if my dog will or should respond to those commands when given by other people outside my family. I mean if someone were to come over to my house and see if the dog will sit, and gives the command, what is the ideal reaction of the dog if the intention is to have a protection dog? I've wondered if it is better to try to come up with other words for the commands or take a list of commands in another language so the dog does not feel compelled to submit to strangers or infrequent guests. I guess I'm getting the idea that the dog shouldn't respond to others from Ed's notion that other people don't pet his dogs (unless they are sharp as he describes).

thanks for any comments.

A lot of protection and working dogs have been taught their commands in another language...
German, Dutch, Russian, I know one guy that uses Italian

My .02 is worth is dog should be trained in different language. Anyone could walk up and give your dog a command, if they had bad intentions,,,,,if you use another language, he should not respond. I use Danish We all walk a fine line when trying to have a dog to protect us, and yet at the same time, be friendly to strangers. If you want true protection, I would follow Ed and not let anyone outside of family touch dog/ JMHO

A good protection dog is going to ignore commands from other people, period.

And as far as training a dog using a different language, ask yourself this - have I ever been in a stressful situation where my life was in eminent danger? And if so.....did I have the presence of mind to actually be able to remember commands in a foreign language?
I assure you, the answer will be "no" for almost everyone, so to rely on your ability to be able to give commands outside your mother tongue is not a smart move.

And as an FYI, many, if not most people freeze during their first severe life threatening encounter - I have seen this happen literally dozens of times in combat, and it resulted in more than a few deaths ( and these were with *highly* trained Special Ops soldiers - you just don't know how you're going to react the first time and no amount of training can usually overcome this - only experience does. )

Train in your own language!!

Just another 2 cents, not any real facts to back it up but if the dog has it in him to actually be a protection dog I doubt someone with bad intentions could give that dog any command that would matter.

Hey Will, you know more than me and you type faster!! LOL.

Edited by steve strom (05/10/2008 08:15 PM)
Edit reason: I type slow

I use a different language with my dogs because I don't want to confuse them when I'm yelling at my kids, I believe Will Rambeau was thinking about training his dogs in Klingon


Just saw Will R's post, I've been working my dogs for awhile now and am quite comfortable with using Germish with them, its become second nature

 Quote: Dennis Jones

I use a different language with my dogs because I don't want to confuse them when I'm yelling at my kids, I believe Will Rambeau was thinking about training his dogs in Klingon


Just saw Will R's post, I've been working my dogs for awhile now and am quite comfortable with using Germish with them, its become second nature

I also train with German, but I've been using it for 27 years now and I know that I can issue the correct command under great stress.
However, unless a prospective client has had multiple combat tours under their belt, I wouldn't encourage them to use an other language, believe me.


Dennis, I had to scrap the training in Kligon, the danger of having Star Trek geeks take over my dog at one of their sad conventions was just too great to risk......

Oh common thats just silly will. They wouldnt give commands it would all be telepathy. Mind control!

These are very interesting comments. I appreciate them. If I may develop the question a little further:

Outside of protection training, say a very well trained and stable dog that is not protection trained, should a dog respond to stranger's commands? I mean, from a pack-perspective, isn't it ideal that the dog only responds to his leaders, even he isn't a protection dog?

And another scenario: If a dog, not necessarily mine now, say a veteran trainers dog is in a protective situation against a stranger, and this stranger himself is an expert trainer, could the stranger redirect or abort commands of the dog (assuming the commands were known to the stranger)?

 Quote: L Allen Vaught

... Outside of protection training, say a very well trained and stable dog that is not protection trained, should a dog respond to stranger's commands? I mean, from a pack-perspective, isn't it ideal that the dog only responds to his leaders, even he isn't a protection dog?

And another scenario: If a dog, not necessarily mine now, say a veteran trainers dog is in a protective situation against a stranger, and this stranger himself is an expert trainer, could the stranger redirect or abort commands of the dog (assuming the commands were known to the stranger)?

No, the dog responds to you, his handler. You can even include other people giving commands in your distraction phase (high-level distraction).