Hey all, I was just wondering what you all thought about this: Do you or have you seen other handlers use a particular voice for commands? I mean a distinctly deeper or louder voice than sounds natural. I'm not talking about at a distance either, but up close. This particularly stands out if a woman does it and puts on an exaggerated deep voice. I can see the benefits if you are across a field or maybe if you dog is in drive and focused on the task at hand? I was even at the AWDF trial last weekend and the judge kept teasing some of the handlers for making him deaf. haha. He then remarked on how evenly toned another handler was. I tend to use my regular talking voice, with a sometimes more serious or business like tone, but yelling or deepening my voice feels like a lie the dog would pick up on. The people that do the voice thing are great handlers so I don't think its a detriment, but what gives??? I'm fully on board for the psycho baby voice of praise, but I think this is different. Do the women handlers out there feel a need to deepen their voice? or shout?

I use inflection as a cue, depending on the level of OB or training that I'm doing. On the OB field, and when I 'm sure that my dog knows the exercise, I use a louder and more commanding tone than when I'm in the teaching phase at home. It indicates to the dog that "It's time for business".

The professional trainer who heads our SchH club uses different voices for every dog he trains, depending on the temperament and achievement level of the dog. He owns a very hard, stubborn GSD that basically gets all commands yelled at him, but I've seen the same trainer use a meek tone when handling a huge, soft Boerboel.

If you shout in training the dog will learn to respond only when you shout. Speak calmly and firmly and the dog learns to respond to that.
If you find yourself shouting when you THINK the dog knows what you want then your probably adding distractions to fast or just moving to fast in the training.

I think you're right, Bob. I've been using level tones in my commands with my dogs for years, but with Radar I've started to deepen my voice to force him to hear and listen because of all the added distraction he's got to deal with in certain situations. I'm sure if I backed off and introduced the distractions at his own pace (which would be months of work in itself) he'd be just fine with a conversational tone.

I work towards being able to speak in quieter tones all the time. Who wants to have to yell at their dog?

I can see using a harder voice for a particularly hard and stubborn dog. Maybe these dogs at the trial were that way. I use as normal and soft a voice as I can get away with, but my dog is fairly soft. We do an exercise where I have her sit and I walk away not paying attention to her and softly get her to look at me and keep her attention on me. Its not a formal sit stay, but we started doing it to build some attention and I think it has helped her also pay attention to softer commands.

The hard dog I mentioned earlier, Ray, was trained that way by a bad police handler. He was returned to TD about 1.5 yrs ago, and has made a lot of progress with TD, but still gives a lot of refusals on the "platz", especially at a distance or on the send-away. He'd only known being yelled at, so he often refuses the first even-toned command. TD then raises his voice (yells) if he has to repeat the command.
Hopefully Ray will get it one day. He has a lot of good in him, and is one of the most-used movie dogs in NOLA. He was even featured on The Travel Channel's website.

I don't yell at my dog, unless she breaks her down and refuses the "leave-it" when I'm working other dogs at the club. I have to make myself heard and get her attention over her reactivity from 50 yards or so away. I don't care for that, either, and we are both getting better at long downs wth distractions.
The voice I use inside my home would not be audible on the field, to either Sadie or the judge. Also, when teaching new behaviors, we are more relaxed than I care to be on the field. I find the two different voices to be extremely useful as cues for what I expect. The only remotely difficult part is maintaining that consistency.

Another thing that I've noticed is that some handlers on the SchH field whisper commands to the dog, and continue whispering or clucking as they heel. If I were the judge, I would be deducting points for handler help. I want to be audible enough for the judge to know exactly what I'm doing and score accordingly.

I use my "Instructor" voice. I'm not yelling but you can hear me in the back row.

 Quote: Dennis Jones

I use my "Instructor" voice. I'm not yelling but you can hear me in the back row.

Exactly...Great way of putting it!

When I coached basketball and football, I quickly learned that, in order to be heard above the din, I had to consistenly speak in an audible, firm tone. Other coaches who spoke in softer tones, were not heard by their teams on the court even when they raised their voices. The kids had no voice recognition. Kinda made it hard to call in plays or give instructions from the bench.

I tried a theory out and it's fact - Radar responds with more enthusiasm to a louder, deeper tone.

Duane, I use a constant chatter to keep Radar engaged at the heel with heavy distraction, but I'm able to be very quiet with minimal or normal distractions. I think people who chatter to their dogs on the competition field are relying on it as a crutch because they don't trust their dog stay engaged. Definitely not something I want for us. If I were a judge, I'd deduct points, as well.