I have spoken to many and have heard a broad range of who does what.

OK, I heard from one person, teach in English. Once he has them down have a stranger tell him what to do. If he follows their command then you correct him with the choke chain or pinch collar.

This will eliminate the stranger giving orders.

Now, others say teach in another language due to the fact that others will never know what or how to tell your dog what to do and thats that.

Others say they just teach him in another language b/c others do it and they have no real reason behind their practice....

So what are the benfits and disadvantages?

Obviously, its alot easier to speak in english, but I need to hear why its beneficial, or if it is at all if an English trained will will ignore a stranger anyway...

Hi,
That is an interesting question. I am no expert but I think the dog would NOT take direction from a stranger. I would think that if you are the dogs "Pack leader" that he would only take direction from you or members of its pack.

I am a junior member, so do not take my word for it. What do the experts have to say?

Carolyn

Teaching your dog to ignore others is something you must train and re-enforce just like anything else…..it’s easy to do.

There are pro’s and con’s to each side of the language issue. In some police training circles the concern is are you going to remember German or Slovak commands during a time of high stress? If someone is whooping you good and you kick into survival mode will you remember a foreign language? People concerned with this are pushing an English only way of training.

Does it matter…..eh.. who knows. I did learn early on however not to say “piss off” or “package” to anyone while my dog was around.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Good granny grunt, I'm training Troopers, it's hard enough training the dogs in english. I think using German is nothing more than a spill over from schutzhund, and the other foreign languages because of the way and locations many dog are now being procurred. Kind of like the difference between a Toyota and a Lexus, a selling point. As far as the dog, I truly don't think he cares.

DFrost

Matthew,
Wow! I didn't know that a dog had to be trained to ignore others. I just figured it would only listen to its family. I have had dogs before - obviously he was with one of our family members all the time. No strangers.

Personally, I like the idea of teaching commands in another language to avoid a situation like having strangers 'talking' to my dog. I didn't HAVE to train my girl in French for French Ring but I did anyway. The commands just come out naturally now- to be honest, speaking English to her sounds a bit odd now. So trust me, if I can learn, anyone can learn! lol

And...I think the next dog I raise is going to be taught commands in Klingon- just 'cuz I can... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I think the use of another language is as much tradition as anything else. As David says, the dogs don't really care. None of my dogs pay much attention to anyone outside my family as far as commands go, and it's not something I train to do. I think that's the norm.....unless ya got one of them big hairy Golden thingys that love anyone that'll keep the fat on them. My GSD responds to both English for around the house commands, and German for working commands. No reason other than tradition for me. At 11 months old, he's starting to be more selective to who he listens to.

If you were a real man you'd train your dog in Czech.

i agree with the old earth dog...i feel and know that they can learn and response to different commands in different languages....

my question would be on a dog that has been with a different trainer (like a police service dog)raised and trained in another country...then send to the usa to be with yet a second or third trainer/handler wouldn't the dog be more likely to response to commands from a non handler????..example if i was being attacked and the dog was on my arm couldnt i give the out or down command and stop the dog from biting( of course i would have to know the english,german,czech,etc word for out and down but they are only one word commands)...i think that if the dog was raised as a pup and had the same handler thoughout his lifetime that this would probably be impossible.. but not about a dog that has been raised with multiple trainer/handler???

We currently have dogs trained in German,Dutch, Czech, and English. It can be confusing for me but the handlers seem to keep it straight. Converting the commands to another language is a simple thing to do. This summer I helped a sheriffs dept procure a dog. We worked about twenty dogs from four different countries. Some were titled and some were simply selection tested. The only way to know where they were from was to match the list that we were given with dogs name on the collar or on the kennel door. Obedience was done with nearly all of them using German. Obviously they know the routine so in that case it was more of what we did rather than what commands they were given. At some point propreoception comes into play which makes switching languages even easier.

Like Matthew said teaching a dog to ignore commands from others is something that has to be taught. Watching a handler as his dog reponds to the commands of another handler is like watching the air being let out of a balloon. We have included ignoring the commands of others as part of our regular routine.