My hubby and I are planning on adding a second dog to our household. We trained our first dog using the Leeburg "Basic Dog Obedience" DVD and it worked very well. Since our first dog is trained in English, we thought it might be a good idea to train our second dog in a different language to avoid confusing the first dog. Is this a good idea?

Thanks

LOL

Now I've been dual training our dog in English/German, and some words mostly German (No versus Nein). However, I've done it to avoid confussion between saying NO to my son and NEIN to the dog. If I say NEIN, both my son and the dog know who I am talking to. I don't have to say "BUDDY" "NEIN".

However, if you make sure that your dog knows its name and you always use their name first (I don't seem to be able to do that one), you should be able to say "FIDO" "SIT" and "ROVER" "DOWN" and have them understand what you want them to be doing and when.

My question to you, is can you be consistent in your use of language with each dog? If not, then I wouldn't bother.

Lol, that's exactly what I'm doing.

Two of mine were trained with the same English commands. When I'm working one, the other will always follow the commands (even if they're tied out at a distance, even if they can't see me they still follow my voice commands!!). With 3 dogs, it's not always practical to have to walk each separately, so I like being able to have one dog lying under a tree while working another on the field and then switching.

I trained my new pup with German commands only so I no longer have that problem with her. The other two don't know her commands and she doesn't know theirs, so there's no more confusion. Worked for me

Although if you're only asking for simple stuff you can always preceed the command with the dog's name to let them know which one you're addressing :-)

It doesn't take long for them to figure this out.

The only command my dogs have in common is the release ("Ok!"). As long as I use their names, I have no problems at home with them getting confused. The only time I use this is when they're sitting as I open the door to the backyard. I release them one at a time and I use their names for that.
They're also not allowed in the kitchen so they lie down and stare at me when I'm preparing food - if however I decide to give one a treat, I call their name and they understand that only the one I called is permitted into the room.

Whatever you do, just be consistent with your method and it'll work. Good luck with the second dog!



Edit: oops, looks like I was too slow on my reply. I just repeated Louanne's points, lol

It can definitely work as long as you're consistent. Actually two of my dogs knew their commands in both English and Greek. I guess that means they were tri-lingual if you count dog).

FWIW I train in both English and German. All formal (attention and precise) are in German, and the informal (you are going to be there a while, so I don't mind if you lay over on your hip and relax) is in English.

I found that with my first dog I screwed up with what I really wanted her to do, so I re-trained in German for more precision. They seem to really get the difference. And to take it a step further, German supercedes English. If I "platz" a dog the an English "come" won't break it.

I trained my dog in Russian, but my wife insists that he has picked up Polish as well.

At home in the House & Garden i speak to the Dogs in English, on the Training Fields, all Commands are in The Dutch Language

i use english on one dog, and greek on the other.


but the one who knows english, now somehow fugured out the greek commands and does them at the same time as the other dog.



... his food drive is really strong hahahaha

 Quote: ted efthymiadis

i use english on one dog, and greek on the other.


but the one who knows english, now somehow fugured out the greek commands and does them at the same time as the other dog.



... his food drive is really strong hahahaha

Smart dog. The Keeshond I had would sometimes ignore English commands but would always obey them in Greek.