Mike's Doghouse

I dislike the term “commands” but that’s what they are. With Joella, it is always a “request” that Her Highness then determines is worthy of fulfillment. She will do what I ask/tell her in terms of SD work. Basic obedience, though, is iffy at best. It is a mistake I will not be making with Mike.

Somewhere, I have a longer list of the commands Jo knows. Borrowing heavily on Marley’s list, here’s Joella’s SD commands:

1. Let me have it
2. What have you got
3. Get it
4. Bring it here
5. Get the other one
6. Get my shoes
7. Where’s Lorna
8. Back up
9. Get behind
10. Get your leash
11. Get in truck/car
12. Get in the house
13. Go around
14. Turn around
15. Look at me
16. Touch it
17. Open it/Pull it
18. Get Under
19. Take it

And her obedience requests:

1. Up*
2. Off
3. Down
4. Lay down
5. Out
6. Outside
7. Hurry up
8. Are you done*
9. Wait
10. Sit
11. Stay
12. Easy*
13. Leave it
14. Drop it
15. Gimme a kiss

(* are those that are also SD related)

I know there are others but that’s all I can think of right now. Mike will be taught all of those plus some others. Joella stinks on her recall (coming when called) and her Stay is almost as bad. Mike and I will be going to a series of dog classes starting this January. First there will be 5 of the Puppy Obedience classes followed by Basic Manners 1 and Basic Manners 2 (both are 6 weeks each, I think). Along the way, we’ll work on SD stuff but I want to make sure Mike has a solid obedience/manners footing. Mike knows “sit” and we are working on “down” and “out of the room” (used after meals). He knows “outside” means to go outside but he’s not made the connection that it means to do his business. He still is not house trained, dangit!

I have made a spreadsheet of the above commands with the word/phrase, what it means, and the reasoning behind it.

Commands list in OpenOffice.org format (.ods) and Commands list in MS Excel format (.xls). Let me know if you need it in another format; OpenOffice.org saves in several others. I will update the spreadsheets as Mike learns more or I remember more of Jo’s list.