command changing - quick question

[HarleyOwner]

Harley started basic obedience last night and here is something that came up. The trainer asked us if our dog really knew the sit command and of course I said yes. She said turn your back and tell the dog once to sit. well out of 12 dogs harley was one of 2 that sat, the other dog was one that had taken the class before. Then she said turn to your dog and in your command voice say 'sphegetti' and most of the dogs sat. However, harley started speaking, cause speak is his command for that. So my question is this. How hard is it to change his speak command from speak to say 'bark' cause i tried it out and any word that starts out sounding sp.... he is in his speak mode. also he wont speak from a sitting or standing position. when he starts to speak he drops (and i mean drops like a ton of bricks) into a down and speaks from that position. well that is it..nothing to hard, just wanna know if i can fine tune this now that I taught him a command word that may not have been the best choice

[spidey]

It's not difficult. This is something clicker trainers do fairly frequently if they add cues before the behaviour is exactly how they want it, or if the cue has become "poisoned" and the dog no longer thinks it means what the trainer thinks it means (or associates the cue with things other than the behaviour). You can go about changing it in a few different ways - but what I'd do is just retrain it with the new command (this also gives you a chance to polish it up if you want to). Since Harley already knows the behaviour, it's fairly simple to just attach a new cue to it. Or you can start phasing in the new cue by saying it, then saying the old cue, then rewarding him when he does it, and gradually fade the old cue.

[Rott-Wiley]

I agree with Amanda. We often teach changing the "Come" command to "Front" when the dogs learn a poor responce to command. In your case it should be easy and this time teach the "Bark" from a standing position. Or any position at all except from a down.

[LynnS]

I agree with Amanda as well :D

I have quite easily changed commands several times and even taught Bella to respond to both english and German for some commands.

[C Ross]

I taught my dog to down from a sitting position. That was so ingrained that he couldn't down from a stand without sitting first. It was a losing battle to try to get him to go directly from stand to down with the command down. So I taught him platz to mean drop to the ground from a standing position.

I'm not a dog training expert (far from it), but I thought I'd share that story with you. It's not a big deal to reteach with a different word.

Christine

[laurlitt]

I don't know how well it will work in this 'speak' situation, but when I've taught a new word (or a new exercise in conjuction w/ a command the dog already new) I've used both words together and slowly got rid of the old word.... So you might now say speak bark (like it's one command) and then when he does, praise with 'good speak bark' and do this a few times and slowly phase out the word speak in your commands and praise.... You'd have to test it out to see if the work 'bark' was understood...

But now if he knows bark and then you say 'brocholi' is he going to bark...?

[Mick Trainer]

It is not difficult but you will find that s his training progresses his sound specificness (is that even a word?) will become sharper and he will be more able to differenciate between speak and spegetti for instance. When a dog first learns that a sound is associated with a command it will make that association to any similar sounding sound. However as time progreses that associattion will sharpen till the dog only associates with the required sound. So it is up to you, easy to change but probably not necessary.

Mick.

[BostonRott]

Why change the command? Why not just proof the command he knows? Froli's release is "ok!" I often shout "Oklahoma! Okey dokey! Ocean! Ole!" and any other O words at her, throw up my hands, etc. She no longer falls for it. Work on it, he'll get it. :)