German Dog Commands

Posted by rolph 1 day ago

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Comment by justinator 1 day ago

Humorous or not, there was a video of a dog trainer that trained his (you guess it: German Shepherd) in German commands, partly so that when he worked with client's dogs, he could use English, and his German-speaking dog who would be in close proximity (useful for reactive training) wouldn't compete with the client's dog.

Comment by schoen 1 day ago

Reginald Foster, a great Latin expert whom I once got to study with, emphasized that Latin isn't inherently difficult as a spoken language, as evidenced by the fact that it used to be lots of people's native language and used for all kinds of ordinary daily purposes.

One of his slogans for this was "in Roma antiqua, etiam canes Latine locuti sunt" ('in ancient Rome, even the dogs spoke Latin').

Comment by jjtheblunt 1 day ago

"latine" with an e on the end is ablative, first declension?

Comment by amelung 1 day ago

This ‑e is an adverb ending. The belonging adjective is «latinus» ‹Latin›.

Comment by jjtheblunt 1 day ago

that makes more sense to me, because i asked thinking it was a typo on ablative with implicit lingua

Comment by schoen 1 day ago

Yes, one way of referring to Latin is "lingua Latina" or just "Latina", but there's an old custom of using adverbs to refer to use of languages. So Latine is "in Latin" or "Latinly" (and there are similar adverbs available for other languages).

Interestingly, the language adverbs are also used in a construction with scire (to know) or intellegere: "Latine scit" (he or she knows Latin), "Graece intellegit" (he or she understands Greek). In English we would definitely think of this as needing a direct object, but Latin allows it as an adverb, to understand "in a Greek way" (perhaps it would make sense to think of it as something like "in a Greek manner" or "from a Greek perspective").

Comment by jjtheblunt 12 hours ago

yep totally understand, had four years of latin in the 80s, some Greek, and many more. it's interesting to see how an idea gets phrased slightly differently across even related languages, i have to admit.

Comment by jancsika 1 day ago

The evil of global mutable state strikes again.

This is why I only train my dogs in a pure functional language.

Comment by mckirk 19 hours ago

Just don't be confused if they then follow the commands side-effect free.

Comment by Hackbraten 14 hours ago

"Reduce!" ("Reduzier!")

"Map!" ("Bild ab!")

Comment by bulbar 9 hours ago

I don't think you can entirely remove the side effect of getting treats.

Comment by justinator 7 hours ago

Treats are without a doubt the only true universal language.

Comment by yencabulator 1 day ago

It's merely the software architectural mistake of only constructing a broadcast channel.

Security by obscurity is fundamentally weak, this use wastes bandwidth, and can be destroyed by statistical analysis where the other dogs learn German.

Comment by chrisandchris 22 hours ago

So we're doing the opposite. As we're in the German spesking part of europe, our dog listens to English to not interfere with daily talk. It's IMHO one of the best choices to take a foreign language for your dog. You can also use different languages for different setups (e.g. to differentiate fun, working). Dogs anyway don't speak the language, they just listen to the voice, but as an owner it's easier to set context by moving to a different language.

Comment by badc0ffee 1 day ago

I think if I said sitz to my English-trained dog, she would sit.

Comment by Esophagus4 1 day ago

Maybe your dog has been taking German classes while you’re at work…

Comment by arjvik 9 hours ago

Turns out if we say any word with the same inflection as sit, our dog sits!

Comment by justinator 7 hours ago

I think it's partly because "sit" is one of the first commands they learn so if they're not sure what to do, they'll default to sit as that often gets the treat.

That's also why you teach "sit" first before, "bite the face of the person in front of me" (talking German Shepherds again)

Comment by sudb 1 day ago

I think this is a great idea in general - security through obfuscation, kinda.

Comment by vardump 12 hours ago

> German-speaking dog

Impressive!

Comment by BoredPositron 1 day ago

We do it with our herding dogs so you can give the different dogs different commands.

Comment by tomcam 1 day ago

Now I’m dying to know what kind of herding you do that requires this separation of powers

Comment by BoredPositron 1 day ago

Just sheeps and it's a small herd we have for fun next to our vineyards. One dog could probably handle thm alone but it's more fun with two ;)

Comment by dole 1 day ago

Used in Schutzhund, German dog sport/training: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schutzhund

Comment by layman51 1 day ago

Also, it seems like some police dogs in the USA that were probably trained in Germany use these German dog commands too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlntC-WAbd0

Comment by rolph 1 day ago

you have eluted, the hidden point.

informed is stronger than ignorant.

stay safe.

Comment by whalesalad 1 day ago

I have one of these lol (a dog with competitive parents). Get a load of our breeder's website, its a trip back in time. https://www.glaurungkennel.com/

Our little buddy is the silver collar here, https://www.glaurungkennel.com/LitterK.html

Comment by dole 1 day ago

Definitely a trip back in time, I did a website almost exactly the same for Bernese mountain dogs except without the flame background.

Comment by tomcam 1 day ago

But with the batwings I hope

Comment by dole 1 day ago

Nah, those were a classy touch. IIRC it was some Thomas Kinkade-lookin' bullshit.

Comment by whalesalad 1 day ago

ah man I can totally picture that. very on brand for a big ass BMD living in like maine or vermont

Comment by tomcam 1 day ago

I totally want a batwinged attack dog now

Comment by daft_pink 1 day ago

Do they have other languages? My dog is an immigrant and it would be nice to use his native language.

Comment by NoiseBert69 1 day ago

Teach him Rust

Oh wait, wrong Thread!

Comment by GuB-42 1 day ago

My dog doesn't know Rust, but he is fluent in Ruff!

Comment by bulbar 8 hours ago

> Oh wait, wrong Thread!

Pretty sure actual Rust advocates will disagree.

Comment by advisedwang 1 day ago

I'm told (but have no direct knowledge) that many police dogs in the US are trained to german commands. This is because previously (and in some cases still) police departments used dogs trained in Germany and they have continued so that there is continuity of commands (ie you don't have to know which dogs speaks which language).

Comment by edwhitesell 1 day ago

Sometimes it's Dutch instead, but that's true.

Many agencies, especially those new to having K-9 or small departments that may not be able to spend time dedicated to training from puppies, get dogs from Europe that are partially or fully trained. The lineage of the working dog breeds is much better in Europe because many breeds have bloodlines that haven't been bred for generations to be pets (like here in the US).

It's also why agencies pay so much for the dogs. Last I heard (I used to be more involved volunteering with my local PD) a fully trained dog was around $25k, USD, a partially trained was something like $8k - $10. It sounds like a lot until you realize a fully trained dog is 18—24 months old when acquired and has been training every day during that time.

Comment by whalesalad 1 day ago

Yes, this is true. Many personal protection dogs as well.

Comment by rambambram 1 day ago

Haha nice one. As a kid I had these friends in the neighborhood (Netherlands) whose dad trained Malinois shepherds and sold them worldwide to security services and police units.

In my city are four day marches in the summer where also international military participate. Before dawn, all these soldiers walk from the forest - where they sleep - to the starting point. It was customary for us as kids to wave to the soldiers and wish them good luck and ask for some souvenirs/stickers.

One day my friends had their dog with them and we learned the command 'luid' (loud in English, laut im Deutsch) so the dog would bark. Early in the morning, exhausted soldiers that did not even had their morning coffee, very quiet outside, and then the dog would bark them to shock with our little whispers of 'luid'. Good times.

Comment by codethief 1 day ago

> 2. Drop it / Let go — Aus. In German, aus is a preposition meaning “out of.”

It also means "off" and – in sports – "offside", which I think is much closer to what "aus" means in this context.

Comment by stephbook 1 day ago

"Es ist aus" can also be translated as "It is over" (a game)

The meaning in dog schools is "Spit it out", but given aus's versatility within human language, it's often used as a general "stop" command. As in "aus", stop playing.

Comment by kuerbel 1 day ago

Not really, offside is Abseits.

In this case Aus means out like in spit it out or out with it, "raus damit".

Comment by Quanternion 14 hours ago

I've only heard "Abseits" in football but "Aus" definitely exists in tennis.

Comment by croes 1 day ago

"Aus" means the dog should let go what’s in his mouth.

It means something like "Spuck es aus", "Spit it out"

Comment by codethief 12 hours ago

There are many cases where people use it and the dog does not have anything in their mouth.

Comment by grasbergerm 1 day ago

"Aus" in a sports context means out.

Comment by RyanOD 7 hours ago

When I was a kid, my neighbors had a doberman pinscher they named, "schatzie" ("sweetheart").

I remember them using the "sitz" and "platz" commands.

Comment by frankus 1 day ago

I grew up speaking German and still use "zu!" with my (otherwise English-trained) dogs for "get out of the way!".

Comment by mrjoe3332 1 day ago

I've never seen a GSD actually obey the drop/aus command without you having something to trade for

Comment by throwway120385 1 day ago

The GSDs I grew up with would do it pretty immediately, but I had to occasionally praise them when they did it so they wouldn't lose the habit. They're pretty damn smart and will figure out some pretty complex behaviors just from positive reinforcement. I once taught a GSD in one session to sit patiently 10 feet away from the vehicle gate at my childhood home when I arrived home by stopping the truck every time started walking forward. By the 3rd or 4th time of my inching forward he had figured out that the only way to get me to pull in and get out of the truck was to sit patiently and I never had to train him on it again.

Comment by torginus 1 day ago

I've never even taught it to my dog, as she just drops toys at my feet after fetching them. She just enjoys the though of the stick being thrown too much to waste time on holding on to it.

Comment by 9dev 1 day ago

What do you do when she picks up some food on the street? There are people who place meat interlaced with poison where I live; so having a surefire way to make mine spit out whatever he’s got in his mouth is essential

Comment by torginus 1 day ago

Dunno, I just yell at her, and she drops it and looks at me :) I haven't heard about poison meat, but she sure loves to find and eat the most disgusting stuff, up to, and including, poop.

Comment by system2 1 day ago

Crappy owners. The GSD I have is like a cyborg, yet very friendly. WFH help the training. Most owners do not train their dogs and the alpha in GSDs come out easily.

Comment by whalesalad 1 day ago

This tool is incredibly effective. ive zapped myself with it to test. feels like a very very strong static shock. Our dog Solo has been zapped only a handful of times. When he wears the collar now we don't even really turn it on or use it - just knowing it exists is enough for him to drop his frisbee/ball/etc. https://www.ecollar.com/product/ez-900-easy-educator-1-2-mil...

Comment by mrjoe3332 1 day ago

Some of them will know you're doing it and get pissed off

Comment by minusLik 10 hours ago

In Germany, using shock collars on dogs is even verboten.

Comment by torginus 1 day ago

As someone who speaks German, it feels puzzling to me why I would teach my dog German commands (even though I have a GSD), these are just the regular words/phrases for things but in a different language.

Comment by EdwardDiego 1 day ago

It's better with dogs to use commands that sound harder for hard commands - stop, down, wait, etc. Which German's love of crisply pronounced consonants tends to lend itself to.

Comment by rolph 1 day ago

its a weak authentication. if you use a dog for work/husbandry, law military, it does two things.

1] regionally unfamiliar language, dog will obey your commands, but not commands of regional language.

2] parrallel handling, different dogs trained in different languages dont step on each others task,in response to the same cue command.

e.g. left dog, sprech im ze deutsch - right dog, govorite po russki

Comment by cjbenedikt 1 day ago

I hope your Russian is better than your German...;-p

Comment by rolph 1 day ago

i spoke both conversationally with my grandfather before he passed, he was russian/german i spoke english as native language, but later began learning a few others.

i get them mixed up when cold, but if speaking for a while i can get in a zone.

my spelling is atrocious i think i see where you complain:

Sprechen Sie Deutsch %:P

Comment by kazinator 1 day ago

These would be fun for voice control in a video game.

Which would be called Castle Woofenstein.

Comment by bytepanels 8 hours ago

The 2004 film 'Catch that Kid' informed me of dogs being trained in German

Comment by nyjah 1 day ago

Platz. That’s the one German command I give to my shepherd.

I trained her over 11 years ago using Michael Ellis videos and picked it up there. If she was younger I’d incorporate some more of these.

Comment by lukan 1 day ago

"Sitz" and "platz" sound too similar, so to make it easier, some german people I know use a mixture of german and english.

"Sitz!" for sit

"Down!" for down.

Comment by weinzierl 1 day ago

The most important one is missing:

Fass!

You better know what it means when a dog owner points at you and says "Fass!".

There is a hilarious episode by German comedian Gerhard Polt about this word where he plays the owner of a Kampfhund (the genuine grandson of the great-uncle of the dog of Adolf Hitler) who goofs around alternating between "Fass!" and "Nicht Fass!" not realizing that the dog is not capable of distinguishing between the two.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=I5sFagE-zqw

(In German, obviously - the Bavarian kind)

Comment by rolph 1 day ago

its down lower on the side bar list:

32 Attack - Fass

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/german/german-dog-commands/#toc...

Comment by wvbdmp 1 day ago

The list goes to 48 (!), in case you’re fooled by the self-promo and “PS” after number 20.

Comment by coldtea 16 hours ago

All German sounds like dog commands

Comment by SirFatty 1 day ago

TIL: Phooey is actually a german word, Pfui.

Comment by 867-5309 1 day ago

*Dog Commands in German

Comment by vunderba 1 day ago

[dead]

Comment by system2 1 day ago

I have an ultra-trained GSD, and I find German commands cringe and pretentious.