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Words of command in French

Posted: Tue 07 Aug 2018 16:27
by martyn94
I seem to be acquiring a third-hand mongrel bitch which has been raised up till now in French. She seems basically well-behaved, though a bit bouncy, given her young age. Can anyone point me to a site which would take me through the words she might already be familiar with?

I also need to familiarise her with a slightly new name: her original owners called her “Ganjaâ€￾ (they are apparently fond of a bit of blow), but I hope that “Gingerâ€￾ will work.

Posted: Tue 07 Aug 2018 17:10
by dsd
The basic commands are: assis, couché, (viens) ici, pas bouger/reste, stop, donne (for an object), donne la patte (paw), au pied (heel) and of course the most important maybe with a young dog: non!

It all dépends what the previous owners taught her, perhaps not much? While you're training her, have lots of treats ready to reward her when she does what you want

They say dogs hear the second syllable better so Ginger should work fine.

https://www.ecoledeschiens.com/vocabula ... canin.html

On this site they recommend using English as it's shorter or clearer. Sit is easy from as-sis.

Good luck and have fun. Let us know how you get on

Posted: Tue 07 Aug 2018 21:33
by martyn94
Thanks, that’s helpful. Her current owner seems to have made a good start. She seems to obey “à ta placeâ€￾. So we just need to agree where her place is going to be, without her tripping us up.

Where does “fileâ€￾ come into it (if I’ve spelt it right)?

Posted: Tue 07 Aug 2018 22:58
by dsd
It's one of those useful, depends on context expressions. Basically it can mean: get out of the way/off you go/go away

Posted: Wed 08 Aug 2018 12:51
by martyn94


Posted: Wed 08 Aug 2018 12:59
by martyn94
One last question. What treats do dog’s like as reinforcement? All I can remember is doggy chocolate drops at Xmas

Posted: Wed 08 Aug 2018 13:38
by Kate
Bits of hot dog sausage, Buy in packs in supermarkets, cut up into tiny pieces and keep in a zip lock bag. Tasty and healthy cos they’re practically fat free apparently- or so recommended our obedience teacher. If not, any pet shop sells doggy treats or rewards. Need to be small enough to eat quickly so it doesn’t interrupt the training.

Posted: Wed 08 Aug 2018 17:20
by sue and paul
bits of cheese

Posted: Fri 17 Aug 2018 20:41
by Sus
sue and paul wrote:bits of cheese
or bits of carrot. no chocolate or raisins both are poisonous.for commands au lit and laisse (anything you dont want her to touch) can also be useful. Good luck!

Posted: Sat 25 Aug 2018 18:05
by martyn94
Sus wrote:
sue and paul wrote:bits of cheese
or bits of carrot. no chocolate or raisins both are poisonous.for commands au lit and laisse (anything you dont want her to touch) can also be useful. Good luck!
Just coming downstairs in the morning produces ecstasies. It must be Noel Coward dressing gown.

They’ve never gone upstairs, which is new to me. Either they’ve been taught not to, or they’ve always lived in flats (which I think is so).

Posted: Sun 26 Aug 2018 13:34
by dsd
'They'? I thought you were only adopting one dog; how many have you ended up with?

For the commands, I have never heard a French person say 'au lit', to their dog, at least! They would say 'dans ton panier/file dans ton panier/à ta place'. The last one implies that the dog knows his 'place' is his bed.

Posted: Mon 27 Aug 2018 12:33
by martyn94


I’m not sure that the language matters

Posted: Mon 27 Aug 2018 17:29
by Allan
We had a Rottweiler move into our pool house while we were away, he ended up being adopted by our gardener.

He (the dog that is) would respond to commands in English just as well as commands in French.

I think that it is as much the tone of your voice and any associated gestures as any spoken words.

When we lived in England I used to practice my French on our 2 labradors and they had no problems understanding commands.

It is of course a possibility that dogs are multilingual but perhaps unlikely.

Re: I’m not sure that the language matters

Posted: Sat 01 Sep 2018 15:41
by martyn94
Allan wrote:We had a Rottweiler move into our pool house while we were away, he ended up being adopted by our gardener.

He (the dog that is) would respond to commands in English just as well as commands in French.

I think that it is as much the tone of your voice and any associated gestures as any spoken words.

When we lived in England I used to practice my French on our 2 labradors and they had no problems understanding commands.

It is of course a possibility that dogs are multilingual but perhaps unlikely.
Why didn’t you train the rottie to eat the cats that annoy you?

I’m all over the place with the dogs. Our own dogs when I was a kid were males. I’ve looked after other dogs for a while since, but only one at a time.

Now I have two: the bigger one is female, and the silly little one is male. I get their genders wrong at least half the time. Does that make me a diehard sexist, or just dozy?

Posted: Sun 02 Sep 2018 08:40
by Kate
Haha. Just accept that silly is usually male!
Just going back to those commands, we use ‘panier’ to tell them to go to their basket, but it works equally well with ‘basket’ Or pretty much any two syllable word as long as the intonation is right!

Enjoy them. We’ve just been on holiday for a few weeks without the dogs as we were on the boat, and although it was certainly much easier for doing touristy things, we really missed the exercise: the having to go for a walk in the morning, the evening stroll. We just didn’t have the motivation without the dogs. Don’t think we will go away without them again unless we have to. Dogs just add so much to our lives.

Posted: Sun 02 Sep 2018 12:24
by Frank K
Great thanks for sharing it.

Re: Words of command in French

Posted: Thu 30 Apr 2020 10:38
by pvtred25
I laughed when I realized that bitch also literally means a female dog :lol: