We have an older dog and a puppy right now, and our older dog had a lot of difficulty with verbal commands* -- so we do mostly gestural with her, accompanied by phrases that please us.
For example, we say "Do excited dogs get patted?" if she is too excited to get pats. We also say "Like a mob hit!" when we take her out. As a result, our puppy is learning some weird commands. We are switching back to more common ones for a lot of things, just so that other people have a reasonable chance of communicating with her.
* Seriously, weeks and weeks of "sit" got nothing, but one training session with pointing instead? Boom, butt down. We don't know why, but whatever. Between gestures and handclaps she's got a recall, sit, stay, a few other safety-based commands, and a couple cute tricks -- if you give her a thumbs-up, she'll sproing up in place like a springbok, which is HILARIOUS.
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For example, we say "Do excited dogs get patted?" if she is too excited to get pats. We also say "Like a mob hit!" when we take her out. As a result, our puppy is learning some weird commands. We are switching back to more common ones for a lot of things, just so that other people have a reasonable chance of communicating with her.
* Seriously, weeks and weeks of "sit" got nothing, but one training session with pointing instead? Boom, butt down. We don't know why, but whatever. Between gestures and handclaps she's got a recall, sit, stay, a few other safety-based commands, and a couple cute tricks -- if you give her a thumbs-up, she'll sproing up in place like a springbok, which is HILARIOUS.