Tobi does recognize various words, yet I want to expand his vocabulary of
different objects, whether they are his toys or other things. Nothing like
"Tobi, bring me coffee to bed, will you" ;-)

Do you have suggestions/ideas on how to do it through play?

Thanks,
Simon

dogsnus wrote in :

"Who wants their daily beatings"?

That one results in 3 dogs running into the room where the
cookies and treats are,turning themselves inside out,tails
wagging and waiting for me to get in there and give them
their "beatings" from the cookie jar.


Cute!

I am fond of asking "who's the worst puppy in the world? Who is simply
dreadful???" In return for which I get big smiles, waggy tails, and however
many puppy kisses I can handle.

--
Catherine
& Zoe & Queenie

"Who wants their daily beatings"?

That one results in 3 dogs running into the room where the
cookies and treats are,turning themselves inside out,tails
wagging and waiting for me to get in there and give them
their "beatings" from the cookie jar.

Yes,believe it or not I actually had a good "scientific"
reason for teaching that one but that's another story.

Terri

LOL!!

Our dogs have learned to cover their noses with their paws whenever we
exclaim "Renee Zellweiger"!

It started out as a joke, because the actress is often photographed
with a smile/grimace on her face that looks like she is saying "I smell
poo!" Younger son kind of took it from there.

Aaahhh. The power of cheese. ;-)

Best regards,

Ana
http://*******ette.blogspot.com/

"dogsnus" wrote in message
...

I've never consciously thought about it except for one instance,
and that one is when I ask "Who wants their daily beatings"?

That one results in 3 dogs running into the room where the
cookies and treats are,turning themselves inside out,tails
wagging and waiting for me to get in there and give them
their "beatings" from the cookie jar.

Yes,believe it or not I actually had a good "scientific"
reason for teaching that one but that's another story.

At my house..."Its Beat The Boxer Time!" that brings Fancy and Pip (when
he's here) kidney-beaning to whoever said it. I don't know what it is but
I've never met a Boxer who didn't thoroughly enjoy being spanked on the
flanks. They'll get to wiggling and switching sides so no side is left
unspanked. It always gets raised eyebrows and "should I call AC on these
people" looks.

Fancy also blows snot all over anyone who tells her they're having Boxer
Burgers for dinner. She'll look the person straight in the eye and blow
snot in a short but forceful hmph!

--
Tara

BTW, to the OP, I didn't consciously teach these phrases. The spanking
started when my husband was playing with Fancy one day and he started
spanking her on the flank (not hard or with mean intentions). He stopped
only to have her turn around and paw at his hand repeatedly. He did it to
her again and she started wiggling. That's how we knew she liked that game
so we'd say "Beat the Boxer" or "Spank that Hiney" (its always embarrassing
to put these things in print). It didn't take her long to associate those
two phrases, particularly the first, with that game.

The Boxer Burger started when I used to have fosters and would get annoyed
with them. I'd "grrrr" and threaten to make Boxer Burgers out of them if
they didn't behave. I think my tone of voice indicated that I wasn't best
pleased but there was never a consequence. So Fancy, I assume, figured out
that Boxer Burgers means she's kinda in trouble but not really and she
doesn't appreciate anyone being put out with her. Hence the wet hmph!

--
Tara

"Who wants their daily beatings"?

That one results in 3 dogs running into the room where the
cookies and treats are,turning themselves inside out,tails
wagging and waiting for me to get in there and give them
their "beatings" from the cookie jar.

Yes,believe it or not I actually had a good "scientific"
reason for teaching that one but that's another story.

Terri

LOL!!

Our dogs have learned to cover their noses with their paws whenever we
exclaim "Renee Zellweiger"!

It started out as a joke, because the actress is often photographed
with a smile/grimace on her face that looks like she is saying "I smell
poo!" Younger son kind of took it from there.

Aaahhh. The power of cheese. ;-)

Best regards,

Ana
http://*******ette.blogspot.com/

"Tee" wrote in
:

so we'd say "Beat the Boxer" or "Spank that Hiney" (its always
embarrassing to put these things in print)

But I'm always glad when people do! Thanks for the laugh.

--
Catherine
& Zoe & Queenie

Love to hear it

David

dogsnus wrote:


Yes,believe it or not I actually had a good "scientific"
reason for teaching that one but that's another story.

Terri

--
I used to like barbecue-flavored chips, but I have to stop liking them
now because you're such a formatting****erupper.
-- K.

Fair enough, and thanks as I was curious. Though simply on the basis
that I strongly suspect dogs in Germany or Italy or wherever, learn to
'understand' whatever language their owner uses, I would have agreed with
you without your 'proof'.

I am intrigued though by how dogs learn the language and meaning of
sounds their dog companions make.

My inside dog, Josie only takes 'responsibility' for barking when
strangers call, cars/tractors/trucks drive in nearby paddocks, or
aeroplanes go overhead. If she is outside she also doesn't like the
horses or emus to come close to the house fence.

Whereas the Maremma (Midi) warns off foxes, rabbits, hawks, owls, etc,
but doesn't mind if the horses or emus approach. He also doesn't like
anyone driving down my lane or driving in nearby (within say 2 km)
paddocks.

The part that interests me is that while inside if Josie hears Midi
barking at the owls foxes etc she ignores it. But if he is barking at a
car or truck she joins in. Generally I cannot tell the difference
between those two of Midi's barks (he has other ones which I can though),
but Josie always seems to know,

It is handy for me, as I only have to go outside and check when Josie
joins in, thank goodness. Otherwise I'd be up and down all night


David

dogsnus wrote:

quietguy wrote in
:

Love to hear it

David

dogsnus wrote:


Yes,believe it or not I actually had a good "scientific"
reason for teaching that one but that's another story.

Somewhere in the past few years a whole new type of "dog trainer"
began to appear from Planet Fluffbunny(to borrow a wonderful
and appropriate phrase from elsewhere) known on the dog groups
as "Shining Path People". Amongst their mumbo jumbo is the belief
that words are negative punishment such as the word "no".
Not believing that dogs can distinguish as such that words themselves
are bad but rather,what they've been taught through association
and conditioning is what makes those words bad,I set out to prove them
wrong. These Shining Path types of people tend to think of dogs as
people in fur suits and are incapable of answering any
challenges or questions of their beliefs with anything
other than even more mumbo jumbo & quite frankly are some of the
most disingenuous people I've ever had the misfortune to
run across.

Here's an excerpt from Queen Fluffbunny's page herself:

people never frown or glare at puppies or children
people don't teach 'No', 'Leave', 'Stop it' or 'Don't do that'

This type of thinking really fries my logic circuits so I
did an experiment on my own dogs in which I simply took
a standard established routine and altered the words from postive
ones to perceived "bad words",making a point to keep
my body language & voice tones as close to the already
established routine as possible.

Substituting the words "who wants a cookie" for "who
wants a beating" or various derivitates of that phrase,
I proved that it's not the words themselves that are bad
as evidenced by the reactions of my dogs during that
activity.
Thus I concluded that dogs don't care what words are used nor if
you frown at them as long as the results are associated
with the positive things they've been conditioned to learn.
Since the entire approach was not a double blind method
and I already had an agenda I loosely term the experiment as
"scientific", complete with the quotation marks.

Terri

On Sun, 03 Apr 2005 12:10:16 +1000, quietguy
wrote:


The part that interests me is that while inside if Josie hears Midi
barking at the owls foxes etc she ignores it. But if he is barking at a
car or truck she joins in. Generally I cannot tell the difference
between those two of Midi's barks (he has other ones which I can though),
but Josie always seems to know,

When I was in France, I was pointing out to a French girl that I had
met where the various English speakers at a tourist site were from.
She spoke decent English, but she could not for the life of her figure
out how I could know that one family was from the Southern U.S. and
another from Australia, for example. To me, they didn't sound
anything alike, but to her, all of them sounded the same. Maybe if
you spoke dog like a native, you would hear nuances in Midi's barks
that are plain as the nose on your face to Josie.

--
Paula
"Anyway, other people are weird, but sometimes they have candy, so it's best to try to get along with them." Joe Bay