Yes, I understand the dog learning process that conditions dogs to expect and/or react to the things we say, the things we do … even the things we wear. But, the other night, I cracked up when I realized a very strange thing Ginko, in particular, has picked up.
Beep, Beep, Beep
There is often a lot of milling around — both people and dogs — during meal prep here at Chez Champion of My Heart. Rather than get frustrated or ordering the dogs around, it seems I’ve taken to saying an odd thing that indeed gets the dogs to move.
“Beep, Beep, Beep,” I say, like I have a horn and find myself in a traffic jam.
It isn’t a long, wailing horn honk you so often hear in real traffic. It’s more of a friendly honkity, honk, honk that I might put forth from the Mini to encourage wildlife off the roads around our rural home.
I don’t know why it made me giggle so much other other night, but it did. So, just to double-check what I’d inadvertently taught the dogs, I began beep-beep-beeping them around the kitchen.
Beep. Move. Beep. Move.
The more I beeped, the more they moved, the more I laughed.
SO, it got me wondering … what else they’ve learned from my verbal quirks. I’m afraid to think about it, actually. It’s probably FAR too revealing.
Do tell. What’s the weirdest cue you taught your dog accidentally (or on purpose)?
LOL! Now I want to use the beep-beep-beep one! I am now trying to think what other verbal cues I use. This could be a fun game!
Too funny! Living in such a small space, Buster is always under foot. I usually say “excuse me,” but I like “beep” much better. I can’t wait to see how long it take Buster to figure it out.
LOL Dogs are very keen observers and sensitive to clues, verbal or non verbal. It is interesting to observe things they pick up on. Jasmine always knows when hubby is going to the farm (and the guys get to go along) and when he’s going to work.
Couple times he had to go to the farm without them, no matter how hard he tried ‘faking’ going to work it was unsuccessful 🙂
ahahahahah Snoots Ahoy! I LOVE THIS!!!
I say “excuse me” when the dogs are crowding me in the kitchen, and they scoot away despite no formal training. We also use “snoots ahoy” for ‘get your tongue out of the dishwasher’. I don’t know how – but they know that one too!
It is odd how we all come up with these funny cues without even thinking about it.
PS You made me want to adopt that border collie mix with the description. My goodness – she sounds perfect.
Oh, dear. Snoots Ahoy! Made me laugh. That’s a good one. Much better than my …. “Ginko! Get your head out of the dishwasher,” which as you’d suspect … does not work.
I beep at Java when she’s under my feet in the kitchen too. It sounds so much nicer than “Move!”
I love this! It makes me laugh and wish I was more inventive with my verbal cues. I use a lot of “ahem”s and “excuse me”s but nothing nearly so awesome as “beep beep beep”. Best verbal cue ever.
Wow, this really hit home for me! Recently, I was giving language lessons to my hardly-ever-home-anymore kids on what to tell the dogs so they understand what you mean. I noticed Living Large mentioned Scooch — I say that constantly to Chester, who immediately moves out of my way, even knows which direction to move. My kids thought I was nuts by the time I translated their commands into home-speak! lol You’re definitely not alone:)
Yes, Kim … that’s the trouble with funny dog-mom words. No one else would think to use them to communicate with your dog.
We say, “Scooch,” for move over when the dogs are in the bed or on the couch. Poor Dakota, though. You know how you call your kids nicknames? She has “Boo,” “Dacker” and “Co-Co,” but she’ll come to them all! 🙂
When I first got Clem, it was just me and her in an apartment…and I worked from home. I pretty much lived in pajamas that year. One day she whined at me to go out, and I just said, “hold on.. I need to get my pants.” She looked at me, blinked..then trotted off to the bedroom. 30 seconds later I look down and she had brought my pants to me. They were in the hamper, she dug them out and brought me a pair….all on her own without me ever teaching her any sort of command for it!
That’s a hoot, Aly. Thanks for telling that story. Silly Clementine.