I am a firm believer in using what best suits you and not going by the norm it you don't want to.
Grouse has
Sit - which means sit until you are told otherwise, therefore sit is also wait/stay.
Down - for lie down
Come - which would be 'grouse come' because just using a dogs name to come can cause problems with multiple dogs in my opinion.
Heel
Gundog wise she also back 'back' I.e. Go back away from me. Left and right hand signals too.
All of the above are accompanied by a hand signal.
Then whistle commands - for hunt, stop and come.
And finally commands without a hand signal - hunt and lost. Lost is said loooooost and hunt verbal command is 'were is it' said -weeeerezit.
Last but not least 'off you go' which is basically at ease, go play.
Oh and I suppose she has trick moves too! Forgot those! Weave, paw, wave, roll, over, twist.
As long as they sound different and are for different things you can really use as many as you like. It is just like everything else, getthe basics rock steady and then add them slowly.
I too dislike wait and stay, they mean the same thing to a dog. They don't have a concept of time frame in the same sense as us.
I agree with Di but would add that it IS worth teaching and then randomly using a sign for vital commands simply so that if your dog loses its hearing (age, infection, trauma) - or even if you lose your voice, or are in a very noisy environment and the dog is not next to you - you already have something in place. I know I am more aware of it since having deaf dogs (Toastie was my first) but if you think of the situation where a dog loses a sense it has had before it will feel cut off, but if you have the means of still communicating (which is why I suggest random reminders of the sign) it is going to be somewhat reassured - and so are you!
No I totally agree with you georgina. All verbals should be taught with gestures attached definately... I was meaning that to TEST if they are genuinely understood 101%, try them as a verbal cue with NO body language at all attached.... less dogs know the words we are 'CERTAIN' they know when you test this They actually associate actions we make, such as opening our arms, rather than the word 'come'....
I agree hugely useful to have both, a dog that does something JUST on the body langage, and also on the verbal word.
Di
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The boys!
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I think they end up learning a tiny bit of lots of things and nothing at all solidly.
For example take a puppy who sometimes comes to you on 'henry come!' sometimes on 'here! Henry come here! Here! Come! Henry, come here!' And then you hear often the famous old 'Henry! Get here for gods sake, come now we have to go out in fifteen minutes, come, come! here! HENREEEEEE get to me NOW!'
Well we had a trainer who said we should practice word conservation he reckonned we could have a vocab for the dog of 25 words max but repeat the words as often as you like! Our usual trainer - obedience class - tends to expect us to use the words she does and generally I do and each has a hand signal pretty much as Georgina said and the words are the ones Di was talking about although I do use wait for wait for next instruction and stay for bloody well stay there until I actually stand next to you and say you can move!
We have 'no' for things we don't want him to do and 'leave' for things we don't want him to have. Wait for wait until I tell you to do something, stay for stay forever until I return. Down for lie down, sit for sit and heel for walk next to my left leg and pay attention. Come for come back to me now. We also have turn so if he's running ahead or even walking and I wish to turn off I can shout turn and he'll turn and go whatever I do without having to guide or tug. Drop for drop something picked up, touch for touch my hand or item held in my hand, paw and other paw - blame my sister for that because she wanted him to give one then the other! I also use over for jump over a pole or whatever and bed for both his go to bed(home)/lie on your mat(out and about). At training we are also teaching 'stop' shouted at the top of your voice and supposed to stop the dog in an emergency and get it to stay stock still until you get over there and secure a lead - I think some people use a whistle for stop instead though. I have tried to teach him 'get it' and 'fetch it' to go and get me toys etc but its a bit hit and miss he goes and gets it but often drops it there and just comes back himself rather than actually bringing it to me - oops. I also used to use 'with me' to get him to follow me about but am trying to only use heel now. Oh yes and I taught him '1,2,3 go' showing 1 finger, 2, 3 then a sweeping motion with the hand like you were starting a race but that was just for fun, ooh dear writing them all down maybe I'm using too many words too. Don't listen to me I'm only telling you what I do for the purposes of comparison!
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They actually associate actions we make, such as opening our arms, rather than the word 'come'....
Our usual trainer - obedience class - tends to expect us to use the words she does and generally I do and each has a hand signal pretty much as Georgina said and the words are the ones Di was talking about although I do use wait for wait for next instruction and stay for bloody well stay there until I actually stand next to you and say you can move!
