For example, many of us say “Down” to ask our dog to lie down and ten minutes later say “Down” to get her to stop jumping up on Aunt Polly. So which is it? What do you want your dog to do when you say “Lie down”? Lie down on her belly? Stop jumping up and stand there with all her paws on the ground? Leap off the couch? Of course, you know that the same word can have different meanings in different contexts, but we’re supposed to be making things easy for our dogs, not doing IQ tests on them all day. Your dog’s life will improve immensely if you learn to use a different command for each
...more
