# Language - training



## Sweet Girl (Jun 10, 2010)

I would stick to one command per action. But you could mix it up in terms of, say, using assis for sit, but then using here instead of ici if you did want to respect your bilingual household. I would at least do this for initially teaching the basics. It's a lot for a puppy to learn already. But really, they can learn to do anything to any word - in any language.

Actually, you know what? I just hit "post" but I'm having second thoughts about my answer. If you are teaching hand signals with your commands, you probably COULD teach both the french and english commands. I'm imagining teaching sit - if you were doing the signal and saying sit, and your partner is doing it and saying assis, it might not actually be that tough. 

I would talk to your trainer. I'm sure they have dealt with this many, many times in Montreal. The more I think about it, the more I think you could do it.


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## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

They can learn to associate different verbal cues with body positions, but for the sake of minimizing the risk of confusing your puppy, in the early stages of learning consider teaching in one language first, until the behavior is reliable, then add the 'new' verbal cue, keeping the hand signal consistent will go a long ways to helping the pup create the association that the different verbal cues mean you are asking for the same 'behavior'. 

One thing also to consider is the use of hand signals and the need to keep them consistent with everyone especially in the early stages of learning - dogs are very observant - meticulously so, as I found with my pup, and for them, for example: an open hand is not the same thing, and does mean the same thing, as closed one. I taught my pup to 'touch' his nose the palm of my hand, held in a variety of positions, so when I was teaching him to 'shake a paw' I had to remember to make a fist instead of holding my hand out flat as an invitation to 'shake', or he would 'touch' his nose to my hand instead.


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## dls072 (Oct 3, 2018)

Thanks for the advice ?


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