Looking for a word to train my dog to come to, besides the obvious

July 13, 2008 3:36 PM

I need a unique and amusing word to train my dog to come to, besides the word "come". Any ideas?

I'm in a dog training class, and this week we're learning the "Really Reliable Return". For some reason they don't want us to use "come" for this exercise--they say we should come up with a word that is unique to us and our dog. (The theory is we're supposed to get her thinking that when and only when we say that word she gets the super awesome treat she never gets any other time, and therefore she'll really come when we say that word).

The trainers gave examples of previous students using words like "Skittles", or "Pickles"... but I really don't want to be that guy in the dog park yelling "PUDDING!" at his dog, so I'm looking for creative alternatives.

What are some good words that would be funny to have a dog come to? I was thinking about using synonyms of come (surprisingly little of those, though) or "come" in another language, or perhaps something like "hither". I'm sure you can top those ideas, though, right?

posted by jeffxl to pets & animals (51 comments total)

"alls-in-free" - what we used to yell when the seeker had given up on game of touch-tag. (Actually we yelled "oxen-free" but I think "alls-in-free" is what it was supposed to be.

I haven't taught my dog that command yet but that was what I was planning to use.
posted by metahawk at 3:42 PM on July 13

Maybe something faux-military?

"To me!" or "Form up!"
posted by Tomorrowful at 3:43 PM on July 13

FIDO! I SUMMON THEE!
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:45 PM on July 13 [3 favorites]

Suey! Suey!
posted by hydrophonic at 3:48 PM on July 13

Ahoy!
posted by lhall at 3:49 PM on July 13

"Free beer"
posted by Durin's Bane at 3:49 PM on July 13 [4 favorites]

Schnell!
posted by jamaro at 3:50 PM on July 13

Accio Wingardium Leviosa (fly to me now, Harry Potter style)
posted by iconomy at 3:52 PM on July 13

pikachu, I choose you!
posted by iconomy at 3:52 PM on July 13

GET OVER HERE!
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:58 PM on July 13

ccio Wingardium Leviosa (fly to me now, Harry Potter style)

I think what you really want is "Accio Canis!" :-)
posted by danb at 3:59 PM on July 13 [5 favorites]

Beer!
posted by tomcooke at 4:10 PM on July 13

Kill!
posted by rhizome at 4:13 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

If you're looking for a replacement for "come" ... "orgasm"? "Jizz"? "Finish"?

Or you could be more boring and just go with "go [away]!".
posted by spaceman_spiff at 4:19 PM on July 13

I use "Hey You" ONLY when I am serious about the recall.. It works, and it is not odd to call out in the park.
posted by Agamenticus at 4:24 PM on July 13

Kirby!



...kirb
posted by cashman at 4:30 PM on July 13

来这里
posted by netbros at 4:41 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

Go!
posted by gergtreble at 4:42 PM on July 13

Cactus!
posted by tiamat at 4:44 PM on July 13

The koo-oo-koo-koo-whoo-oo-koo-koo call the MacKenzie Brothers like to make?
posted by COBRA! at 4:51 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

Here kitty kitty kitty!
posted by Daddy-O at 5:03 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

incoming
torpedo
(dog's name) phone home
turbo
accelerate
posted by hazel at 5:03 PM on July 13

Andalé ! Andele'! yeeha yeeha alla Speedy Gonzales
posted by meeshell at 5:13 PM on July 13

Vaminos!
posted by CwgrlUp at 5:20 PM on July 13

Spoon (a la the Tick.) It's a battlecry.
posted by filmgeek at 5:24 PM on July 13

I just whistle. My Loud Voice is close enough to my Mad Voice that my dog won't get anywhere near it.
posted by cmyk at 5:28 PM on July 13

BACON!

who wouldn't come for bacon?
posted by GardenGal at 5:29 PM on July 13 [4 favorites]

I read somewhere that dogs hear two syllable terms better than one. I have no idea if this is true, but it sounded plausible. Assuming there's a chance that this is true, I'd go with at least a two-syllable word.
posted by dbarefoot at 5:33 PM on July 13

Pumpernickel. It was the first thing I could think of that was whimsical.
posted by reenum at 5:49 PM on July 13

I often say "Ici" ("here" in French, pronounced EE-SEE) to my cats. They respond as well as cats do.
posted by dlugoczaj at 5:57 PM on July 13

I used "C'mAWN" for this purpose, which is sufficiently different from my usual usage, but easy enough for me to remember. (Of course it turned out my dog is deaf, but the principle is sound.) The word "Come" sounds either too stilted or, well, too juvenile to me.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:14 PM on July 13

There seem to be a lot of multilingual dogs here in San Francisco. I hear "acqi!" a lot and have been thinking of training my dog with that since he mostly hears "come" as "something I have no interest in doing!"
posted by judith at 6:21 PM on July 13

You want a one or two syllable word with an ending sound that is audibly different than your dog's name (i.e., if the dog's name is Fido, don't use "frodo"). Personally, I like the german "ankunft" because you could use "abfahrt" for a command telling the hound to go get something away from you.

Here's a sampling of what it's like from the dog's perspective. OK, not exactly the dog, but you get the idea....

And, just to head off any questions/comments/general snarkiness, this is NOT a required skill to live here. :)
posted by webhund at 6:45 PM on July 13

Hunter S. Thompson trained his Dobermans to attack when they heard the word "Nixon".

Just a data point.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:12 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

I LOVE RRR, and I incorporate a lot of it into my own program. The reason I'd encourage you to find a new word is that you've been using C-O-M-E since your dog was a puppy, and he's heard it a million times. There's a lot of baggage in that word. If your dog is like most, he's heard the word, but decided not to come to you after all, and learned that "come" is an optional command.

While you're in the early stages of RRR training, your dog will come to the sound of the new word 100% of the time, or you won't say it in the first place! It's a brand new day, so to speak.

It's important to choose a one-syllable word that will roll right off the tongue when you're in a panic because your dog is running headlong into traffic or towards an obviously aggressive off-leash dog. So don't choose something cutesy. My favorite is Koi. It's sharp, short, and begins with the sort of hard-vowel sound that catches a dog's ear.

Say it out loud. "Koi!" It's explosive, isn't it?
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 7:27 PM on July 13

This is kind of like a doggy safeword, isn't it?

If I had a dog, I would use, "DESTROY!", if only to have a real excuse to yell it in public. (There's also a little inherent sadomasochism in teaching your dog to come TO you when yelling "DESTROY". It even goes well with the safeword concept!)
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 7:46 PM on July 13

C'M'OVER HERE!

/scorpion
posted by turgid dahlia at 8:22 PM on July 13

Maybe it's not so much what you say as how you say it. My friend's dog (whose house I spend a lot of time at) will often come when I call him normally, "come here." But when he doesn't, I use an enthusiastic, varying-tone "get OVER here!" and he will always come to me for that one.
posted by IndigoRain at 8:45 PM on July 13

If I had a dog, I would use, "DESTROY!"

"KHAAAAAAN!"

(With the added bonus that if you are a bogan Australian with the speech impediment that bogan Australians tend to have, "KHAAAAAN!" sounds a bit like "C'MAAAAAN!" which is "come on!")
posted by turgid dahlia at 9:29 PM on July 13 [1 favorite]

"Caccaw! Caccaw!", like a really bad bird call, a la Bottle Rocket.
posted by strangecargo at 12:00 AM on July 14 [1 favorite]

Whatever word you choose, make sure it's something you will remember and have mental access to immediately in an emergency, the whole point of having an RRR is that if your dog slips his collar and heads for the road, you can scream the word and save your pup from becoming flatmeat. So don't pick something too obscure or difficult to remember, the scenario the RRR is most important for is not the "time to leave the park" one, it's the panicky "chasing a squirrel in front of a semi" one.
posted by biscotti at 4:58 AM on July 14

assume the position
posted by lester's sock puppet at 5:53 AM on July 14

plugh
posted by jozxyqk at 5:56 AM on July 14 [1 favorite]

Allez Vous!
posted by ph00dz at 6:44 AM on July 14

Mine know that when I say "right now" then I am very, very serious. We have a big (2-3 acres-ish) yard, and if I yell "right now" the Puppo will immediately come running from God-knows-where. If I yell "COME" or her name, then she'll show up when she feels like it.
posted by KAS at 8:34 AM on July 14

Njoo (n-joe) is the Swahili contraction for "come here" ... It can sound like business if you yell it a couple times in a row, but no one will have any idea what you are saying. Which might be better than DESTROY if you are trying to get your dog to stop jumping on someone's 3 year old.
posted by Chrishartley at 8:52 AM on July 14

I read somewhere that dogs hear two syllable terms better than one. I have no idea if this is true, but it sounded plausible. Assuming there's a chance that this is true, I'd go with at least a two-syllable word.
posted by dbarefoot
I've heard this too, and I notice that one of my instructors always makes co-ome into a two syllable word, even if the dog's call name is also two syllables.
This is the same reason that we use "lie down" for our dogs instead of just down.
How about "right here!" for your recall? Or maybe "recall!"
posted by Mngo at 10:23 AM on July 14

I call "C'm'ere!" to my dog, which I find more natural and easier to say. When I want his attention I call "Young Man!" and he responds, which amuses me.
posted by Breav at 11:08 AM on July 14

Jaffa, kree!
posted by BishopsLoveScifi at 8:17 PM on July 14

I use `c'mon!'. Clapping twice also works well, and can be very loud, which is good because I suck at loud whistling.

The ultimate dog retriever in my arsenal is `jump' which gives her permission to run up and jump on me. It's not good for disciplinary use because it invokes playing, but she cannot resist.

danb's `accio canis!' had me laughing. I am going to have to try that.
posted by tomble at 8:56 PM on July 14

Rosebud. It worked for Columbo.
posted by triv at 1:26 PM on July 19