In your opinion, when can you consider a command "known"?

Something that's been ticking around my head for about a week now. It started when I began teaching my lurcher "down" outside offlead, because although he knows this command inside as soon as he's outside it's square two with him having to be right next to me and me having to point to the ground with the voice command.

So really I'm asking at what point would you consider that your dog knows a command? Is it when it responds to voice without lure? Is it when it'll do it whereever it is? Or only once your dog is 100%, no matter where you are, no matter the distance between you (obviously within a distance a command can be given)?

This is only the first part of the otherall question I have in my head, but I figure it's best to break it down and ask the smaller questions first.

I think I judge a behaviour is `captured` when the dog will perform it as I want. I think you need to be clear about what you want the dog to do, then you`ll know if the training is sucessful. For instance, there`s from a Down in front of the handler, a distance Down, a Down from a Stand or Sit, an Emergency Down,, a Down Stay etc. Each needs to be taught as a specific excercise IMO.

Sorry - just to add..
your dog probably thinks your hand signal (pointing) is part of the trigger for the action. I was taught
1. Get the action (lure or place the dog - don`t speak yet)
2. Reward the action
3. Label the action

Hi Steviesun to me training is an on going process with things that have been learnt being continually reinforced in different situations with reward (this can be a game/toy/praise/tipbit), so I personally don't look at training in terms of when my dog knows a command.

In the situation you describe with your Lurcher, he has learnt to 'down' in a particular situation ie inside , outside with all the distractions is a different situation entirely and he may need to learn again to 'down' outside. .

I suppose one could say for a dog to fully know a command you would need to teach it to obey the command in every conceivable situation.
Having said that, once taught many dogs will obey a command under most circumstances.

Let me give another example.
One of the questions when you sign up is rougly how many commands your dog has been taught. For the following few days I went over in my mind the list of things I've taught my dog, including the different commands we use. Obviously this is a little artificial, but still.

Oh and I realise that teaching a dog is an ongoing process. Nothing has taught me this more than my dog; comparing him with his older relatives makes me realise how much of an ongoing process this is (he's not stupid, but teaching is ongoing or he forgets stuff).

I'd personally say a dog has learnt a command when it can do it on the given signal without prompt (whether that be voice, whistle or hand gesture) and will do it under any circumstance.

Flynn knows "heel" if he is pulling on the lead and I stop and give the command. He doesnt do it however if I continue to walk and he doesnt know how to be sent to heel such as in the obedience sense. Therefore I would say he hasnt understood the true meaning of the command and hence doesnt know it.

Jed will go to heel from any position so I would say he does knows the meaning.

But surely you have taught your dog that when you say Heel, you want him to come back to your side when you stop. He has obeyed, therefore knows the command. You haven`t taught him that Heel means `walk by my side`, but that it means come back to my side. I think you could progress to `come to heel` very easily from this. You might need to use a different command to teach walk by my side though .

In obedience, they obviously need to be sent to heel from various positions like sitting in front of you etc. Flynn doesnt know the command under these circumstances, he only knows it when he is on a lead and I stop and tell him.

I can see your point about the difference between heel at a standstill and heel whilst moving but i'd still say he doesnt know the command because he can only do it if he is already on my left and on a lead.

Personally I think training is always a continual thing no matter what the command is, and I never take it for granted that a dog knows a command. Just because they have done it for the last month or longer when requested, doesn't mean they will always do it when requested especially in an emergency when it really counts the most..

I am always going back over known commands in different situations with my lot whenever I take them out, because to me that just keeps it fresh in their minds.