Why hup?

[crackerd]

...as they did Hi-seek, Hi-lost, Gone away & Ware rabbit.

Naj

Could that be where 'brer rabbit' came from?

And 'Were Rabbit' too, Naj, from your etymological research?
http://youtu.be/wzsoSkVYon0

MG

[Naj]

...as they did Hi-seek, Hi-lost, Gone away & Ware rabbit.

Naj

Could that be where 'brer rabbit' came from?

And 'Were Rabbit' too, Naj, from your etymological research?
http://youtu.be/wzsoSkVYon0

MG

don't you get Were Wabbits over there, MG, or are you 'ware' of them?

[Andrew]

Don't they say hup in the army as in hup 2 3 4?

[Mike A]

When I say "FFS " Wilf sits !

[Judy]

Mine too? Who needs commands? And its Hup 2, 3 in this house until I get another pup. Unless the OG is home of course. Then its 4 too.

[kent]

My neighbour only ever seemed to say "Bob" to his sheepdog and it did what he desired at the time in question. Thing is they learn our words but don't actually need them...

Your words may be unnecessary, but not ours - everything from softer inflection in sending for a shorter retrieve to "barking" out the send for a long bird. The dogs are trained on this kind of verbal mnemonic from the get-go.

Speaking of get-go, Hi, Naj it's Hie-on, hie-seek and hie-lost. You can look it up - in the OED

MG

The point is the word itself don't matter only the dog connecting one thing with the action. Whistle pip, longer Pip, double pip, nod of the head, hand movement, click of the fingers etc. Dogs are better non verbal communicators than us by far, this doesn't mean they don't get them Billy Connelly wrote a song about that I think
some handlers use words too much and the human voice alerts far more game than a gunshot. I doubt Bob really needed telling to get on the quad, gather the fell or go get that sheep that split after he had done the task for so many years. "Bob" was mainly just saying get on with it the rest was non verbal (perhaps with a little inflection I grant)

[Penwithian]

It's my understanding that traditionally it was 'hup' for spaniels, ( 'sit up!' shortened to 'Hup! ) and 'sit' for retrievers? I use 'hup' for my spaniels, and 'in' when they jump in the car, so there's no confusion!

[crackerd]

It's my understanding that traditionally it was 'hup' for spaniels, ( 'sit up!' shortened to 'Hup! ) and 'sit' for retrievers? I use 'hup' for my spaniels, and 'in' when they jump in the car, so there's no confusion!

Another difference between we sharers of (and separated by) a common language. I went from spaniels ("Hup!" for sit) into retrievers ("Hup! Hup! Hup!" for getting the less-enthusiastic Labs and Chessies excited for a "happy bumper" [fun retrieve]). Recall a purported pro trainer trying this latter sequence with my Boykin, a spaniel first and foremost on "Hup!" and the sit whistle, but trained as a non-slip retriever. At the first "Hup!" the little brown dog's bottom hugged ground and wouldn't budge even with all the other "Hup-hup-hup" entreaties that followed.

don't you get Were Wabbits over there, MG, or are you 'ware' of them?

Naj, we're more likely to get "wabbiting on" over here, especially on some of the "American fora" - as Wullie can attest at this moment. He started a very good thread about a peculiar continental breed (Bracco Italiano) only to have a "wabbiter" of Canadian origin contribute a nonsequitur about how "Most American Labs have to be trained to retrieve while the British will drop those from the gene pool." But we have free wabbiting constitutional rights over here, especially for the pointer people, it seems, so, as Sid James would have it, Carry On Wabbiting.

MG

[Naj]

Cor, blimey! Sid James!!! ... you're showing your age there, MG.

[Alice]

am I the only one who still uses 'gone away' as well as hup and hi(e) loss(t)? must be premature aging!