Gee and Haw

[highway61]

I realize our pet dogs are not draft animals but when walking your dogs, particularly on long leads or off leash, is this used? I always thought it was used to simply get the animal (sled dog or horse) to turn right or left but looking at the definition, the position of the driver determines what to use. And depending on what country you're in compounds the complexity.

 

Gee and haw are voice commands used to tell a draft animal to turn right or left, or to direct sled dogs pulling a sled or sleigh.^[1][2] Gee (pronounced "jee") means to turn to the off side (away from the driver). Haw means to turn to the near side (towards the driver).

In the United States, the driver of draft animals sits on their left, so animals will turn right to the gee command, and left to the haw command. In England the driver stands to the right of the animals, reversing the relative directions they indicate (i.e., an English trained team of horses will "haw" to the right, while an American trained team will "haw" to the left — in both cases towards their driver.) As James Lloyd Clark points out, "Generally, work horses are not subject to a lot of international travel so the fear of great confusion on the farm is minimal."^[3]

[Gloria Atwater]

I personally haven't seen that done, but I reckon that since dogs don't speak English - or any other human language - it doesn't really matter what words we chose, so long as the dog understands what we want. I had a friend years ago whose dog's commands were all colors - "red" was "speak," "pink" was "sit" and so on.

And actually, in most countries one sits behind the horse when driving it, since after all the wagon or cart must follow. Regardless, I'd never heard that driving commands were opposite in the US vs UK. Interesting. Goes along with our conflicting sides of the road!

~ Gloria

[LauraV]

We say left and right...

[Eileen Stein]

With sled dogs, the position of the driver is always the same -- directly behind the team -- so gee always means right, and haw always means left. Europeans and Brits have run in the Iditarod, and I suspect they use the same commands -- at least I never noticed they were reversed.

[highway61]

Does anyone (or most?) use a command to turn their dog left and right when walking or biking? Its not something I've worked on when walking but now that my dog is jogging right next to me while I bike its something of high value so I've started training this when we walk (will use on the bike after its fool proof). I suppose "Left" and "right" will do just fine

[LauraV]

With our bike we just use left and right since we used that with basic obedience. I feel like if I tried using something else I would forget what word I used or switch them on accident.

[Root Beer]

I will tell my dogs which way to turn when we are hiking (I like them out ahead of me). I don't know that they really understand, though. I do it more to be conversational.

[rwinner]

I used to rollerblade with one of my dogs out in front. She knew right, left, slow, and stop.