Teaching Children (and Dog)

Textbooks Wheelock's Latin
1

Good day:

I am new to TextKit forums.

My bride and I homeschool our children who will be learning Latin through Veritas Press suggested curriculum. Wheelock will be the primary textbook when they reach 6th grade level.

I do not know Latin. I have done some minor self-study using Wheelock.

In the meantime, we just acquired a puppy for our new farm. I wish to use Latin for all her commands; however, I do not wish to teach the children wrong or impose any bad habits. I desire assistance in translating the following imperatives properly consistent with Wheelock and classical pronunciation. These are the commands our puppy trainer sent to us to have Latin equivalents ready before the first session. The dog is female. Any help is much appreciated!


  • Sit
    Stay
    Down
    Off
    Here
    Your Place
    Bed
    Leave it
    Crate
    Touch
    Come
    Wait
    Focus
    Stop
    Puppy
    Potty
2

Hi Paul,

I think this is so much fun. My wife and I have a labrador puppy who is now 1 year old, and speaks Dutch, English, German and Latin. Admittedly, the words are accompanied by hand gestures, and she might be responding more to these than the verbal commands.

I don’t use all the commands you refer to, but these are the ones I do use in latin:

Sede
Cade
Mane
Veni
Vora (because ede sounds too much like sede, and it suits her eating habits)
Pedem (my dog understands that ‘da’ is implied).
In tegetem (again she understands the implied verb).
Ramem.

3

Here’s what I came up with, hoping for suggestions:

Sit Sede
Stay Mane
Down Cade
Off Abi (‘Get away!’)
Here Hic (If denoting a place) Veni (If a command to come)
Your Place Locum Tuum (Accusative of locus tuus ‘your place’ implying the command ‘Go’ as in English)
Bed Lectum (Structure as above)
Leave it Cessa (‘Stop what you’re doing!’)
Crate ???
Touch Tange
Come Veni
Wait Mane (‘Hold up!/Stay!’, I think this expresses the idea better than exspecta)
Focus Attende
Stop Striga (‘Halt!’)
Puppy Catellus (Catelle if used to call the puppy: ‘Puppy, come!’ → Catelle, veni!)
Potty ???

4

Catella in this instance, both nom and voc.

5

Thank you for the replies, this is very helpful.

For crate, we thought of Casa and for Potty - Stercus.

I am not sure yet what the puppy trainer has in mind for some of these commands. We meet with her on Monday.

She loves the idea of training pets using a different language. Not only will this be helpful for children to learn Latin, but it also prevents confusion when speaking with kids versus dog. Plus it helps helps prevent strangers from commanding someone else’s dog - which is a common especially with thieves.

6

Not to be invasive but I do hope that you do not speak to your children in one word commands!