A great way to strengthen your Chaldean speaking skills is to speak to your pet in Chaldean.  Domesticated animals distinguish body language and then associate a sound to the expected behavior.  In short, animals, like humans can learn different languages. 

Combined with behavioral modification techniques your family pet can learn a long list of Chaldean commands.   However, the commands have to be combined with reinforcement.  The model is similar to the work of famed psychologist B.F. Skinner. 

The following video clips of Sheero demonstrate how positive reinforcement paired with the Chaldean language can help your family pet learn your language. 

Remember, like young children, dogs like to be praised rather than punished. Repeatedly rewarding your dog immediately after following a command will be the most powerful tools for shaping or changing your dog’s behavior. 

Correct timing is also essential when rewarding. The reward must occur immediately—within seconds—or your pet may not associate it with the proper action. For example, if you have your dog "sit" (E-To in Chaldean)  but reward her after she's already stood back up, she'll think she's being rewarded for standing up.

Consistency is also essential. Everyone in the family should use the same commands. That means everyone in the family should speak the same language if you are training the dog to learn the Chaldean language.  It might help to post these where everyone can become familiar with them.

The most commonly used commands for dogs are:

English / Chaldean Language Phonetically

"watch me" / Khore Gowee
"sit"  /  E-To
"stay" /  Paush
“Come” /  hay-you
"Come Here" /  Hay-you Akha
"stand" /  Humool
"leave it" /  Off-li
“Stop” /  Bess

Consistency means always rewarding the desired behavior and never rewarding undesired behavior.

Using Rewards

For your pet, rewards may include food treats, praise, petting, or a favorite toy or game. Food treats work especially well for training your dog.  You don’t have to be as extravagant as Sheero’s owner and offer gourmet food like red rice and dolma.  However, a treat should be enticing and irresistible to your pet.

Keep in mind that the treat reward should be a very small, soft piece of food, so that she will immediately gulp it down and look to you for more. If you give her something she has to chew or that breaks into bits and falls on the floor, she'll be looking around the floor, not at you. Small pieces of soft commercial treats, hot dogs, cheese, or cooked chicken or beef have all proven successful.

Experiment a bit to see what works best for your pet. You can carry the treats in a pocket or fanny pack. Each time you use a food reward, you should couple it with a verbal reward (praise). Say something like, "Good dog," in a positive, happy tone of voice.

Weening Your Pet Off Treats

You can’t expect to give your dog treats forever.  Especially if your giving them gourmet food.  Intermittent reinforcement can be used once your pet has reliably learned the behavior. At first, reward the dog with the treat three out of every four times she does the behavior. Then, over time, reward her about half the time, then about a third of the time, and so on, until you're only rewarding her occasionally with the treat.

Continue to praise her every time—although once your dog has learned the behavior, your praise can be less effusive, such as a quiet, but positive, "Good dog." Use a variable schedule of reinforcement so that she doesn't catch on that she only has to respond every other time. Your pet will soon learn that if she keeps responding, eventually he'll get what he wants—your praise and an occasional treat.

[If you have a video of your pet reacting to Chaldean commands send it to info@chaldean.org or post it on YouTube and drop us a note.  Funnies Chaldean Pet trick will win a prize]