I speak to my dog in Irish. But if I only want her to come to me (not do anything specific, like come in the house, or get in her crate), I just call her name and she runs up to me. I don't actually have to tell her to "come." Just my two cents.

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Táim ag foghlaim Gaelainn na Mumhan

Tá fáilte roim nach aon cheartú!
I am a learner. Any translations offered are practice and should not be used unless confirmed.

Yes. Or just call his name.

It is short for "gabh i leith" "come here".
In Donegal it's said/written as "goitse".


What are you naming the dog Christy?

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
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Bríd, as far as the animals, there is a dog named Séamus (which would be lenited in vocative case) and a cat named Oisín (which wouldn't be lenited since it begins with a consonant, I believe). The other two cats are yet to be named.

I also get the "goille" now too. Originally, I was thinking "stomach" (as if calling the dog to your body), but I now see that's "goile."

Séamus would be "A Shéamuis" in the vocative. You're right about it being lenited, but I'm not sure if you knew that the last s becomes slender.

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Táim ag foghlaim fós. Fáilte roimh gach aon cheartúchán.

Similarly - A Sheáin, when you are addressing Seán.

The vocative is correct. And nothing wrong with using it with dogs.
But in practice people would normally just call the name -
Aindí !
Oisín !
(my two dogs)

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It is recommended that you always wait for three to agree on a translation.
I speak Connemara Irish, and my input will often reflect that.
I will do an mp3 file on request for short translations.
___________________________________________________________

We recently got a lovely rescue German Shepherd Dog, and I think it would be cool to train her in Irish. Maxi (Macsaí b'fhéidir?) is so smart as it is, she can do lots of things already without any formal training.

BTW, a dog who was trained in one language can always be re-trained in another, just as they can learn to respond to a different name.

Here's what we did with our dog Wiley:

http://www.bitesizeirishgaelic.com/blog ... the-block/

When I call him, I just use his name if it's not imperative that he obey. I used "goitse!" in the same sense that "come!" is used in the obedience ring: "get yourself over here right now and don't be slow about it!"

Redwolf

Because I wasn't consistent my dog ended up being bilingual. She understands Sui sios as well as Sit down, and goille as well as come. Its all about tone, not a bother to them

I agree. My youngest had some issues with his speech until recently. Most adults couldn't understand him, and yet our Black Lab never had a problem understanding his commands at all. Boy's best friend.

Thanks again for all the input, everyone. I'm thinking I'll probably leave the animal names un-lenited since that seems to be the consensus.