Dog Commands in Hawaiian

As a way to keep the Hawaiian language alive in our home — particularly after moving from Honolulu to Humboldt — we decided to train our Bullmastiff puppy using commands in Hawaiian. I am pleased to be able to share these commands with you, which were reviewed by my Kumu ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.

See the videos below for the pronunciation of these Hawaiian dog commands:

Noho means “sit” in Hawaiian.
Kuʻu is our abbreviated way of telling our dog, “hoʻokuʻu,” which means “to release” in Hawaiian.
“Hele mai” means “come (in the direction of the speaker)” in Hawaiian.