Basic Dog Obedience Commands

Let’s start with ‘sit.’ Use small pieces of dog biscuits or any other treat for this training. Hold a small piece of treat at the level of the puppy’s nose. Your puppy will smell the treat and move his head toward it. When he sniffs the food, slowly move the hand holding the food back and slightly over the top of his head. As he stretches his neck to reach for the food, continue moving the treat over the top of his back toward his rump and repeat the command ‘sit’ several times.

Your puppy should drop into a ‘sit’ position in order to reach the food. If you raise the treat too high over the puppy’s head, he is most likely to rise on his back legs to reach the treat without sitting. As soon as the puppy sits, give him the treat, act very excited and lavish him with praise saying “good ” Continue short training sessions until your puppy sits automaticallywhen given the “sit” command. You will be surprised how quickly most puppies will learn this technique, often in just a few minutes.

Once you are sure that he has mastered this exercise, every member of the family, including all children, must be taught how to make him sit. The puppy must now sit before he receives anything. If he wants to play, he must sit. If he is being fed, he must sit before receiving his food. If he wants you to pet him, make him sit first. If he runs to the door to be let out to eliminate, praise him for going to the door, but make him sit before opening the door. You are rewarding him for signaling you to let him go out, but he must earn the privilege of having the door opened for him. When you open the door, make your puppy remain sitting until you and other family members go out the door first. This will show him that higher-ranking members of the pack go out the door first and hopefully this will keep him from bolting out the door whenever it is opened.

Stand

Stand can be a little difficult command. The dog often doesn’t understand what it did that is right. It’s just standing there and you praise it. Repetition is the name of this game. Give the command ‘stand’ and immediately praise it in this position. The dog needn’t be beside you; it can stand anywhere at first. Be more concerned with teaching the action than the best position for it at this stage. Gradually extend the length of time that you expect the dog to stand, and praise it when this time has expired.

Stay

Let the dog can stay at any distance, in any direction from the handler, not necessarily in front or beside. The easiest way to do this is to have the dog sit and gradually increase the amount of time it has to sit before you praise and release it from the exercise. Introduce the word ‘stay’ when the dog seems to get the idea that it should not move until you tell it. The ‘stay’ command should be said quietly: too much enthusiasm will cause the dog to get up. Use a gentle command to receive a steady response.