In our over twenty years of dog training, Beyond the Dog has found that there are five obedience commands that all puppies should learn. These are sit, down, heel, stay, and come. In this blog, we will give some tips for each command, but first, let’s discuss why puppies need to be trained in different environments and around a variety of distractions.
Train your puppy around different distractions and in different environments
Do you want your dog to reliably listen to commands around distractions? To do this, you need to practice these commands around distractions.
It’s common for clients to first reach out to us and say their dog does very well at home, but doesn’t listen in distracting environments, such as at a dog park, when eating out at a restaurant, or when guests come to their home. Dogs taught only in a home environment can be unreliable around other dogs and may act as if they’ve never had any training.
The key is to introduce distractions in a way that supports your dog’s learning. This includes teaching your dog both inside and outside, on grass and concrete, and when your dog is fifty feet away from other dogs, or even ten feet away. You may feel like you are just saying the same command across these different scenarios, but your puppy is experiencing a very different situation in each environment.
You should offer your puppy high value treats to encourage them to listen to your training commands. Though all puppies have different tastes, our favorites include sausage bites, jerky cuts, freeze-dried training treats, or their kibble.
Now that we have discussed the importance of training a puppy around different distractions, let’s discuss tips for the five obedience commands that all puppies should learn.
Sit
You should teach sit at a distance, not just in front of you. You should be able to say sit and have your puppy respond from ten feet away just as reliably as if they are next to you.
Down
You should teach down when they are in a standing position. If you get into the habit of always telling your puppy to sit and then down, then these commands can become chained together.
Stay
It’s particularly important to teach stay in high distraction environments such as at a park with a playground nearby. As well as all the environments you will think you will use the behavior in. But don’t try to push this learning to quick, like expecting your dog to be as reliable at Home Depot as they are at your home within a few days.
Heel
You should try to avoid starting to teach heel with a six foot leash. We start teaching heel on a fifty foot leash and we do what is called a “choose to heal”. We start walking with our puppy outside, and when they fall into a natural heel position, we will bridge by saying “good” and giving them a treat.
Come
When teaching come, we always teach puppy’s to come to us, auto sit in front of us, and allow us to take a hold of their collar before they are rewarded. This is useful in an emergency situation, so you can quickly grab them when they are coming in from a distance.
We are here to help
We recommend you check out our TikTok channel for more training tips, as well as our board and train blogs.
Would you like help teaching high-level obedience and manners? or to discuss any behavioral concerns that you may have? You can contact our pet behavior team for a free consultation to discuss your training goals and any questions you may have. We offer Dog Board and Train Programs nationwide, virtual training programs with Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage and in person training programs in Tampa Bay, Sarasota, Houston and Dallas.
We use scientifically proven training methods, backed by over 20 years of hands-on experience. Beyond the Dog is led by our co-founders, Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage, a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and Sean Savage, a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA).
