Five Commands Your Dog Needs to Know. Do You Know All Five?

Every dog should know some basic commands. There are five commands that are really very important and could actually be lifesaving in an emergency situation. Every dog no matter its size or its age should you know these very basic commands.

SIT COMMAND

The sit is a very basic command and should be taught to your dog early. But here’s the deal, your dog should just not do the sit command in the living room it should be able to do the sit command even if it’s outside with distractions. Proofing your dog so that he can perform these basic exercises around distractions is very important.

DOWN COMMAND

The down command is probably the most important exercise you can teach your dog. The down command is the exercise that establishes you as the master with your dog. When your dog is 20 feet away, you say down and the dog drops to the ground is the day that the dog says you are the alpha.

A lot of things have been written about aggression and one thing that many of these publications talk about is if the dog had been taught the down command as a young dog you would have probably never seen the aggression.

STAY COMMAND

The stay command is exactly what it sounds like the dog is either sitting or downing and you tell the dog to stay. Your dog should maintain that position until you give it its release word.

RECALL (COME WHEN CALLED)

Again another important exercise is the recall. It is a very important exercise because it could actually keep your dog from running out into the street and getting hit by a car. This is the exercise that you should work on repeatedly so that your dog comes to you as soon as you call.

LEAVE IT

The leave it command has a bunch of uses.  The main ones are to keep your dog from getting into something that it shouldn’t. It could also mean to ignore something for example another dog when you’re out for a walk.

These are all exercises that should be taught to your dog at a young age and can be found in almost any good basic obedience class. Take the time to train your dog and you’ll have a dog that your entire family can enjoy for the rest of its life.

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