6 Dog Training Commands

Does your dog know all of these?

Zoom Room founder and dog training expert Jaime Van Wye shares the six dog training commands every dog should know with the New York Times, Washington Post and ABC News.

Three veteran dog trainers were asked by The Associated Press to reveal the six top dog training commands they believe every dog (and owner) should master. Perhaps the most critical command all three trainers agreed upon was recall – coming when called – because it is essential to a dog’s safety and welfare in so many situations.

“The key is repetition and building up a strong reward history, letting the dog know good things happen when it comes,” said Van Wye. “Don’t call them when you know they won’t come and if you are mad at the dog and when he gets there you are going to scold him. Make sure good things happen when the dog comes when called.”

Van Wye also is a firm believer in teaching your dog to avoid any potential distraction with a “Leave it” command. Leave it means “stop paying attention to that, whatever that is.”

But the head Zoom Room dog trainer reserves the #1 spot on her list of top dog training commands for “Go to bed.”

It’s a boundary stay. It works really well if you use a bath mat, an actual dog bed, some kind of hot spot. You tell the dog: ‘You can’t get off this. You can do circles, sit, lie down, stand up, turn around or do back flips. I don’t care what you do, you just can’t get off this. It’s a great command if you have more than one animal or if you have ordered pizza and don’t want the dog on the table trying to steal it or have people over who don’t like dogs.

Read the full coverage and the rest of the top dog training commands in the New York Times, The Washington Post, or ABC News.