Words Of Command

Heel, Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Leave, No

Before you start ‘training’ it is important to choose a set of words (sounds), the sounds you select will become command instructions. Most common commands used are: Heel, Sit, Down, Stay and Come. Other words used are: Stand, On, Over.

It is at this point that I would like to stress that the sounds (words) you use do not have to be English (or any other language for that matter) you could quite literally make up a word/sound, what is important is calm consistency, take the opportunity to add a visual command at the same time as making the sound, this will help greatly as you attempt to advance the dogs (and your) training.

The sound you use does not have to even be a word; a sound from a whistle for example can produce a number of different commands, i.e. a series of short blasts is often used for recall, whereas one long blast would normally be used for a safety ‘stop’.

“It is not the lesson that the teacher is giving, but what the student
perceives from the teaching”   Martin Pashley

Any instruction (command) we give must be:

• fair
• related to the dog’s age and ability
• given with calm clarity
• used on its own (teach one thing at a time)

Only when the individual dog has learnt simple single commands-separately, should we attempt to add these commands together.