Most important commands to teach your puppy?

Question

What the most important/core commands that a puppy should know?

Sit
Stay
Down

What else?
And how long after your puppy has a command down do you wait to move on to teaching the next command so not to confuse them?

Answer 1

* COME HERE -- This is the most important BY FAR.
* Go to your rug. This is also incredibly useful.
* Leave it. -- Ignore what you are paying attention to and Drop whatevers in your mouth.

Most animals can learn 2-3 commands at once. You don't have to wait for mastery of one.

Answer 2

The most important command isn't on your list. The one that could literally save your dog's life one day. Come. If you only teach your dog one thing (I don't recommend that) Come should be it.

I've started pups as young as 4 weeks with all those commands. I don't wait until they've mastered one to move to the next. They are very different activities with very different cues, your dog can and will pick up on them.

Keep sessions short, a few 10 minutes sessions a day is going to give you more progress than one long one. Also just have your dog do these things in casual every day life. For example have the puppy sit before you put its food bowl down.

This not only gives you more practice, it also teaches the puppy manners, and that commands need to be followed wherever and whenever they are given.

Answer 3

One of the most important that you missed is "come". You can teach all four commands at once and the sooner the better.

Walk down the sidewalk making him sit every once in awhile using the other commands as well. Take him on a very long lead to a field somewhere & let him frolic around. After he has spent some of that puppy energy, make him sit, stay & walk to the end of the lead & say his/her name then "come" & gently pull on the lead. He/she will figure it out soon enough.

When you think about it the "come" command is the most important of all of the above.

Answer 4

come is the most important command. they should ALWAYS do that when you ask, it could prevent the dog from getting into dangerous situations.
Your dog can handle learning multiple commands, and in fact you should rotate them so your dog actually associates the words and hand signals with their actions. If you just focus on 1 command, they'll start performing it before you ask because they want the treat.
With stay, it's important to start out with short periods of time and work your way up from there.

Answer 5

OF the basics Come is the most important.
Start right away with house training, crate training,socialization and basic obedience
The basics: SIT, COME, DOWN, STAY, HEEL.
I do not wait for the pup to master one command before I start another. Very young pups should not train for more than a half hour each day and always end training sessions on a positive note. Never get angry with your pup for not responding to a command and praise lavishly every time pup responds to a command.

Answer 6

Come: The absolute most important is to come when called. Hands down.

Leave it: Second to that, I would say leave it is the next most important because I guarantee you that some day he will a good distance away from you and pick up something in his mouth that could be harmful to him. Telling him to leave it could save his life verses having to run toward him to grab it from him.

Wait: Teaching your dog to wait until commanded to go through door ways or down the stairs again is a safety issue for both him and you.

Give: Give could be fairly important so there aren't dominance struggles if you are trying to take something out of his mouth.

Speak: For your own safety you may want to consider teaching him to speak with a hand command so that if you were ever in a threatening situation you could quietly command your dog to start barking and draw attention to your situation.

Move: Along those same lines would be to move. Start by having your dog on a leash and shuffling your feet towards him so that he backs up while saying "Move!" If you are in a hurry or carrying something being able to get your dog out of your path could save you from a fall.

Off: As in off the couch or off me. Our dog loves to get on the couch and more than a few times this command has saved us from mud everywhere when she beelines in from outside.

Answer 7

A really good one which most people forget.....

NO!

My dogs were taught the following....

Sit
Stay
Lay down
Relax (stops them when they want to play and I don't)
Enough (same as above)
Out (used to evict them from an area)
Get Over Here (stops them from wandering, and can add Now to the end for immediate response)

Dogs can learn more than one-word commands.
They are very intelligent critters.

Answer 8

I would go in that order. I think once the dog has mastered one command, then teach the next one. I also think that having hand signals for them is also very important. Because if your dog losses it's hearing, you can still use the hand signals to command your dog.

I also think that come and heel are important in case your dog ever gets out of it's fence.

Answer 9

Actually one of the most important command for a pup to learn is come. Heal is another to learn. You should also teach lets go for when you want to start the dog at a walk. If you need training help check my website burdicklabradors.com helpful hints page under training.

Answer 10

Actually, I'd probably put 'come' at the top of the list too. And, of course, make sure your puppy understands what 'No' means. I'd put 'heel' on the list too. It makes life so much easier with a dog that walks well on the leash.

It's okay to move on to other commands. Just make sure you practice the commands your puppy has already learned every day.

Answer 11

when you can make your dog follow a command without praise in other words when you give the command its like second nature to the dog then you are ready for moving on to the next step of teaching a new command.

some other commands your dog should know is
the be quiet, heel, and do your business