Essential Commands that could Save Your Dog’s Life
Out of all the commands you can teach your dog, this article lists those which can save his life. These are commands that keep him out of danger and out of harm’s way. Among these, three stand out as absolutely essential because they can make the difference between life and death:
The Recall Command compels your dog to return to you no matter what.
The Stop Command compels your dog to stop whatever he’s doing and to freeze in place, to stay put.
The Down Command – compels your dog to immediately stop and lay down.
The Leave It Command – compels your dog to stay clear of suspicious objects and hazardous material.
You need to include all four of these essential commands in your dog’s training regimen. The goal is for your dog to obey these commands consistently under a wide range of environmental distractions and sources of stress, without hesitation, objection or complaint.
The Recall Command ("Come!")
You can train your dog to obey your recall command by first getting him to stay in place at a distance. Then you call him to come to you. When he succeeds, reward him with treats and praise.
Again, the first step is to train him to stay in place at a distance, either sitting or laying down. Then on your command of “Come!,” you train him to break out of his stay position and run to your side. When he does this successfully, reinforce his success by making a big deal out of it. Reward him with treats, enthusiastic praise and a happy display of being really pleased with his performance. Repeat this drill consistently every day until he obeys without fail.
The “recall” command is an essential command for your dog to master before going off leash in public, whether at a remote beach or within a municipal park. At all such venues, you can’t predict whether your dog will encounter another dog, wildlife, careless traffic on nearby roads, or strangers who are unfamiliar with dogs. You need to be able to call your dog back to you without fail before they encounter any of these hazards.
Other dogs might react aggressively to your dog, causing him serious injury in a fight. With people, the danger is usually a matter of irrational fear, hysteria, ignorance and sometimes stupidity, on the part of the stranger.
Clearly, you need to be able to recall your dog directly and without any hesitation, for their own safety. This means consistent, diligent and repetitive practice until you have his recall command down pat.
Let’s go over the training drill in more detail.
1) Preparation
Prepare to reward your dog with his favorite treats. Psych yourself up to reward him with enthusiastic praise. Be ready to shower him with love and affection when he obeys your recall command successfully.
2) Have Your Dog “Stay”
Train your dog to stay where he is, in either a sitting or down position.
3) Keep Your Dog in “Stay” Mode
Encourage him to stay where he is by repeating to him, ”Good Stay, Good Stay,” as you back away. Reward him for being able to do so.
4) Recall Your Dog with “Come!”
Once you’ve gotten a few paces away you can stop and give them your recall command. Reward them with a treat and shower of enthusiastic attention when they succeed.
Once you and your dog have progressed to the milestone where they do come to you consistently, you can steadily and progressively increase the distance and the level of distraction that your dog must endure in the “Stay” position and then obey your recall command.
Once you can have your dog obey your recall command successfully and reliably over a range of distances and progressive levels of distraction such as proximity to other dogs and other people, then you can throw in additional challenges. For example, you can hide behind an obstacle, say a tree in the park, or go into a different room in your home, or you can have your training partner entice your dog with treats.
Make this exercise part of your daily routine and part of a consistent training regimen. The recall command can mitigate the risk to your dog’s safety when letting him off-leash where he might wander onto a road, stray too close to livestock or wildlife, and most dangerous of all, encounter strangers and their dogs.
The "Stop" Command
For the Stop command, you train your dog to stop in his tracks and stay put when you yell, “ Stop!”
It can be a life-saving command if your dog starts to run into the street or towards a road beyond the edge of a park.
In fact, this command saved my dog’s life.
The delivery man had just knocked at the door with a package of takeout food and a six pack of beer, which required a signature. While my girlfriend was busy with the food and the signature, our dog slipped out the door.
Realizing the lethal danger presented by the busy street in front of our house, I ran out after him.
When I appeared on the sidewalk behind him, he acted as if I were playing a game by dodging my attempt to catch him. Then he launched himself between two parked cars into oncoming traffic.
I shouted “Stop!” at the top of my lungs.
And that’s exactly what he did. He came to a full stop. Fortunately, the expert driver careening down the hill had managed to swerve and stop his car just in time to avoid killing my dog.
I’m convinced that if I had not consistently and diligently trained my dog to obey the “Stop!” command, he would have been run over.
This is how I trained him. On every walk, at every curb, before crossing the street, I commanded him to stop. I trained him to come to a complete stop at the curb, to sit down and to stay. We repeated this drill consistently on every walk, twice a day, so that he got plenty of reinforced training through repetition and practice at all of the streets we crossed in the hilly neighborhood above Noe Valley in San Francisco.
I reinforced the stop command with treats, praise, affection, repetition, and consistency. My dog and I exercise the drills on every walk without exception. Our efforts have certainly paid off.
I continue to reinforce the stop command by clearly saying “Stop!” both at the curbside and at a distance in parks, as well as when he displays reactive behavior towards other dogs.
If you don’t live in the city and can’t use the waypoints of the streetside curbs that I’ve used, then get creative and use a wide variety of other waypoints, or no waypoints at all. The important thing is start training your dog to obey this command. Begin by commanding your dog to stop at random, and fairly often, at least a dozen times per walk, to reinforce the stop command. His response must be to consistently stop, sit and stay in place.
Once your dog can stop consistently, on command, at your side, then work on having him stop at a distance from you when he’s off leash.
After that, challenge your dog’s ability to stop and stay put on command, as for the recall command, with progressive greater distances and more enticing distractions.
The “Down” Command
This command is an advanced variation of the stop command. It’s useful when taking dogs off leash in the wilderness.
For the “down” command, train your dog to stop and then immediately descend into a fully prone position.
Again, this command depends on consistent training and repetition every day.
Train your dog exactly as you would for the stop command, but have him continue from the sit position to the down position. Once he has mastered the down command at your side, continue to train him to obey at a distance when he’s off leash.
Remember to reward his progress with love and enthusiasm. Make the training drills a fun game that you both enjoy.
Again, progress to the next level by challenging your dog with progressively greater distance and more enticing distractions.
The “Leave It” Command
For this command, you train your dog to steer clear of all the hazardous and noxious stuff you’re bound to encounter when out on walks, e.g. rubbish, feces, broken glass, road kill, bags of suspicious powders and so on.
Begin with his favorite treats. Hold the treat in your finger tips and present it to him. The alternate between two commands, “Take It” and “Leave It.” Withdraw the treat whenever you say “Leave It” but always give him the treat when you say, “Take It!” Make sure he knows that he will inevitably receive a treat when you say “Take It,” so that he’ll happily leave the treat when you command him to “Leave It.”
Progress to the next level by placing the treat in front of him, yet where you can easily snatch it away. Then repeat the drill of alternating between the “Take It” and “Leave It” commands until he consistently obeys. And again, make sure he gets lots of treats overall to reinforce his trust in you to eventually reward him.
Once again, level up the challenge with longer wait times and more enticing treats.
Now when you’re out on walks you can command your dog to “Leave It,” when walking past rubbish bins, and then reward him with a treat soon afterwards, once you’ve walked past the offensive object.
Start Training Your Dog to Obey these Essential Commands Today
You owe it to yourself and your dog to learn these commands for recall, stopping in place and descending into the down position. They could save your dog from imminent threats when you least expect them.