I suppose we thought that our perfect little angel would come home understanding what we said!!
We tried what the books said and wound up hiring a trainer because we couldn't even teach Toto to walk on her leash. When we put her tiny harness on her, she flattened herself out flat on the floor like we had swatted her with a fly swatter and wouldn't move for anything. Anywho, her trainer had us make a list of the words we were already using as "commands" and trained her accordingly. She quickly learned from Paul.
Theennnnn ........ he "trained us"!!!
Seriously ... "stay" has been the best and most useful command. If she runs, has something in her mouth, etc., as soon as we sternly say "stay", she either stops in her tracks, drops whatever she has in her mouth or whatever she may be doing wrong, she stops immediately. She also knows "no", when walking on the leash "stay with me" means to trot in front of us and on the left side. We can say a few things in "conversational tone" such as "we have to go somewhere and you have to stay" at which time she drops her little head and slowly goes to her "safe place" where she naps until we return. Or we can say, "want to go?" and she dances her happy dance and we tell her "kennel up" and she jumps in her carrier or on her blankie that we are taking her out in. If we tell her "up" she immediately comes to either be picked up or jumps in our lap. We have found that the fewer simple one word commands the better.