[matese]

When I started off with toy dogs (Poodles) I never taught them any commands, my (foolish) thoughts were they, they are small dogs and didn't need training. After that incident of escaping and running through the woods, her knowing no commands other then fetch, I realized how so very important it was to teach any size dog basic commands. When this incident happened, I had a pack of 3, all 3 years apart, the escape artist was the baby. Training all 3 basic commands started that day. The first command word was STOP lol.

Cody is my master piece, only because he is food motivated and learns fast just to get that tiny morsel of a treat. I can say teaching him a variety of commands such as leave it, drop it has saved his life or saved him severe injury when he caught a possum and a young cat.

I never have to raise my voice or shout at him, he's such a good dog.
When he caught these two animals, he was so focused on the kill, I was screaming to leave it, and drop it, I truly think my screaming broke that kill focus because he never heard the momma screaming at him that way.
So, in a nut shell, no matter what size your pup may be, training basic commands is an absolute MUST for the safety of these precious babies.