What do you feel is the most important command to train?
 

A situation today got me thinking about what everyone feels is the most important command for their dog to know. Obviously sit & down come in handy- it is nice to put my dog in a down stay at the vet while other dogs are lunging at the end of their leash. But today I dropped some candy on the floor and Chloe grabbed a piece in her mouth- I yelled "drop it" and she did. I honestly, dont care about most things- I don't invite my dogs on the furniture, I don't care if they jump on me, I don't care if they heal perfectly- but to me DROP IT- is one command they MUST know.

So what is the most important command in your house?!

COME COME COME...that is the most important, especially if your dog escapes and starts running away. COME COME COME. They have to understand that and what it means. THen you can play with Down, Sit, heal, No, release, etc. Carlo has several words that were ingrained in his brain housing group when he was Personal Protection trained. While he sometimes pretends not to hear sit or down, he Comes, and when given his GO TO word, he fires up in a heatbeat, and another word brings him bback to reality. Fortunately never had to say them in a life or death situation, and that is good for the bad guy! COME COME COME

"Drop it" and" Leave it" are the most important for my dogs. I have 5 children who leave toys and things around on the floor in their rooms. Belle is always grabbing an action figure or lego or piece of paper. "Drop it" is extremely important.

"Leave it" is great for keeping the dogs from even picking up something that they shouldn't have. I use that when one of the cats vomits - heaven knows that the dogs would love to clean that up! I also will use "leave it" when my shih tzu starts to chase or harrass our cats and when outside walking and they see something that I don't want them to get into.

The 2 commands I feel are the most important are the 'come' command and 'stay' command...either of them could save the life of your pet...after that would be 'drop it'.

I would have to say the "Come" and the "Stay" commands...
next after that the "Drop" and "Leave It"!! :)

I think stay is number one for me. Come is a close second. Drop it or leave it would be third.

"Sit" - which we command by saying "What are you supposed to do?" - and Remy will sit. Did not intentionally train him this way, somehow "Sit" evolved into the question. It's funny because when we say it to him, he will immediately sit and look up at us for approval. Strangers are frequently taken aback. It's pretty funny. Anyhow, this one is critical because we live in a condo and ride elevators frequently, so he needs to have good public manners and can't be jumping on people.

"Drop it" - we command by saying "not for you" and he will leave whatever it is that he is interested in alone.

"No" and "Come" are the other important ones

Come Come or Hear, Walk, Sit, Stay , Leave it, Drop it, and Aaaa Aaaa or (NO)
It's simple.... use the same comands all the time and they will pick up on it in no time at all. Be consistant..

"Leave it" saved my dachsund's life when we stumbled upon a copper head during a walk.

Have I mentioned that I hate snakes?

Good question!

I agree, leave it and come are critical. But the one I've used most successfully and am thankful for is STOP. It works 100 percent of the time on both Yorkies, whereas our COME isn't perfect. If they've got something better going on, come doesn't always work first time. STOP, however, is critical. If there's a hazard between me and the dogs, I don't want them to come. If another dog is harassing them, I don't want them running to me and inciting the other dog. I want them to stop and let me take care of the problem.

We are still working on the COME command with Buster he is very motivated if he knows I have a treat but inconsistent otherwise On our walks he has been quite the vacuumn with anything and everything so LEAVE IT has been very important. We are working on the STOP command because I am always afraid that if he is across the street with my roomate that he might run across when he sees that I am home.

Leave it and let's go. I use that instead of come. Works great for my dogs

Come,Stay and leave it !!!

I've always thought logically Come would be most important, but I like the thought of Stop, too.
I've had to really say come out of near desperation a couple of times & if she's in super turbo terrier mode she doesn't even flinch. The one time it didn't work & could've been tragedy was when she went to take on a husky. I was putting her & some things in the car & she flew past me, thankfully I still had the leash & it ended inches away from the well trained dog!
So we have to continue to work on that. I think Drop It is important as well. Since she used to just gulp whatever she had before I could get to her (usually paper), it's a relief to have her spit it out now!

Come,and stop barking!!!!

Stop... but fetch me a beer is a close 2nd:eek:

Kisses! Joey's kisses have saved my life several times! :D

And another:

Let go of my ankle. That's not funny! Ouch! That hurts. Eddie! EDDIE!

I somehow started using wait with them during some of their training exercises, and they both know wait. Sometimes they will come if they know I have treats but when I say wait, they wait. Especially if I have the panic sound in my voice. They don't look up or around, they stop and wait. I'm trying it now for when the doorbell rings to see if it will help with the door dashing.

Come, stay and leave it. Louie has not mastered come without a treat,still working on the come, so right now we say, stay and go pick him up. Had to work around it for now:)

Wait is great when opening a door to outside, stops my three from running out. I make them wait whether they will be going outside or not. We also do Wait when out walking. Basically my dogs know that wait means "freeze". It's reinforced daily at mealtimes, I put down their dishes and tell them to wait. Until I say "OK" they don't touch their food. That's another command that can save dogs' lives.

Agree. This is why I think 'stay' or 'stop' is the most important. If they would just "stay" when I say, they wouldn't have to "come" in the first place, if that makes sense.

That a good one, we're working on STOP :)

"leave it" happens in my house alot lol

"drop it!" & "here" are my top two. Both stop her from getting into trouble.

I broke a glass baking dish before she had "here" down pat & she ran through the shards of broken glass. Thankfully she wasn't hurt and she had it down cold when I spilled a can of paint :).

"drop it" is an awesome puppy command cos everything goes in their mouth the second they see it.

Most important for me is WAIT (probably used the way most people use stay)

I think "COME" and "LEAVE IT" are big ones for us. We also say "SIT" alot. So I dont know. We also use "GO TO BED" alot. When I need to get something done or cook we will say "GO TO BED" and he will either go lay on the couch, under the computer desk or in our bed/his bed too :). and he will stay there until I tell him he may play now.

:rolleyes: I suppose we thought that our perfect little angel would come home understanding what we said!! :eek: 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"!!! :sidesplt: 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.

In our case I think leave it because my husband and I both take meds in the morning and I am always afraid of dropping a pill. The second would be come. Lexi got out the front door right after we got her and ran next door and sit on the curb. I just knew she would dart out in the street because she would not come to us. Just sat there. Scared me half to death. My husband finally coaxed her with a treat.

For me the most important thing Kaji has learned is "drop it" and "leave it." He's not a runner, so I don't worry about that. If he wasn't so scared all the time, he would walk nicely on a leash. "Drop it" and "leave it" are real life savers.

Hey OP, I was thinking the same thing. I wanted to know what everyone else thought was the most important command your babies have learned.

I would have to say our "wait" the command we use to make the dog freeze. Well, the dog is supposed to freeze. They automatically follow it even if they accidentally get off leash outside.