This here is Luna. What commands should we teach her first
Images & Videosdrop it and leave it will not only make your life easier but could also save her life. I take several medications from service connected issues and am always afraid that if I drop one, my dogs might get it before I can pick it up. This is exactly why, after sitting and staying, we taught leave it first, then drop it.
Mine likes going after lizards and snakes. Growing up we had a hound dog that had a specific “snake bark” and we lived next to a swamp so I’d load the gun and go shoot the water moccasin or copperhead he’d have cornered but he was smart enough not to attack other and get bit.
Currently in a similar environment, thankfully my ACD hasn’t been bit by anything besides a king snake (honestly it was pretty funny) but there seems to be a clutch of moccasins moving out of the cypress swamp across the street so I’ve had to do a morning patrol with a shovel lately before we can throw the ball in the yard.
Where I take my puppy to training I was told yesterday that later this year a Snake expert will be coming to teach our dogs to not go near snakes. I think that for us it’ll be very handy. I’m in Victoria Australia
Sit/Down/Leave It/Drop are basic behaviors so yes, I agree with this.
Definitely these, and I would also add “stay” and “settle”. Ours is a little maniac, but she’s so smart and gets things quick.
You'll probably want to add "no bite" soon. Trust me. :)
If a cattle dog is nipping, you just re direct them with a toy. That way when they have the urge to get a bite in they bite the toy and can release that bite in a healthy no destructive way. :)
Sit. Down. Stay. Wait.
That way she behaves during visits with strangers and during dinner time.
Wait! So important as they are soooooo excited! And leave it!
When Zoë was around I'd tell her to chill. Leave that.
She always looked so contrite and just absolutely crushed. No wonder she got away with so much.
Place and leave it. Also make your you constantly touch her ears and paws so she will get used to then being handled.
Ohhh yes! This is a good one! I couldn’t help but touch my pup’s feet (because they were soooo cute lol), and now he’s totally desensitised at 2 years old
Luna is the #1 dog name (for girls) right now, so you might wanna work on a special “recall” command in case it triggers other dogs. 😁
She’s insanely cute, regardless. And I’ve found “leave it” to be most useful.
Ha, that was my first thought, this name is extremely popular for both babies and dogs. FWIW you're going to be around a million dogs and small children with the same name!
Already been working ok that lol
Trying to have the command be “here” followed by a leg pat
After sit and stay, leave it
Sit means stay ;)
Not exactly. When training with my older dog, I do not always add stay [stay put until I return to your side and tell you what is next] or wait [wait until I am away from you and tell you what to do next] to the commands sit, down, or stand.
When he was a puppy, I did. Thus,
sit used to be sit stay, down used to be down stay, stand used to be stand stay--until I return to your side,
Or,
sit could also be sit wait, down could be down wait, stand could be stand wait-- until I am at a distance and tell you what to do next.
Once they are older and have developed distance, distraction, duration, the stay and wait don't have to be added on. Older trained dogs should park it until you tell them to move.
Start working on “Leave it” right away. Go to bed is also super useful. Focus/look at me is really important for getting your dog’s attention. Sit and stay are easy and very worthwhile early on, especially with duration. Loose leash walking is also extremely important - stop anytime she pulls for 30 seconds and treat her when she doesn’t pull and keep it up. The earlier you do that, the better you’ll be.
"Look" at me is my favorite command that often goes overlooked and undertrained.
The trainer we use uses focus for her dog, and I kind of wish I'd taught focus instead, it's a more distinct word and quicker so they hear it faster.
Yeah I can see that. Any eye contact attention command is a must for me now though.
Very first is the dog's name.
Most critical: sit and recall.
Then, in no particular order: break [take a short break, it is a release word, some people use okay instead of break], down, stand, left and right [essential for all Heelers], with me [loose lead walking, push [attention heeling], twirl, shake, find [the car, other objects], place, follow, say hello, leave it, drop it, take it, give it, back [back up], look at me or "eyes," names of toys, names of family members and friends.
When practicing, the three Ds. Distraction, distance [away from you], duration [how long a dog will hold one position, useful in building time for stays -- until I return to you, and waits -- until I tell you what to do next.
Puppies develop self-discipline slowly. You can still work on this with the trade game. Put a treat in your hand. When they quit pestering you, give them a better treat from your other hand.
Make all training a game. Cattle dogs need variation when training. They will not be happy practicing the same command over and over. [Golden Retrievers will do so. ACDs will look annoyed after the second repetition].
Thus, we practice stuff in random order. Like this: sit, stay, with me, sit, wait, come, heel, drop it, break, with me, sit, stay, down, wait, break, sit, down, come, with me, left, left, break, right, left, right, right, eyes, check em, eyes, break, with me, stand, wait, come, down, wait, come, heel, leave it, left, sit...
with lots of praise when they do it right.
Puppies will work on less commands than that-- maybe sit, down, with me, come, break, to start.
At a year old, my boy knew 20 commands. This increased every month. Now, he knows over 50. He does parkour and agility so he also knows: over, tire, weave, up, paws up, under, crawl, through along with fun stuff like kisses, hug, lean, chin, walk through, and block.
I teach signs along with the commands. When my dogs have gone deaf in old age, I still had a way to communicate with them.
Your ACD will probably enjoy group lessons. If you can, do this.
Once she hits a year old, with the approval of your vet, you can begin looking into dog sports like agility, parkour, dock diving, search and rescue, fieldwork, tracking, herding, barn dog, FASTCAT, or scent work. There are lots more.
It is better to find the doggie sports that may interest your ACD than to wait for them to pick their own hobbies. Their "hobbies" may not be to your liking.
ACDs make for an adventurous life. There is no limit to what you can teach them.
Wishing you the best!
KISSES AND CUDDLES!! She's sooooo cute!
To sit and get permission to come up and say hello when you are sitting down. Better than a surprise lap full of puppy
Yk I understand why people do this but I am so glad my dogs don’t ask me for permission and will sit on my head. They’ll listen to off when needed but until then they are 50 & 80 pound lapdogs
I kind of meant in a more social setting or with other people. Just good manners. I love a puppy pile too!
Fair. I don’t really associate with any of those—so I’m alright! 😂
Omg she is painfully cute!
No.
Good idea
Watch me. Best command, imo
For watch me, I just put my hand in front of my face. And my dog sits and looks at me attentively. Then you can use commands like down, and shake or outside… or etc.
I love not having to say sit. Just need to cover my mouth with my fist.
"Quiet" lol
Place/crate - working dogs need to be taught how to settle. Getting comfortable in the crate and learning to fall asleep/relax on place will be huge as she grows
“Kiss Mommy”
Sit is always a good place to start imo. You can teach your dog SO MANY TRICKS if they know sit! For my dog we have had such a difficult time trying to teach him to lay down. Maybe you should also teach her that to start too? Just to get it out of the way. Stay is also a good one, and it comes in handy a lot. So is teaching your dog to get on furniture, specific furniture, and teaching your dog to get off of furniture too.
In order of most important. Look at me/name, sit, down, drop it, leave it, following a lure, following a leash, recall. At least in my opinion.
Wait.
It’s going to take a while to develop her impulse control—it’s always helpful to start sooner than later!
When she’s older and exercises more, “left,” “right” “wait,” and “cross the street” may help. My gal is my running buddy and these make it easier.
A lot of people have mentioned “eyes/look at me” and those are vital not just on our runs but all the time.
Also we have “nice friend,” which is a command to treat our friends with kindness when they approach our fence, to signify we can let our guard down because they are good canines. My baby is very protective of me and our house.
Sit, down, stay, look and spot. With those first four, anything else is easy. The last one is for your own peace of mind
Someone else said drop it, and they’re even more right than I am!
What is look and spot for? Like finding stuff or
I use look for them to pay attention to me. “Look at me” means they have to make eye contact, breaking whatever fixation they might have going on, so that I can redirect them. My love is super smart (obviously), so we were able to evolve it into “Look” with a pointed finger and she will follow that.
Spot (in my case, box) as in “go to your spot and stay there a while” because sometimes you need them safely out from under foot for a while. All dogs should have a specific spot they can go to and be left entirely alone, as if they’re invisible, even if you don’t crate train, which I personally highly recommend, but some people seem to think is cruel.
I like those thank you
Ive heard (and witnessed now) how curious these dogs are so i think look will be very useful
And im a crate enthusiast my previous dog figured out how to open and shut the door so we never had to close it on him he would go in when he got overwhelmed or tired and wouldnt come out without a command
Honestly, it’s been so useful to me. They’re too smart for us!
- Sit (which is also stay)
- Lay down
- Recall ( this one start early but don’t work on it like the other just re-enforce when she comes to you )
- Place/Crate/bed
- leave it
"Come to Grammy." ❤️❤️❤️
The first command I teach a pup is, “go get it” and “here”. they need positive interactions for their first lessons. It needs to be fun and playful, because all the rest of the commands aren’t fun.
Drop it and leave it.
Words/sounds for “yes”/good behaviour and “no”/not-the-behavior-i-want. I used to”yes” and (a very quickly said) “ah-ah” for no/not that. I would say it 2x before putting my pup in a 10-15sec timeout for unwanted behaviour and he learned quickly from that.
Helps build a communication system for a little of non-verbal or schedule like behaviours or expectations. Later on it helps with trick training, or other behaviour requirements.
Other useful tricks/commands/cue words I’ve found that really ended up being super useful: - settle/that’ll do**** - “sleep” as in I’m (me, the owner) sleeping, don’t bug me - door manners (car especially) - “get your toy”; 🧸 get something in your mouth when greeting strangers & friends so the heeler doesnt do excitement biting/mouthing - backup - off - “about”; asks the dog to do a u-turn from wherever they are and head back to you. Not necessarily to be leashed but just a directional guidance when the dog is too far ahead, or is too close to a road when playing with other doggies
Sit, Stay, down, leave it.
Focus, touch, sit, down, off, wait, stay, and lastly, come.
Roll over
I would do sit and wait
Sit, stay, wait, and recall.
We had to have a little rope like that trailing from our Rottie’s harness indoors for quite awhile for quick grabs. Easier to replace clothesline than leashes 😆
First command she needs to know --
"Luna, be cute."
See? She's nailing this training thing already! She's a natural.
Sit, down, leave it, out or drop, and stay. The life saving ones always ❤️
Definitely “leave it”!
Warcimes
(In all seriousness probably sit and stop)
I highly suggest watching Zak george videos on YouTube. He teaches the word yes first for positive reinforcement and then moves to leave it, look at me, sit, lie down, and stay. I just got a new puppy a month ago and his videos have helped immensely.
"Leave it" and "Stay" will save you a whole lot of trouble
What a pretty girl!
Come and leave it are very important to teach and practice early and often.
Boop!
Sit, stay, and come are frequently called “the life saving commands”. Definitely make them a priority.
Well she alrrady mastered the look cute part
Not necessarily a command, but practice saying “yes!” For my puppy, we taught her “leave it,” and it worked sometimes when she’d bite and nip (charcoal lab). It started working strongly when we paired it with “yes, kisses!” We tried all the other tips to curb biting and mouthing, but that worked perfectly for her. Now if she tries we say “leave it” and then she’ll stop, give kisses and we’ll say “yes, kisses! Good kisses!” Any time she does something you like. Also, strongly suggest puppy classes! Good to socialize and train.
‘Touch’ is a super easy one that I use to regain her attention or sometimes even recall. To start, put a treat lightly between two of your fingers & hold your hand with your palm facing her and say “touch” when she taps your fingers for the treat say “good touch”. You can then start asking her to touch and have the treat in your other hand and give it to her. After she got it down i started doing my hand up high, down low, for some variation. Once we were on a hike and another dog was approaching and she wouldn’t listen so I did the touch command and it worked like a charm!!
No.
Who's that little tuna casserole?
Their name with treats to the eyes is first to get their attention. Come is next with praise and/or rewards every time. Meeting manners - Walking up and not being jumped on is good too (tie leash to handle, walk up, when they sit, reward).
Well, she has got "cute" down pat.
That is a good looking dog...congrat
“COME “. Could save her life someday. Reliable come.
Recall… teach her to come to you the instant you call her.
If I whistle my ACD is headed to me 100% of the time. Very useful.
Come. Always come. Good recall means a lifetime of safety.
“Place”is very helpful. Getting her to stay in her place is great if she is getting underfoot
Teaching focus like “eyes” is foundational to other teaching as it’s hard to teach them if the aren’t focusing on you.
“Cute”
Sit, lay down, and come for sure!
Sit and down are the obvious ones but drop it and leave it will make your life so much easier lol
She’s so cute but she’ll be a little thief 😂