12 Words All Dogs Should Know

Sage Canine Advice, by Sage Riverdog – Feb. 19, 2012

There are 12 words every dog should know.  Most of these words would be helpful for people as well.  They are: 

Come – Sit – Stay – Wait – Down – Stand – OK – No- Off – Leave it – Drop it – Heel 

In case you aren’t familiar with some of these, let me explain a couple.   

STAY is used with SIT or DOWN to ask me to stay and be patient, usually while people are talking with each other or something else is going on.  

Here you see me obeying the DOWN command

Do I really have to LEAVE IT?

You know what I'm doing here

WAIT is for me to immediately stop whatever I am doing and wait for another command. WAIT helps keep me safe.  

LEAVE IT is to keep me from picking something up I should not be trying to eat.   

DROP IT is if you didn’t say LEAVE IT soon enough or I chose to ignore the  command. It’s also to help me practice obedience, such as putting a dog treat on the floor in front of me, saying LEAVE IT and then waiting a few seconds before saying OK – which is my signal to go ahead and eat it. I like OK!

HEEL is very helpful when teaching dogs how to walk on a loose leash, which takes a lot of patience and continual practice to maintain.

Teaching dogs these words helps build a strong bond between humans and dogs and makes our living together more enjoyable for both of us.

Another helpful suggestion is to not use my name when disciplining. Say my name when you want me to do something. But when I am “Bad” just use the word NO or OFF and not my name. That way I won’t associate my name with doing bad things. Because we all know I am a good dog.

There are lots of other things I do and other words I know, but these are the most important ones. Teamwork and consistency make teaching words to dogs a fun experience, and practice helps us continually improve our communication skills, whether human or canine.

About Sage – Sage is an 8-year-old black Labrador retriever who lives with River District Executive Director Edna Chirico and Edna’s husband, John Huber. Sage earned a Canine Good Citizen award, which allows her to visit nursing homes, hospitals and schools. Sage loves to run, fetch, swim, boat, travel in the car and play with just about anyone, especially children.