Basic obedience allows owners to communicate with their dogs. In dog training, there are standardized words/cues we used to convey what we want our dog to do. These cues make up the basic obedience commands. They include:

Find it, focus, name recognition, sit, down, settle, stay, come, targeting, loose leash walking, heel, leave it, drop it, and place.

There are many different ways to teach basic obedience cues. We will focus on one common method of teaching each basic cue. We hope you find this to be a useful reference for training the dog in your care.

*Reliably means your dog is successful at something 90 percent of the times attempted.

Remember you want your dog to be successful. If he is not successful, he is not having fun and neither are you. If your dog is struggling to perform at one level, make it easier.

We will learn how to teach one cue every month beginning with focus. This month’s skill is polite greeting.

Polite Greeting

This exercise will teach your dog to sit politely when people approach him. You will need a second person to help you with this exercise. Start with your dog in a sitting position. You may have to step on his leash or tether him to keep him rooted. In the beginning, you can cue or lure him into a sit, but eventually you want him to automatically offer this behavior when people approach to greet him. As soon as your dog sits, the helper/guest can approach him. If he pops up from his sit, the helper immediately backs up and waits for him to sit again. When your dog sits, the helper moves forward again. As long as he remains siting, the helper can approach all the way and say hello to your dog. Any jumping up, makes the helper go away again. The helper can use treats in the beginning to make sitting more rewarding. The helper should approach calmly and not be too animated at first. Once your dog is offering the behavior reliably, the helper can start approaching with more excitement and gradually become more animated. This exercise should be practiced with multiple helper people in differing environments to generalize the behavior.