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In dog training simple commands are much easier for your dog or puppy to understand than more elaborate ones. You’ll learn this in any obedience training class, but getting the habit does sometimes take a while.

For instance, let’s say you want your dog to lie down. You say the command once but if the dog doesn’t immediately hit the floor, the temptation will be for you to say it again… and again. Sometimes dog owners will say something like “Hey, get down now! I already told you! You know what I mean!” All this language does not further the cause of obedience training.

The purpose in sticking to simple, short words for commands is to help the pet develop a habit of recognizing and responding. Canine behavior has a lot of habitual aspects to it — as does human behavior, come to think of it! When your dog training is based on using simple words that you repeat once per request, this is easier for the animal than if it has to guess at your meaning as you chatter away.

Of course, dogs can pick out words that way if they want to, as anyone knows who has had a conversation with another human is which they said something like, “Shall we take Buddy to the park?” Buddy may easily pick out his name and perhaps the word “park.” The domestic dog has had a lot of practice in listening to human speech!

So your training will go best if you use simple dog training commands — which can also be described as cue words. That phrase bypasses the whole dominance issue, the idea that you have to always be the boss. While obedience is certainly necessary at times, in general the most satisfying dog training comes about when you and the dog are working as a team.

When you are teaching your new puppy, do use simple terms like come, sit, stay, and down. These are time-tested training commands that work well.

By the way, since “down” means something like “Get onto the floor,” what do you say when your dog is jumping up on people and you want him to stop? A good word is “off.”

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