Which Dog Commands Do You Need For Your Husky?

The only dog commands your companion husky really needs to learn are NO and COME and STAY. I would not call them basic commands, but they are the important commands.

A word about dog commands and obedience... Commands can lead to obedience. BUT, commands are a very small part of dog training. Your dog is listening to you all the time (not just outside while you have a long lead and a few treats). Your dog is desperate for you to understand his language as much as you want him to understand yours.

For instance, if you teach the dog command SIT, and then you reach out and grab your dogs paw to trim his nails, you have asked for several things from your dog. The dog command you used was SIT, but what you actually did was stand over him, grab his paw, and asked him not to move. Is this what you meant when you asked your dog to SIT? Just keep that in mind while teaching dog commands.

How about the word NO. No means stop doing that. If I say NO to one of my dogs and they stop doing whatever it is I wanted them to stop, that works for me. At my house, NO is a natural reaction for me so I turned it into the cue to stop. NO is not a dog command I use very often. It's an emergency word for me because I would say it naturally in certain situations.

The other half to the word NO is...Whatever you want it to be, but make it fun and positive. NO means stop at my house, but as the human, you have to give your dog something else to do after that or he will continue on his path. He figured he listened and stopped and now he's back on his way.

What about the dog command DOWN. I rarely use it. I don't find it necessary in the whole scheme of training sled dogs. You can teach it as a trick of course!

How about the dog command STAY?

Stay is what I use when I need to walk away from my dogs and I want them to STAY where they are. For me, STAY as important as COME.

If you have not succeeded in training your husky to COME. Teach him to STAY.

How?

Stand about 3 feet away from your dog and while facing them continuously toss treats to the same spot near there feet. (Holding onto the long lead of course.) Slowly back up and if your dog moves, throw a treat to that same exact spot as before. Your dog will start looking at that spot as you back up. When your dog figures out that a certain spot will get him treats he will start to wait at that spot. That is the when you add the word STAY or WAIT to the scenario (but still keep the treats for now).

Teaching COME

There's no need to jerk on the lead to get your dog to COME. You see, when you tug on the lead, the collar causes pressure on your dogs neck and that teaches your dog that the leash (and you) is not to be trusted. You may have to wait until your dog comes up to you, but if you provide some fantastic rewards for the effort he will want to come. Now leave it alone for awhile. Keeping things fresh with your dog will keep you both motivated. Do not do this over and over in the same day.

As you and your husky improve as friends he will STAY longer and wait to COME back to you.

Training Tip Try a training session using only hand signals. For instance, use your hand palm side toward your dog as a signal to stay. When your dog stops for a brief moment and gives you attention, throw a small treat to the ground right in front of him.

Throw the treat with your opposite hand while keeping the other hand palm still facing your dog. Throw the treat instead of hand feeding it to him so he learns to stay where he is and not come toward you for the treat.

You would be surprised at how much easier you can communicate to your dog without your yapper...yappin'! You would also be surprised how repeating words does NOT get the behavior any faster.

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Turid Rugaas does it again with her book Barking. A simple guide to understanding your dog's language.