There are dozens of commands a dog can learn. Most owners don't need dozens. They need seven. Not because seven is a tidy number, but because these are the commands that come up in every Sydney household, in the lift, at the front door, on the beach path. These are the basic puppy training commands every puppy should have before anything more advanced is introduced.
Luke Buchanan, Owner of The Toe Beans Co and Sydney's Puppy Trainer, has trained hundreds of Sydney puppies across every breed and household. The seven commands below are the ones that come up in every home. They're the foundation. Everything else builds on them or sits alongside them. Teaching them in the right order, with the right method, at the right age, is what makes the difference between a dog that listens and one that sort of listens sometimes.
Why the order matters as much as the commands themselves
Commands aren't independent skills. They form a sequence where each one supports the next. Sit makes stay possible. A solid down makes leave it easier to build on. Name response is the prerequisite for recall. Teach them in the wrong order and you're asking your puppy for something it doesn't have the foundation for yet, which just produces slow, unreliable results that frustrate you both.
This is also where leadership and command training overlap. A puppy with a calm, consistent leader doesn't need to be talked into offering behaviours, it offers them because checking in with you is already the pattern. You don't need perfect obedience in the first session. You need the dynamic right first, and the commands land faster because of it.
The 7 basic puppy training commands and how to teach them
1. Name response
Your puppy's name should reliably produce one thing: your puppy looking at you. This isn't a trick you drill in isolation, it's built into how you already interact. You call your puppy to you, you never go and fetch them, and coming to you always pays off. Say the name once, warmly. The moment your puppy looks your way or moves toward you, reward it. If nothing happens, don't repeat the name and don't walk over to collect them, wait a moment and try again when things are calmer. Chasing teaches a puppy that ignoring you still gets your attention. Do this through the day rather than only in dedicated sessions, so it's tied to normal life, not a training exercise.
2. Sit
The default command for managing impulses and creating a moment of stillness before anything else happens. Teach through luring: treat at nose level, move it slowly back over your puppy's head, the back end drops, mark and reward. Add the verbal cue once the lure is producing a reliable sit. Fade the treat from your hand within about ten repetitions, keeping the same hand motion without it. Sit before meals, sit at doorways, sit to greet visitors. Used consistently, it becomes your puppy's default calm behaviour rather than something that only shows up on command.
3. Down
Teach this from a sit, not from standing, it's a smaller ask and easier for your puppy to follow. With your puppy sitting, take a treat to their nose and lure it slowly down to the ground and slightly forward, so they lower their front end to chase it. Don't release the treat until their belly is on the floor, though rewarding a puppy that's most of the way there is fine while you're still building the behaviour. Add the word once the lure is producing a reliable drop. This one takes longer than sit for most puppies, don't rush the distance work, and if your puppy seems unsettled by you stepping back, close the gap again and rebuild from where it was working. Down is a position, not calm. A puppy who lies down on cue isn't automatically a settled puppy, that's a separate skill you build by pausing the action and letting their energy come down before it tips into overexcitement, not by asking for a down and hoping it sticks.
4. Stay
Once sit is solid, stay adds one thing: duration while you create distance. With your puppy in a sit, flat hand, calm "stay", step back half a metre, then return before they move and reward while they're still in position. Only release with a clear word, "OK" works well, and use it every time you want your puppy free to move again. If they break early, return them to the same spot without any fuss and go back a step in distance. Extend the distance in small increments and only once the current distance is reliable, a puppy that's solid at one step won't necessarily hold at three, so check before you assume it will.
5. Leave it
Most leave it problems aren't really about the command, they're about what happens after your puppy grabs something. Chasing a puppy who's stolen a sock turns it into a game, and your puppy wins either way, they get the item or they get your full attention chasing them for it. Say nothing, close doors so they can't turn it into a lap of the house, walk over slowly, and take the item calmly. Offer a toy in exchange rather than an empty hand. If it isn't dangerous, waiting quietly for a minute often does the job on its own, plenty of puppies drop an item once chasing stops being on the table. Once that pattern is established, start cueing leave it before your puppy engages with something: closed fist with a treat inside, wait for them to back off and look at you, then reward from your other hand. From there, progress to a treat under your foot, then visible on the floor, before trying it with food on the pavement or another dog on lead.
6. Come (recall)
Recall is where leadership and command training overlap the most. Your puppy comes back partly because they've learned the command, partly because coming back to you has always been worth it. Call the name once. If your puppy doesn't come, don't repeat it, walk away instead and try again in a few minutes. A puppy that wanders back on its own terms after ignoring you hasn't recalled, so don't reward it as if it has. Never call your puppy over to do something they dislike, a bath, nail clipping, going back in the crate. Go and collect them calmly for that instead, and keep recall reserved for things that end well. Indoors, use a short line, call once, and step on the line as your puppy approaches so you're not relying on them choosing to keep coming. Outside, move to a 10-metre line on a harness, never a collar, a long line puts real force through whatever it's clipped to, and a collar under that kind of pull isn't safe. Reduce the working distance in one-metre steps, and only once the current distance is reliable. Mix up the reward, food, a scratch, a toy, occasionally nothing more than your voice, so your puppy comes back for you and not just for what's in your hand.
7. Loose lead (Walk & Go Free)
Not a formal heel position, just the ability to walk beside you without the lead going tight. Start off lead if you can, in the garden or another enclosed space. Pat your leg, say "walk", move off, lure with a treat at hip height for the first few steps if needed, then reward. Keep it to ten steps at a time before fading the lure toward the leg-pat alone. Once that's working, clip the lead on and repeat the same short-distance pattern. If your puppy is too wound up to focus, stop for a moment, change direction a couple of times without saying anything, and let the pause bring their energy down before you try again. Build up gradually from ten steps to thirty before rewarding, and stop the moment the lead goes tight rather than walking on through it. The Complete Puppy Program covers the full lead-walking progression from the first session.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Teaching multiple commands in one session before any of them is reliable is a pattern that produces a dog that sort of knows a lot of things. One command per session for the first two to three weeks. Once sit is solid in three environments, introduce down. Once both are solid, begin recall foundations. Depth before breadth.
Using "no" as a command is what most owners fall back on when nothing else is working. "No" isn't a command, it doesn't tell your puppy what to do, it just makes them hesitate for a moment, which most owners read as understanding. Redirect from an unwanted behaviour to a command your puppy already knows. "Leave it" instead of "no". "Sit" instead of "no, don't jump". Replace the correction with information.
Stopping training once the commands seem solid is a common reason dogs regress through adolescence. Commands need regular practice, not because your puppy forgets, but because they need maintaining under the growing distractions of a teenage dog. Keep short daily sessions running through the first 18 months. Most owners get this structure built into daily life through the Complete Puppy Program rather than trying to invent it themselves.
How to know it's working
There's no single week this clicks into place, progress is reliability-gated, not calendar-gated. You'll know sit and name response are solid when they hold in the lounge, the garden, and somewhere with real distractions, not just wherever you first taught them. Leave it working on food left on the floor, not just a closed fist. Recall answered the first time you call, not the third. Down holding for several minutes with you in the room. These are the checkpoints that tell you the foundation is actually there, not just familiar in one spot. For ongoing support and community Q&A with other Sydney puppy owners, the Toe Beans Co SKOOL community is free to join.
Want help putting this into practice?
The Toe Beans Co runs a free SKOOL community where Sydney dog owners get training guides, Q&As, and direct support from Luke.
Upcoming puppy schools in Sydney
If you're based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and want structured, in-person guidance, Luke runs regular puppy schools across Bondi, Paddington, Surry Hills, and surrounding areas.
Check upcoming dates and book your spot
Frequently asked questions
What are the most important commands for a puppy?
Name response, sit, down, stay, leave it, recall, and loose lead walking. These seven cover the situations where a trained dog makes daily life easier and an untrained one makes it harder. They form a sequence where each command supports the next, so the order you introduce them in matters as much as the commands themselves.
How long does it take a puppy to learn basic commands?
Sit and name response are usually the fastest, most puppies get the idea within a few days of short sessions, though making them reliable everywhere, not just the lounge, takes a few weeks per command. Recall is the slow one. Expect several weeks of consistent, distraction-graded practice before you'd trust it off lead near something exciting.
Where can I learn puppy commands in Sydney?
The Toe Beans Co runs group puppy schools across Sydney's Eastern Suburbs and Inner West, and the Complete Puppy Program, an online course that runs week by week from eight weeks to twenty-four weeks and covers all seven foundation commands with video demonstrations and step-by-step written guides. Group schools are the right setting for puppies specifically, they get supervised exposure to other dogs and people alongside the command work, which matters as much as the commands themselves at that age.
