Should You Repeat Commands to Dogs?

Training lore back to the dawn of time has it that you should never repeat your cues (“commands”) to your dog: no chanting “Sit, sit, sit,” “Stay, stay, stay,” “Down, down, down.” According to old-school dog trainers, you should “enforce” your “command” the first time, so that your dog “knows” he must “obey” promptly.

Is it bad to repeat commands to a dog?

For the record, the most well-known and respected dog behaviorist in the world, Dr. Ian Dunbar, is completely okay with repeating commands multiple times in some situations. ... If you start saying “sit” before dogs have any idea what you are trying to teach, they might think “sit” means to just look at you.

Why should you never repeat a cue when training a dog?

Most people would say that they want reliability, which is the act of getting a requested behavior on the first attempt – every time. If you repeat cues, you are teaching your dog to ignore the first, second or third request and turning your voice into meaningless background noise.