My Favorite Command. Teach Your Dog to “Place”

Without a doubt, one of the most useful commands (other than Here and Sit) that I have taught Pritchard is the Place command, which instructs her to sit exactly where I’d like her to. For instance, I use Place to get Pritchard to sit on a water stand in the swamp, on a seat on the boat, and on her dog bed. Even my wife finds the command extremely useful. (She’s quite proud of the way Pritch places on the scale at the vet’s office.)

We started Place training when Pritch was a puppy using a place board–a simple, raised wooden platform that we built (see photo). While on the leash I would walk Pritch onto the board and command Place and then have her Sit. Eventually I would send her from across the yard to her place board. And from there we transitioned to all manner of “places.” On walks I would have her Place on the wide stump of an oak tree that had recently been felled or on the numerous, and very old, carriage steps that dot downtown Charleston.

Recently the gang at Wildrose Kennels posted a great, short video on Place training. (It takes a minute or two to get to the Place instruction but stick with it.)

If you’ve never taught your dog Place it’s a great and useful command. If you have, I’m curious if you agree that it becomes an irreplaceable tool in your repertoire of gun dog training tricks.