Just for you: a chapter from If You’d Asked Me…the ultimate collection of bathroom or waiting room reading, A new chapter appears here every three weeks, usually by Friday. You can get a complete copy, right now, in PDF format, or, if you like, as a paperback. For details, visit our Books page or send a request through our Contact form.

Section II: Going to the Dogs
(Or Cats)

21. Is it rare for a five-month-old German Shepherd to comply with a sit-and-stay command?

At five months? No, not rare at all. It would require the owner to start training the puppy from the time it arrived in the home. But you should be doing that anyway.

Sit-and-stay is no more complicated for a dog to learn than “tell me to open the door and let you outside to do your business, and kindly do not do it on the living-room floor.”