French Bulldog Ask any trainer where to begin with a new puppy and you will hear the same three letters: sit.
Sit is fine. Sit is easy. Sit also does almost nothing to keep a French Bulldog alive on a hot Tuesday in a parking lot.
That advice was written for dogs with long snouts, efficient cooling systems, and spines that tolerate a bad landing off the couch. Frenchies arrive with different hardware, so they need a different starting lineup.
A Lab who blows off a recall gets a scolding. A Frenchie who blows off a recall and sprints across a yard in August can end up at an emergency vet with a body temperature nobody wants to read out loud.
So yes, teach sit eventually. Teach it because it is cute and because it buys you a calm dog at the groomer.
But the five commands below are the ones that earn their keep. They are the difference between a dog who is charming and a dog who is safe, and with this breed those two things are not the same project.
1. Their Name (Yes, That Counts as a Command)
Here is the thing nobody tells new Frenchie owners: your dog’s name is not a label. It is a request.
Used correctly, it means "stop what you are doing and look at my face." That single behavior is the foundation under every other command on this list.
Most people burn the name out in the first month. They say it while clipping nails, while pulling the dog away from the trash, while scolding a chewed shoe.
Then they wonder why "Gus!" gets ignored at the park.
How to Build It Properly
Say the name once. Exactly once.
The instant those enormous eyes swing toward you, mark it with a happy word and pay up with something genuinely good. Not kibble the dog already gets for free. Cheese.
Practice in the kitchen. Practice in the hallway. Practice while the dog is mildly bored and mildly interested, which for a Frenchie is roughly eleven minutes after breakfast.
A name you have to repeat three times is not a command. It is background noise with your dog’s face on it.
The Rule That Protects It
Never follow the name with something your dog hates.
Want to trim nails? Walk over and pick the dog up. Do not summon them into the bad thing.
Keep the name clean and it stays powerful for a decade.
2. "Come" (The One That Actually Saves Lives)
Recall is the most important command any dog learns, and for this breed the stakes climb higher for reasons that have nothing to do with obedience.
French Bulldogs overheat fast. They also sink in water like a bag of wrenches, because their body mass sits forward and their legs are short.
A loose Frenchie near an unfenced pool is not a training problem. It is an emergency with a countdown.
Make Coming Back the Best Deal in Town
Recall works when returning to you is wildly more rewarding than whatever the dog abandoned.
Start indoors, six feet away, with your dog already trotting toward you. Say the word as they move, then throw a party when they arrive.
Build distance slowly. Add distractions even more slowly.
The Mistakes That Kill Recall
Calling your dog to end fun times teaches them that "come" means the good part is over.
Sometimes call them over, deliver a treat, then release them back to sniffing. Recall should feel like a toll booth, not a jail cell.
And please, never call a Frenchie who is ignoring you and then chase them. You have just invented their favorite game, and they will want to play it forever.
A Word About Heat
Practice recall in cool weather, early morning, short sessions.
A panting, struggling dog cannot learn anything. They are too busy trying to breathe, and pushing through that is how good intentions turn into a vet bill.
3. "Leave It" (Because Frenchies Eat Nonsense)
This breed treats the ground like a buffet with no health inspector.
Socks, rocks, corn cobs, a suspicious lump of something in the grass. Frenchies are curious, low to the ground, and blessed with the impulse control of a toddler at a birthday party.
A swallowed object in a small dog with a narrow airway and a compact digestive tract can turn into surgery fast.
Teaching the Trade
Put a boring treat in your closed fist. Let your dog lick, paw, and huff at it.
The second they back off, even by an inch, say your marker word and give them a better treat from your other hand.
The lesson lands quickly: ignoring the thing on the ground produces something superior from the human.
Leave it works because your dog decides you are the better option, not because your dog is afraid of the worse one.
Scaling It Up
Move to treats on the floor under your hand. Then uncovered. Then walking past them on leash.
Eventually you want a dog who hears "leave it" mid lunge at a chicken bone on the sidewalk and redirects to your face.
That is not a party trick. That is a Tuesday night that does not end at the animal hospital.
4. "Wait" at Thresholds and Edges
Stay and wait are cousins, but wait is the practical one, and it matters enormously for a breed with a spine built by committee.
Many French Bulldogs carry hemivertebrae, that corkscrew tail being a visible clue to vertebrae shaped the same way further up. Add a habit of launching off furniture and down stairs and you get wear that shows up years later.
Wait means pause here until I say otherwise.
Where to Use It Daily
Front door. Car door. Top of the stairs. Edge of the couch.
Ask for a pause, count a beat, then release with a clear word like "okay" or "free."
Doorways are the easiest place to start because dogs already understand that doors mean something is about to happen.
Why This One Sticks
Repetition with real world payoff beats drilling in a living room.
Your Frenchie will learn wait faster than sit simply because it happens twenty times a day in contexts they care about. The reward is built in: the door opens and the walk begins.
Pair it with a ramp or steps for the bed and you have removed most of the repetitive impact from their week.
5. "Settle" (The Off Switch Nobody Installs)
French Bulldogs have two speeds: gremlin and unconscious.
The gremlin setting is delightful right up until it is not, and an overstimulated Frenchie is a wheezing, snorting, overheating Frenchie. Their breathing struggles most when they are cranked up, which means a calm dog is a dog breathing better.
Settle is the command that gives you a volume knob.
Teaching Calm as a Behavior
Pick a mat or bed. Wait for your dog to lie down on it on their own, then quietly drop a treat between their paws.
Say nothing exciting. Use a low, boring voice. Excitement is the enemy here.
Keep delivering calm treats while they stay down, spacing them out longer and longer.
Over a few sessions, the mat starts to mean nothing interesting happens here and that is lovely.
Calm is a skill, not a mood. Dogs who are never taught how to switch off simply never learn it.
When You Will Be Glad You Did
Guests arriving. Dinner on the table. A vet waiting room full of much larger dogs.
Also, honestly, every evening after about seven o’clock, when your dog has decided the hallway is a racetrack and your partner has decided they are done with that.
Frenchies want to be near you more than almost any breed. Settle lets them do that without needing to be in your lap, on your keyboard, or actively chewing your sleeve, and it turns a dog who demands attention into one who simply enjoys your company.