I don't really mind too much. Mainly, the only time anyone gives my dogs a command is when I stop at the little corner store and they want to give which ever dog I have with me a cookie. And they've already been asked in the past by me to ask the dog to sit first to earn a cookie from them. So, it's a little ritual when I stop in there, like yesterday with Lyric. "Hi Lyric. Want a cookie?" They really don't have to tell him to sit anymore. He just does automatically.
Or my family...My daughter kneels down and asks Lyric to give her a hug. She says, "hugs" and "a-w-w-w nice hugs." That is a little trick she likes to do with him. She takes him out sometimes for pottying when I visit there at her apt. And she knows the routine. She stands there with the collar and leash in hand and waits quietly. He then sits to have his collar put on. There's no command. But she knows how I do it and is good to follow suit.
As long as people are reasonable, I rather like it that they ask my dog to sit or down because it just helps his respect for people in general, that all humans control his resources....helps with socialization and just a general good interaction with humans when they ask for something and they give him a cookie in exchange. Lots of people, when they come up to us squat down and ask Lyric, "do you know how to shake?" And he shakes when they put their hand out. I like to see him interact with friendly strangers that way. It's good for him.
One thing that really ticked me off once was when we had some visitors that I don't even know all that well, friends of my son's. Toker is a formerly abused dog and very sensative. She is also very friendly and was licking this guy and coming up to him for attention. I told him to just ignore her and turn away if the licking was bothering him. She really only licks 3 or 4 licks and is done. He instead, said in his deep, loud voice, "NO!" She crouched a little and backed off. That REALLY P!SSED me off! I said, "We don't tell the dogs "no" that way. They'll stop if you don't pay any attention." I think I led her out of the room. So, when someone else "disciplines" (not disciplines, but punishes) my dogs, I really object to that.
I would just instruct people to only give the command once if it's messing up your dog's training. I've really never noticed any behavior go bad on account of an occasional thing like that.
