Believe it or not, you CAN train your dog to do things without even asking! The trick is to train your dog to have “default behaviors.”
In animal training, a default behavior is the behavior that an animal chooses to perform in any given situation when there is no specific cue from the trainer. “Sit” is often used as a default behavior in dog training. When a dog is sitting, he or she can’t be jumping up on someone or running around at the same time. A dog who has a strong default “sit” is going to sit without being asked in all kinds of different situations, even when greeting strangers.