Мы пока так и не научились хорошо дрессировать собаку, но она уже знает команду «Сидеть».

Here пока means for now / so far / yet, not while.

So Мы пока не научились... means something like:

• So far we haven’t learned...
• We haven’t learned yet...

It suggests the situation may change later.

If пока meant while, the sentence structure would usually be different, for example Пока мы учились, собака спала — While we were studying, the dog was sleeping.

Так и не adds emphasis. It often means:

• still didn’t
• never did
• didn’t manage to, after all

So:

• не научились = didn’t learn / haven’t learned
• так и не научились = still haven’t learned / never really managed to learn

It often implies there was some expectation that the result would happen, but it did not.

In this sentence, пока + так и не gives the feeling: So far, we still haven’t really managed to learn how to train the dog well.

Научились is the past plural form of научиться.

Breakdown:

• научиться = to learn how to / to master
• научились = we learned / we have learned
• with не: не научились = we didn’t learn / we haven’t learned

Why past tense? Because Russian perfective verbs do not have a present tense form with present meaning. The verb научиться is perfective, so Russian uses the past tense form to express an English present perfect idea:

• мы не научились = we haven’t learned

The -сь is just the shortened form of -ся, which is part of the verb научиться. After a vowel, Russian often uses -сь instead of -ся.

Because научиться normally takes an infinitive:

• научиться плавать = to learn to swim
• научиться готовить = to learn to cook
• научиться дрессировать = to learn to train

So научились дрессировать собаку literally means learned to train a dog / the dog.

This is a very common pattern in Russian:

• научиться + infinitive

Because after научиться, Russian usually uses an infinitive that describes a general skill or ability.

So:

• научиться дрессировать = learn how to train
• научиться читать = learn how to read
• научиться водить = learn how to drive

The point is not one single completed act, but acquiring the skill in general. That is why the imperfective infinitive is natural here.

Хорошо is an adverb, and it modifies дрессировать.

So the meaning is:

• to train the dog well

not:

• to train the good dog

If Russian wanted to say the good dog, it would use an adjective with the noun, for example хорошую собаку.

So:

• хорошо дрессировать собаку = to train the dog well
• дрессировать хорошую собаку = to train a good dog

Because собаку is the accusative singular form, and it is the direct object of дрессировать.

Ask the question:

• дрессировать кого? что? — собаку

Since собака is an animate feminine noun, the accusative singular is:

• nominative: собака
• accusative: собаку

That is why the sentence has дрессировать собаку.

Because собака is grammatically feminine, so pronouns usually agree with that noun:

• собака ... она

Even if the animal is male in real life, Russian often follows the grammatical gender of the noun being used. If the speaker used пёс instead, then он would be natural:

• пёс ... он

So in this sentence, она is completely expected because the noun is собака.

Because знать команду means to know a command, in the sense of recognizing and responding to it.

That is the normal way to talk about animals and commands:

• собака знает команду Сидеть = the dog knows the Sit command

Уметь means to know how to / be able to, and it would need a different structure, for example:

• она уже умеет сидеть по команде = she already knows how to sit on command

So знает команду focuses on the command itself as something learned.

Because команду is the accusative singular of команда, and знать takes a direct object:

• знать что? — команду

So:

• nominative: команда
• accusative: команду

That is why the sentence says знает команду.

In Russian, animal-training commands are very often given in the infinitive form:

• Сидеть!
• Лежать!
• Стоять!

So Сидеть is the standard form of the command in this context.

When the sentence says знает команду Сидеть, it means knows the Sit command.

By contrast, Сиди! is the ordinary second-person imperative, more like directly telling someone Sit! In dog-training language, the infinitive form is very common and standard.

Not exactly.

• дрессировать is specifically to train an animal, especially to obey commands or perform trained behavior.
• тренировать is broader: to train, coach, exercise, drill. It is often used for people, sports, or physical training.

So for a dog learning commands, дрессировать is the most natural verb.

Because но means but, and here it joins two clauses:

• Мы пока так и не научились хорошо дрессировать собаку
• она уже знает команду Сидеть

In Russian, clauses joined by но are normally separated by a comma.

So the comma here is standard punctuation.

Yes, Russian word order is flexible, but the given order is natural and neutral.

This version creates a clear contrast:

• Мы пока так и не научились...
• но она уже знает...

There is also a nice contrast between пока and уже:

• пока = so far / not yet
• уже = already

So the sentence highlights: We still haven’t really learned this yet, but the dog already has.

You could move some words for emphasis, but the original sounds very normal.