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What is the word for someone who follows specific instructions or does what he is told? And is there a word for the person who makes someone like this? The maker could be a tyrant or some sort of instructor.

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Colloquially, that person is your bitch. – Robusto Mar 16 '12 at 2:28
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@Robusto: That one always strikes me as a sexist black American term. I know it's often used of a male, but I've hardly ever come across it used by a female of her male bitch. I don't know if it's just a UK term, but I much prefer dogsbody (everyone wants one, but only the lucky few have them). – FumbleFingers Mar 16 '12 at 4:31
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@Fumble: We have no dogsbodies in the U.S., and I doubt Americans who haven't read British fiction would even know what that term means. It's marginally sexist, but even (younger) American women use it casually these days: "Take that, bitches!" Although it means "subordinate female" it is fast losing the strict application of that meaning, and is used as an insulting term for anyone who has been bested or dominated. – Robusto Mar 16 '12 at 11:12
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@FumbleFingers: Not to put too fine a point on it, but are you at once saying that American society is "more 'sensitive'" and less sensitive ("which I and many other Brits would find quite offensive")? What do Brits think when Elton John sings "the bitch is back," I wonder? – Robusto Mar 17 '12 at 16:42
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@Robusto: Badly phrased. I meant that collectively US society seems more likely to decry certain words in any/all contexts. UK society seems to be more relaxed about the words themselves; it's usage in context that can cause uproar. But of course, I hear more about public outcry over inappropriate language in the US if it's considered "interesting" to UK media (often, if reactions aren't similar to what we'd expect in the UK), so I may get a distorted impression. Outcry over niggardly, for example, may be an over-reported distortion of prevalent attitudes in the US. – FumbleFingers Mar 17 '12 at 16:54
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2 Answers

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For the obedient one, consider adjective docile ("Yielding to control or supervision, direction, or management. Ready to accept instruction or direction") or its synonyms malleable, meek, submissive, tractable for one sense and amenable, compliant, teachable for another. Also conformable may serve (as in cited example "I have been to you a true and humble wife, at all times to your will conformable") or menial ("servile, slavish, subservient, obsequious or submissive").

For the tyrant, consider nouns dictator, director, taskmaster or taskmistress, or trainer.

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+1 24 suggestions in an 81-word answer. Are you trying to get in the Guinness Book of English Language and Usage Stack Exchange Site Records? – Daniel δ Mar 16 '12 at 3:07
@Danielδ - No; anyway, it looks like the list in your comment to OP is denser with suggestions than my answer! – jwpat7 Mar 16 '12 at 3:33
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I'd call that person obedient

submissive to the restraint or command of authority : willing to obey

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