Teaching your dog to stay in one place can help remedy a lot of dog behavior problems. It’s one of those dog commands that can be used almost anywhere. It allows you some time and distance away from your dog without him wandering off and getting into trouble.
The big picture goal is to ask our dog to stay, walk away from the dog to the end of the leash, turn around and face your dog, wait one minute, and walk back to heel position by going all the way around your dog.
This command involves the length of time your dog is required to stay in one position and the distance you are away from him. We will increase both time and distance gradually until we’ve reached our goal.
The idea on praising your dog is to catch them when they get it right. We want to set our dogs up for success from the beginning.
Repeat this step over about 10 times. After that, increase the amount of time you stand in front of your dog. Go to 20 seconds, then 30 seconds, then 45 seconds until you’ve reached a minute.
A word of caution about time and dogs: Dogs can measure time and they anticipate your next move. If, when practicing, you always make your dog stay for exactly 25 seconds and then return right on time, your dog will know this and anticipate it. So, when increasing the length of time and you don’t return back at exactly 25 seconds your dog may get up and come to you because he thinks that the time is up. A good idea is to vary the amount of time your dog stays and definitely go longer than a minute so that your dog doesn’t anticipate your return.
If you find your dog getting up before you finish counting then at the next repetition go back to your dog right before your dog gets up to praise him. So, for example, if your dog seems to be getting up around your seventh or eighth count, go back when you reach 5. This will establish some positive reinforcement to that your dog knows what it is he’s doing right.
Now we can take all the steps and put them together. Give your dog the command, walk to the end of the leash, turn around and face your dog, wait one minute, return to your dog walking all the way around and stop at the heel position. Exercise finished! Praise your dog and pat yourself on the back!
Down Stay
Use the exact same steps as above except have your dog lay down at the heel position first.
Practice This Command Around The House
At the door:
You
can have your children, spouse, neighbor or friend help you with this
training. This enables you to have this command already down before
your company arrives. You don’t want to keep your guests waiting on the
doorstep in the cold while you work with your dog. Also, before
letting your dog in or out have him practice sitting and staying.
In the kitchen:
While fixing dinner, have your dog do a “Down-Stay” on a blanket or dog bed. Practice again at when your at the dinner table.
At the gate:
Use this command to keep your dog in your yard even if the gate is left open. Practice this on leash.
Advanced Training
Distractions
Now
that you have the basics down, you can start adding distractions to
test your dog. Adding distractions will help fool-proof your dog’s
stay.
Examples of distractions
Off-Leash
The
next advancement will be doing this off-leash. Starting with the
finished sit-stay we will add one more step: remove the leash. So the
big picture goal now looks like this:
At the heel position with the dog sitting, remove the leash, ask your dog to stay, walk away from the dog about 5 to 10 steps, turn around and face your dog, wait one minute, and walk back to heel position by going all the way around your dog.
This is usually fairly easy for the dog. A tool that helps with off-leash training is called a tab. This is basically a small leash about 4 to 6 inches long that is lightweight and hangs off your dog’s collar. It gives you something to grab onto if needed, but still allows the dog to be off the leash.
Repetition and praise is needed to get your dog to this level.
Out of Sight
Ready
for more advanced training? Let’s have the dog stay while we’re out of
sight! Sound too hard? It’s not really. We just break it down into
small steps until our goal is accomplished.
Using a doorway to a bedroom is a good spot to start this training. It allows us to be close to the dog to make corrections while getting out of the dog’s vision.
Have your dog sit just outside the door. Give the command and walk around the door just on the other side of the wall. If your dog gets up, say “No” and start again. Keep the time short, about 10 seconds then return to your dog and praise him. Increase the amount of time you are out of sight. Then, just like above, add some distance.
It’s helpful to have another person act like a “spotter” when doing this training. Their job is to let you know if the dog does move.
And
that’s it! Now we can look for more useful ways to use this command
around the house and in our daily lives. Happy Training!