How To Teach Your Dog to "Stay"
by Eleanor Scheidemann, The Dog Lady
Step 1 – Catching with Verbal Cues
Ask the dog to sit, praise him. Tell him to “stay”, at the same time give him a hand signal by flattening your hand and holding it momentarily in front of his face with your palm towards him. Stand still next to him for a few seconds and give him a reward. Wait a few more seconds, give him a “release” command and take a few steps away encouraging him to get up and move. Do not give him a reward for the “release”. Though you are setting the dog up to stay you are actually catching him while he is staying. The release command you are teaching him is letting him know he can now move which is the opposite of stay.
Continue practicing this while lengthening the time the dog “stays”. You can give additional rewards while the dog stays in order to lengthen the time. Only give rewards while the dog is motionless always waiting several seconds after the last reward before giving the “release” command.
When the dog will successfully stay in a sit for 10 to 15 seconds then repeat the process while the dog is in a down position. Start again with only a few seconds at a time and again work up to
Every dog is different but most will learn to stay for 15 seconds in a couple of days. Make sure you are practicing several times each day.
Step 2 - Changing Environment (Generalizing)
Start moving while your dog is in a stay. Begin by slowly moving one step side to side and back and forth. Then you can progress to pivoting around and then to taking a step away. Finally try moving around the dog beginning with one step at a time. You have to understand that to the dog staying while you are still is not the same as staying while you are moving. Go slowly, if the dog starts breaking (getting up before released) then use your negative marker and try again.
Spend several days practicing before you begin to try to fade the reward.
Step 3 – Fading Lure
As you practice lengthen the time intervals between rewards. Keep doing so until you are only giving a single reward for each stay. Give the reward at different times during the stay. Sometimes give the reward in the beginning of the stay, sometimes in the middle and sometimes at the end. Vary the length of time you ask the dog to stay so he will not become accustom to staying or getting a reward at a specific time interval. After about a week of practice start only giving a reward occasionally. Continue to use your negative marker as needed.
Some dogs have trouble staying in place! For those dogs it is easier to learn to stay on a target. Your target will be a dog bed, or carpet that is large enough for the dog to turn around and lie down on. Use the same procedures as above but have the dog sit or lie down on the target. If at anytime the dog moves from the target use your negative marker and start the exercise again.
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