How to Teach A Dog To Stay in 5 Easy Steps
The ‘Stay’ cue is an invaluable tool for enhancing your dog’s manners and ensuring their safety. This cue helps in a wide range of situations, including preventing a game of chase that could end up with your dog running into the street, helping your dog maintain focus in distracting situations, or politely greeting people who approach.
🐾 Step-by-step guide on how to teach a dog to stay:
1. Establish The Behavior
What does ‘Stay’ behavior look like for your dog? Before adding a cue, help your dog identify the behavior of not moving first. A ‘Stay’ behavior is when your dog remains in one spot or position, only moving when you release them. It is ideal that your dog already knows the basic obedience cues of ‘Sit’ or ‘Lie Down’ before working on ‘Stay’.
- Cue ‘Sit’ or ‘Lie Down.’
- Pause for one second, and then reward your dog.
- Repeat this step.
- Build to a two-second pause, and then reward your dog.
- Repeat this step.
2. Connect The Cue
Decide on what cue you will use to ask your dog to perform the ‘Stay’ behavior (this can be a verbal cue or hand signal). Common hand signals for this cue are a flat hand out in front of you or your pointer finger pointing upwards.
- Cue ‘Sit’ or ‘Lie Down.’
- During the two-second pause, give your ‘Stay’ cue.
- Reward after two seconds.
- Repeat this step.
3. Add Duration
Slowly add more time to the ‘Stay’ cue to build the concept that the cue means not to move. As you do this, you will also want to use a release cue, which lets your dog know they can move. Release cues prevent your dog from learning to decide for themselves if they are finished with staying in one spot, as this defeats the purpose of the cue. Good release words are ‘OK,’ ‘All Done,’ or ‘Release.’
- Cue ‘Sit’ or ‘Lie Down.’
- Cue ‘Stay.’
- Give your ‘release cue’ and signal your dog that their ‘Stay’ is over by opening your arms and enticing them to move towards you or by tossing a treat for them to retrieve.
- Reward them when they come to you or move.
- Slowly increase the time your dog remains in their ‘Stay’ before giving your release cue.
4. Add Distance
Once you have worked up to multiple seconds of duration (around 10 seconds), you are ready to begin adding some distance from your dog while they remain in their ‘Stay.’
- Cue ‘Sit’ or ‘Lie Down.’
- Cue ‘Stay.’
- Take one step away from your dog.
- Immediately return to them and reward them for staying in place.
- Repeat this step.
- Slowly take more steps away from your dog, always returning to them to reward their ‘Stay.’
5. Add Distractions
You can continue building time and distance onto your dog’s ‘Stay.’ Be sure you’re only increasing one of the two at a time and keep training sessions in a setting with minimal distractions, such as indoors. Once your dog has mastered ‘Stay’ from the comfort of your home, you are ready to kick it up a notch and encourage them to perform ‘Stay’ in other distracting settings, such as public locations.
Training should always be a fun experience for you and your dog. Know your dog’s limits and abilities before initiating any training. Patience, consistency, and positive reinforcement are essential to successful dog training!
With GoodPup, you get private, one-on-one dog training over live video calls with trainers who use science-based, positive reinforcement methods to teach cues and address unwanted behaviors. Get started on your GoodPup dog training today!
