Teaching Your Dog How to Stay

An important part of dog training is how to teach him to stay. The meaning of the stay command is that your dog should know how to keep on his exact position you have left him in until the command has been lifted. Depending on your choice as an owner, your dog should be in his “sit” or “down” position.

Aside from the fact that this is an important training tool, your dog should know how to control himself. And once you have fully taught him the command properly, he will be able to educate himself with the discipline. In order to teach him the command, here are some things you can follow:

The first step is to place your dog into either a sit or down position. Let’s just make use of the sit command. Once your pet is sitting, tell him to stay by showing him a hand signal which is generally used for this command. This hand signal is a flattened open hand with the palm towards his face. For a few seconds, perform the hand signal in front of his face as you slowly move to away from your dog.

After doing this, stand still and quiet momentarily. While you are still standing beside your puppy, you should feed him a treat. Next, go back to standing in front of your pet as you give him the release command by telling him OK. As you say this command, encourage movement so that he will comprehend that you are already allowing him to move. Calmly praise him. Do not encourage rambunctious behaviors such as jumping.

While these first two steps of the stay command training will only take about 5-7 seconds, you must gradually increase the time duration that you are standing next to your pet. When your dog is sitting down, tell him to stay. Give him a treat as you calmly praise him. Once he keeps remaining calm, you can keep giving him his doggie treats once every few seconds. He will soon associate being still with receiving a reward.

However, once your dog breaks the command before you even give him a treat, tell him “eh, eh” as you hide away the treat. This should mean that you start from the first step. Do not give him a treat even if his puppy eyes are encouraging you to. You want to instill a good discipline to your dog right? Thus, teach him the basic concept of doing good things will give him a reward.

If your dog stands after giving him a release, do not give him a treat. This is because doggie treats must only be given if he is calm and has an inactive behavior. If you give him a treat after the stay command, it will tell your dog that he can play again. And of course, this is not the whole point of teaching him the stay command.

Once your dog does not seem to get the command after three or four tries, give him a break and a few physical activities. Try going for a short walk. After which, you can try the training session again once he has exerted some energy.