In puppy raising and in guide dog work, “stay” is an extremely useful command. It sends a clear message that the dog is supposed to remain in one place and be still until the handler releases the dog from the position. However, “stay” is a very difficult command for a puppy to follow. There are so many more interesting things to do than to just sit still!
The best way to teach a reliable stay command is by building up many, many successes. The more stays that the puppy is able to complete without correction and be released from, the more solid his understanding will be. There will be times when the puppy will break his stay and will have to be “reset”, but if those broken stays are surrounded by successful ones, he’ll have a clearer understanding of what he is supposed to do.
It’s also important that the dog is choosing to stay, not being held in place by a tight leash. The handler shouldn’t be doing all the work; the dog should! If the dog is constantly straining at the leash during the stay attempt, then the handler should try to find a way to make the dog successful, possibly by moving the puppy away from a distraction.
Speaking of distractions… when teaching stays, I like to reference the 3 D’s: Duration, Distance, and Distraction. It’s important to teach each one singly so as not to overwhelm the puppy. It’s also a good idea to train in multiple short sessions rather than drilling multiple stays.
Duration is simply the length of time the dog is in a specific position. When I start teaching “stay” to a puppy, I generally start with a sit-stay in heel position. I give the dog the signal to stay, wait a moment, quietly praise, and release. I try to start right from the beginning praising DURING the stay; I don’t want the puppy to think that all good things only happen after the release, nor do I want them to think that I’m not allowed to talk during the stay. We’ve all been that handler… silently holding our breath, hoping the dog won’t get up! Quiet praise gets the dog used to noise during the stay and lets them know they’re on the right track.
After the dog has successfully progressed with duration training (I like to have a solid stay in a quiet environment of about 15 seconds before I move on), I start working on distance. When I’m working on distance, the stays are going to be a lot shorter than 15 seconds because I’m adding a new element. Since I’ve been standing still up to this point, I might just shuffle my feet, praise, and release. Sometimes any movement at all is enough to break a puppy out of a stay, so decrease the amount of foot movement until the puppy can be successful. Once I can move my feet, I go “knees to nose” by stepping directly in front of the puppy, then pivot back to the heel position, quietly praise, and release. When building distance, it’s important to come back to the puppy before releasing them. Later, when they have a firmer understanding of stay, you can call them to “come”. But doing so now can create a dog who anticipates getting to run towards you and isn’t as firmly planted.
When working on distractions, you can probably easily make a list of the dog’s most distracting things. If you made a list for my border collie Scorch, it would go like this:
1. Tennis ball
2. Rope tug toy
3. Treats
4. Food
5. People
6. Dogs
Some puppies will have a list quite similar to Scorch’s; other puppies (looking at you, Labradors) will list food as their top priority, often followed by other dogs. But if I was teaching Scorch to stay around distractions, I wouldn’t start by bouncing a bunch of tennis balls in front of him. I’d start with a lower valued distraction. In his case it would be other dogs (he’s generally not interested in befriending strange dogs, but he’ll spare them a glance). I would set him up around the distraction at a reasonable distance. I would want him to see the other dog, but not be so close that he can’t concentrate. I’d have him do a sit-stay, right at heel position, for a couple of seconds, quietly praise, and release. I’m eliminating the duration and distance we’ve achieved because I don’t want to challenge him so much that he can’t focus. Then I’ll gradually decrease the distance between ourselves and the distracter dog, over several training sessions.
Puppy raising is unique compared to raising a pet because your puppy goes out and about from an early age. If you want to practice a stay around distractions, go to the grocery store, walk around for a bit so the puppy is adjusted to being in an exciting location, then do a brief stay right at heel. You might have the most success practicing in one of the open areas, or an aisle with dried goods on it. Make some progress there, then move to a more challenging aisle (like the pet food aisle) and start over with easier stays.
Early, frequent, consistent “stay” training results in “sticky stays”. You want a dog who has a clear understanding that stay means “remain in one location until you are released or given another command.” If you’re not sure if your dog can hold the stay or if your puppy is breaking the stay repeatedly, try changing the criteria until you reach a level where the puppy can be successful. Set them up for stays throughout the day: during commercial breaks, before exiting their crate, before going through a door, before you let them off of tie-down for a play session, after pottying, before meal times, etc etc. The possibilities are endless! The important part is to work training into small, brief, successful sessions throughout the day and setting the puppy up for understanding. Remember the 3 D’s any time that you tell your dog to “stay” and you will get a dog who “sticks”!
