Stay - Part 1

A very brief overview!

Stays have three major components: distance, duration and distraction.

Distance: This is the amount of space between you and your dog.

Duration: This is the amount of time that a dog holds its stay.

Distraction: This is what is going on in around the dog while it is doing its stay.

For beginning stays, we only change one component at a time. So, if we are standing close to our dog, we can ask for a longer stay or we can add a distraction, but not both at the same time. If we are standing away from our dog, we should have the duration and the distractions as low as possible.

For more advanced dogs, we can change more components at a time.

When working on stays, we need to be able to reward in position. This means into the dog’s mouth when the dog is doing a sit-stay or between the dog’s front feet when doing a down-stay.

If you are using a clicker, remember that a click marks he end of the behavior, so your dog will/can break the stay. Training a release word (OK), which is different than your clicker/marker word (YES), is useful.

Some do’s and don’t’s:

Do reward in position.

Don’t drill too many stays at once (or boredom will set in).

Do treat before the dog has broken the stay. In fact, it is better to treat long before you think your dog will break its stay than to keep re-cueing the stay.

Do work with one beginner dog at a time.

Don’t try to lump stay behavior. In other words, take your time! A five second stay is great at first, but don’t try to jump from there to a 2 minute stay! Or, one foot away from your dog does not translate to 20 feet.