Sit down and stay there!
“Stay” is one of the most challenging things to teach. No, not necessarily teaching your dog, though that can be rather amusing too – “DO nothing and get rewarded for it, doggy!” Man, wish my work involved that! But no, I’m always asked to do something.
Anyway, the challenging part of stay is the people are always in such a hurry. They want to shout “Stay” at their dog and then walk away from them. Now, sometimes it works. You start yelling at me and then walk away, I’m going think “YES!” and be freaking glad you are going! A few of our dogs are like that too, “bye-bye!” But sometimes, usually, the dogs, who are nicer than I am for the most part, worry they did something wrong, “Sorry, sorry! Let me come lick your hand and make up!”
Hand kisses make up for everything!
No matter how many times, or how many ways, I say, “Do duration first. Then, add in a few distractions before you do much distance” they like to shout “Stay” at the dog and then back away from them. THEN, if the dog happens to stay, as soon as they start to wiggle, the parent always shouts “Come!” Its a game!
My favorite game is 'let's play ball!!' Come? Hmmm....let me think on it.
If your dog knows a good solid ‘sit-stay’ or ‘settle-stay’ you can take them a lot of places you might worry about otherwise. You don’t have to worry about them charging out the front door, or even jumping on people. You can take your cookies out of the hot oven and not wonder if a cold nose is going to either sniff somewhere to make you jump or try to snatch a hot cookie.
Pretty sure I heard someone say 'cookie!'
Put your dog into a ‘sit’. Give them a hand signal. I usually push my hand toward their nose. “Stay.” Then, I drop my hand, hold my breath and hope they stay put. If they get up or wiggle too much, I say “whoops!” and put them back into position. If they stay or watch or whatever – I don’t care if they stare at that squirrel they plan to chase in, oh, say, five more seconds – I count to three and then give them a very specific release word. “Release!” “Free!” so they know they accomplished ‘do nothing, dog’ Properly.
Do nothing? That's a joke, right?
I add myself as the first distractions. I take a couple steps side to side. I move to their side. I wave my arms. I have them sitting and staring and thinking, “She’s a little odd today…” but they aren’t getting up! If they do – again, its a ‘whoops’ and back into position. And I’m Right there to do it. I’m not halfway across the room. Yet. First I add in time and distractions. THEN I add in distance.
And when I do add in distance- oh, yes. Go back to them and release. You walk back to the dog and give them their release word from where they are sitting.
He's going to call me to come any second now!
I see so many dogs who are put into a stay and then they start to get tense. “Is she going to call me now? Is she calling now? Is it time, can I COME?” They wait for the ‘come’ command instead of doing what I want, “chill out, dog”. After they know ‘stay’ with the three D’s – distance, duration and distraction, that is plenty of time to add in the ‘come’ occasionally. But to start – go back, please.
Take it slow. There is no hurry.
I'm in a hurry to cuddle! That's all!
Stay is a very handy command. Besides giving us the security of knowing your dog is safely settled, it can give them a break, too. I say one of my great desires is to have someone tell me to go lay down and stay there….and yet….