[Scout's Mom]

I'm having trouble with Scout getting him to stay, he doesn't do it at all and I'm not sure how to teach him. I've taught him the following commands, sit, come, down and off. The problem is that he only does it for a second or two, so it is really important to teach him to stay. He can be pretty wild so I need to find a way to calm him down sometimes so I think the stay command is really important.

Would anyone mind giving me a few tips. it would really be appreciated. Thank you very much.

 

[Ceridwen]

I don't know if it's the proper way - but when I'm putting breakfast/dinner/etc down I tell Caspian to wait/stay. If he moves from his sit/down I pull his dinner away - I repeat until he is waiting patiently/not jumping. When he stay for a good 10-15 seconds I tell him 'ok' and he dives right in.

I'm working on expanding that to other instances - going outside, while we're on walks waiting for other dogs or cars to pass. Lots and lots of treats and praise when he is sitting and waiting.

 

[Baloo317]

How old is Scout again?

"Stay" is something that comes with age a lot of the time, as a puppy's attention span is just too short to be able to stay for any significant amount of time.

With Baloo we started by having him sit in front of us, telling him "stay" and feeding him treats pretty much continuously (as long as he stayed sitting) saying "good stay". Break it off after a couple seconds. From there we slowly increased the time we were asking him to stay and slowed down the treats, and then finally adding distance, still coming back to reward the stay randomly.

But that all happened over the course of over a year. He's now pretty rock solid in his stays, but its something that takes a lot of time and LOTS of proofing.

 

[Tanya]

I agree with Baloo's post.

Also remember that you need to take baby steps. literally. At first you will likely only move ONE foot (I mean say your rigth foot will step back and your left will stay). Eventually you will move both feet (and not too far, maybe an inch). so literal baby steps away at first (one foot at a time) and always stopping when the pup is successful.

 

[Scout's Mom]

Thanks for the tips. You have helped me to have more reasonable expectations. I was able to train my first dog to stay in a matter of weeks when he was only 12 weeks old, which is the age of Scout, so I thought that was normal. I like the idea of having him sit and telling him to stay while feeding treats. He is definitely motivated by treats. I also get such good tips from this site, I'm so grateful to have found it.

 

[Scout's Mom]

Hi, I tried your suggestions and I think Scout did pretty good. I told him to sit and then stay and I was able to back away at least six feet and he stayed in the sitting position. I then fed him a treat. I did this for about five minutes and he did quite well on almost everytime. Now I have confidence that I can train him over time to stay. Your suggestions were great, thank you.

 

[Jacque]

I agree with Ceridwen. Get him to sit and tell him to stay (put your palm in front of his face similer to how a traffic cop gives the stop command) as you put his food bowl down. If he fails, say no firmly and start over. When he successfuly waits, tell him "okay!" and let him eat. This will be helpful in teaching the stay command and will also keep him from knocking you over when setting his bowl down. Stay is the second most important command next to come in my opinion. I hope this helps!!

 

[Baloo317]

I agree with Ceridwen. Get him to sit and tell him to stay (put your palm in front of his face similer to how a traffic cop gives the stop command) as you put his food bowl down. If he fails, say no firmly and start over. When he successfuly waits, tell him "okay!" and let him eat. This will be helpful in teaching the stay command and will also keep him from knocking you over when setting his bowl down. Stay is the second most important command next to come in my opinion. I hope this helps!!

I think a "wait" command is more appropriate in this instance. I use "stay" to mean "stay there until I come back for you and give you the release word, and get comfy cause it might be awhile" whereas "wait" means "sit tight for a second and pay close attention, I'm going to be giving you something else to do."

I find having the different commands handy because Baloo knows that "stay" is a much longer exercise for the most part and so relaxes in position (very handy for comp. obedience) whereas with "wait" he's alert and ready for the next command. If I only ever used "stay" I think he would maintain too much of that tension that comes from waiting for the next command, making him more likely to break the stay.

 

[Jacque]

You are probably right. I use stay and keep Jazz about 10 feet from her bowl while I'm scooping it out of the bag but wait is a great command as well. I use wait for tricks like putting treats down in front of her. (she's so funny about it, if i say wait, she will turn her head away from the treat as not to be tempted I guess) and when we are playing fetch...it's a really fun command and can keep them from getting into trouble, too. If they are taught right then you can stop them in their tracks...whatever they are doing.

 

[kaznalf]

With Alfie he learnt a stay and a wait. With stay I put him in sit, got a clicker took 1 step bk..returned to his side and clicked and treated, then increase to 2 step, 3 steps, 4 steps and leaver for longer gradually

 

[zoesmom]

I would also (and think it's important) for your puppy to learn a hand signal for this (as well as other) commands.

This trains your pup to focus on you, not your words.
This will come in handy when/if your dog has hearing issues, or if you lost your voice.

In our obedience class, all commands were taught non-verbally first.

just my opinion.

have fun training!