Help! Teaching Puppy To "stay"

Ive been taking Dylan to puppy classes for 4 weeks now and he has been doing really well except for the "stay". When we are out for a walk and practising he is fine but as soon as I say stay in class he just scrabbles and pulls and wont pay any attenion and i struggle to even get him back into a sit. The way we do it in class is walk dog to heel on LHS and halt in a sit, raise lead in left hand and ask to stay and giving hand signal with right hand. The first week we did it in class he was ok but now im at my witts end we are having a test in 2 weeks an d really want us to do well.

please help

I teach the stay by using a hand signal - my whole hand held out in front of the dog as though I am a traffic policeman stopping the traffic - along with the command sit stay or down stay depending on the position I want him to stay in.

I started off by rewarding the stay after just a couple of seconds and gradually increasing the length of time - a tiny bit at a time - between the command and the reward.

At first I had to be really vigilant and give a release command ( I use the dog's name and then the word free) the second I saw him begin to move out of the stay - so he was ending the stay to my command rather than him deciding when to end it. Once he had fully understood what was expected of him in the stay position I then went on to repeat the stay command ( rather than releasing him) if I saw he was about to move so reinforcing what he was meant to do. When I release him from a stay I make a fuss of him in the stay position, whether it is sit or down before I give the release command.

Little and often seems to be the key to training so the dog doesn't have time to get bored. Make it as much fun as possible and stay patient. If it is not going too well it is better to stop that particular exercise and finish the session with an exercise that your dog performs well already so that the training session ends on a positive note i.e if he is not doing the stay go back and do a simple sit command, praise him and end the training session. You can always go back to it later on in the day. A few short sessions throughout the day are much better than one long one where your dog has a chance to get bored and you have a chance to get frustrated.

Good luck with your test - some dogs take a little longer than others but be patient and consistent and you will get there in the end.

I would relax and not bother about any test just yet although I guess that's easier said than done.

I teach Stay by using food rewards as the dog is actually in the Stay position (there is a knack to doing this as you dont want the dog moving when you give the treat, however it's easily done).

I also use a food pot on the floor which is something for th dog to concentrate on and can be gradually phased out.

It's important to go very slowly - also to concentrate on only one element. By this I mean either distance or duration (length of time in the Stay) - not both together!

Many owners will have dogs looking sad when they are told to Stay - I've seen it time and again. What I aim for is a dog delighted to Stay because it is rewarding and the dog understands what is expected of it.

I was taught the food pot method by Anne Bussey who is an excellent trainer who has done well in working trials and obedience I found her method worked better than the one I was using, which was to praise upon release.

A Stay is the one thing I don't use a clicker for.

Wys
x

is he in sit or a down? I find it easier to differentiate.....

he is supposed to be in a sit but as soon as there is a hint of me giving a command for a stay he is off scabbling about or trying to mug me for treats

Hi Ninalou in addition to the good advice above you may find this Dogsey article on Puppy Training helpful

It's often easier to differentiate...sit wait and down stay, so the dog is clear.

Good advice already given. Sounds like, if the dog can do it at home, it's beocming bewildered by this in class. I had a similar problem with a dog once, who became bewildered by down stays in class, he could do them at any other point, including on lead near a busy road with people walking past...but not at class. This was because he was aware of all the other owners giving firm 'stay' commands and it threw him, he didn't know what to do so he came to me to ask...every time. It's hard not to get uptight yo urself when that happens but all you can do is reinforce the command at home and hope for the best in class. He ended up passing the silver KC award before he was a year old so it is achievable!!!!! Perhaps, when you are doing it in class, ask if you can go to a quieter bit of the hall (or wherever you do it) so that he isn't confused or overexcited or worried about what everyone else is doing? That worked for us???

ps...once the dog is in position, only reinforce it with the stay command ,or whatever you're using. A common mistake is to say 'fido stay..stay fido..' most dogs see their name as a 'release' command or recall command and so will get up when they hear it...

When we took my boys to puppy classes, the "stay" command was the hardest to teach them. The woman that ran the class would stand on the end of the dogs lead and I had to show him a small piece of food. I would then put my hand up above his head and say the word "stay". I then took 2 or 3 steps back saying "stay" a few times while stepping back and then shouted on him and he would come running over as he knew he would get a reward. Once he got to us the woman said we had to praise him a lot (She said to think of how the Americans would praise their dogs with really loud exciting words). After they got used to doing it, we would only occasionally give him a treat so that he would come back thinking he might get a treat this time. I hope this helps you. Good Luck.

with suki i have to keep repeating the commond (i.e sit/lie) with the lie i have to be kneeling then very slowly moveawya whilst still giving her the commond. each time we practise i say it less and leave her in the position for longer. we started off with 2 seconds and are now up to 30 so we getting there slowly. this is the only exercise i dont use food with
ATD xxx