#193 Beyond the Extended Hand: Rethinking How We Teach Dogs to Stay

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Ever wonder why your dog's perfect "stay" in training sessions completely falls apart when you actually need it? The answer lies in how we train versus how we use this crucial command in real life. Most of us practice with an extended hand while repeatedly saying "stay, stay, stay" – a luxury we simply don't have when our hands are full of groceries or we're opening doors.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
If you're working on your dog's stay cue and it's
just not going so well in reallife, here's a reminder we have
to train it like we're going touse it.
So, for example, if you trainstay while you hold your hand
out and keep repeating stay,stay, stay, that's not going to

(00:24):
translate to real life.
In real life your hands aregoing to be busy.
You'll be grabbing thegroceries, opening a door,
answering your phone.
You won't have the luxury of anextended hand and repeated cues
to remind your dog to stay,cues to remind your dog to stay.

(00:49):
So let's tweak that training soyour dog can stay while real
life is happening.
Try this Ask your dog to stayand then move something from one
counter to another, right therein front of your dog, and then
treat them for maintaining thestay.
Then open a drawer and giveyour dog a treat.
Then open a drawer and giveyour dog a treat.
Then close their drawer andgive your dog a treat and then

(01:11):
release them from the stay.
My release word is free.
Keeping your session short andsweet and having them mimic real
life is the key to a successfulstay.
And just keep increasingdistance and duration with each
training session and before youknow it, you'll have a stay cue

(01:31):
that you can use in real life.
Another common issue with staytraining we humans seem to think
distance is more important thandistractions.
But I think distractions areway more important than distance
.
I mean, how often will we needour dog to stay 30 foot away,

(01:53):
versus how often will we needthem to stay while we sweep up
broken glass right there infront of them?
Or why we put on our wintercoats while they stay right
beside us?
I always start training fordistractions first, duration
second and distance third.
And as you add distance, don'timmediately turn your back and

(02:15):
walk away.
Remember, dogs pay moreattention to our body language
than our words.
So the moment your shouldersface in the other direction and
you start walking off, your dogwill assume he gets to go with
you.
So instead, at first, shufflesideways, spin in a circle,

(02:37):
swing your arms a bit, makemovement less exciting.
Just increase body movementswith each training session and
before you know it, you'll beable to turn and walk away while
your dog maintains his stay.
And as you add duration, set atimer on your phone.

(02:59):
Start with just 30 seconds andonce that's a solid stay, bump
it to a minute, then a minuteand a half.
That way you can just focus ontraining the dog and rewarding
him for staying and let thetimer keep track of time for you
.
And when you release them fromthe stay, don't make it a party.

(03:20):
Don't give them a treat.
Getting to go free should bereward enough and we want all of
the good stuff to happen duringthe stay.
The stay should be the fun part.
The stay should be when theyget the treats and the praise
and your attention.
Make the release just a boringlittle free.

(03:41):
And if your dog breaks theirstay, no drama.
You don't need to march themback to the exact blade of grass
they were sitting on.
Just block their path, resetthem with a sit, stay and try
again.
Stay training isn't aboutpunishing mistakes.
It's about quickly resettingand reinforcing the right thing.

(04:06):
And remember, stay isn't aboutbeing still.
It's about your dog beingconfident and calm and settled,
no matter what's going on aroundthem.
So make it real, make itrewarding real, make it

(04:30):
rewarding and at first, keep itshort and sweet.
And hey, subscribers, as alittle thank you, I'm giving you
free access to our online staytraining course.
Just listen to the next episode, available exclusively to
subscribers for your specialcoupon code, so you can join the
course at no cost.