Stay

Overview & Prerequisites

When teaching stay, feel free to choose a sit or a down – it’s your choice. Choosing your dog’s favorite position will make it a bit easier. Your dog knowing the sit or the down is a prerequisite. For this plan, we will feed the dog treats at the location of the stay. We will release the stay with the word “Free!” 

Here’s the order of events using a sit as our behavior:

• “Sit” Ask your dog to sit (pay this behavior as well as the stay to keep your dog engaged).

• “Stay” say “Stay” then pause for a second and then give the hand signal.

• Bungee. Do the bungee step you are on.

• Return to your dog

• “Yes!” Say  “yes!” or click your clicker to mark the amazing work.

• Give your dog a treat.

• “Free!” Say “free!” to release your dog from the stay and toss a treat away from the dog.

• Repeat. Repeat each bungee step until your dog gets 5 in a row correct. If your dog misses 3 in a row, go back to the last step you were on before the misses. 

Teaching the Skill

You will do bungees and pivots while teaching your dog to stay.

What is a bungee? A bungee is what we call the motion of stepping away from your dog and then stepping back to your dog. For example, a two step bungee involves walking two steps away, then two steps back. A three step bungee is three steps away and three steps back. 

We use bungees to build stay duration, as it takes time to walk away and walk back. This also helps build distance at the same time. We will add distractions later after we have some distance and duration work done.  

What is a pivot? A pivot combines a step away with a turn. A single pivot is: one step away turn, then one step back, We use cominations of bungees and pivots. A full pivot is a full turn away then turn back. A half pivot is a turn away. 

Rules: Work on each step on the page until your dog gets 5 in a row correct. If your dog misses 3 in a row, go to the previous step. 

Ready for the plan? Click here to download the full PDF.