Teach Your Dog the Stay Command

Video Transcript

"Hi this is Elise for ExpertVillage.com and in this short video clip we’re going to be talking about how to introduce your dog to the stay command. If you’re interested in more of my services, you can check out the website at www.canineheadstart.com. So we’re going to be working with Ursa who is a 3 year old Briard female and we’re going to be introducing her to the stay command. Before we start a couple of things that are important to remember are we’re going to issue a command, we’re going to mark the behavior, we’re going to reward the behavior and then we’re going to release the behavior. If a dog does not know a behavior that you’re working on, it’s the first time that you are introducing it, then it’s very important that you set the dog up for success and that means that you wouldn’t tell a dog to sit-stay and walk 10 feet away. You would start off with small distances and short durations. So we’re going to do that with Ursa and we’re going to ask her to go into a sit, I’m going to ask her for a stay and you’re going to see me using hand signals as well as verbal signals. One of the reasons for this is because dogs are visual communicators and if we teach them visual hand signals, it helps them understand exactly what it is that we’re talking about. So first I’ll get her to stand up, up Ursa let’s go, good girl. Then I’m going to ask her to sit, pumpkin, good girl. I mark the behavior, reward the sit, watch me – stay. Return. Mark the behavior, reward the behavior and okay, release the behavior. Good job, good girl. You want to work at that distance and for that duration for the beginning of your work, but once the dog has a better sense of it, come here Ursa, you can gradually increase the distance and duration. Ursa come this way. Let’s go, good girl. Can you sit? Good job. Ursa – stay. Good girl. Okay good job. Very good girl. Notice that I gave her the reward, I marked her and I gave her the reward while she was in the stay and that’s very important. The release comes after they’ve gotten their praise, after they’ve come their reward and once they’ve been released you’re not going to reward them otherwise you’re rewarding them for being released other than staying and we want them to get the idea that staying is good. "