3 Phases of 'Stay'

Phase I: Start with food and teach you dog to ‘Sit’. Once they truly understand that, say ‘Stay’ and count to 3 before rewarding. Stay stationary. When you can count to 3, release them by saying “free/break/release” and step away to help them understand. Gradually work your way up to 5, 7, 10+…

Phase II: While you’re counting, begin to step side to side and add rotation of your body. Always return and release them with “free/break/release” before rewarding.

Phase III: When they can handle some movement reliably, slowly add distance, then return, release and reward.

Refinement: When the above is going well…

• Call your dog to ‘Come'/Here’

• Step out of sight

• Pick up an item from the ground

• Walk 360° around them

• Try ‘Stay’ from ‘Down’ or ‘Stand’

Troubleshooting: Dogs are context learners, so when you change their environment or add distractions, your dog will inevitably break their stay while in training and learning to generalize. What matters most is that we don’t punish them, but simply return them to the stay position and finish by releasing. That’s what they’ll remember next time!