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Dog Home Obedience Training - Training the 'Stay' CommandDog Home Obedience TrainingFor the �stay� behavior we are going to employ what is called the �opposition reflex�. Dogs are born with an opposition reflex. What it means is that when a certain amount of pressure is exerted against a dog�s body, his body will automatically resist that force. He doesn�t think about it, he isn�t trying to do it, his body just pushes back against that pressure. Have you ever had a big dog sit in your lap or lean against you? When you try to push him away it is like trying to move a sack of potatoes, right? Well, we are going to use your dog�s �sack of potatoes� physiology to teach him to stay on command. Start out by having your dog sit next to you, both of you facing the same direction. Have him on leash with a dog training collar, preferably a pinch collar. Tell him to stay and step one step away from him as you turn to face him, and as you use the leash to exert a small amount of tension toward your body. You should now be facing your dog, two feet away from him, with the leash pulling into your body. You are going to have to experiment with the correct amount of tension. Too little tension and you won�t kick in the opposition reflex, too much tension and you are going to pull him off his haunches. Practice. Find the right amount of tension. The right amount of tension is when you can see your dog�s body �dig in� and resist. It will keep him anchored in his spot. Slowly and gradually increase your distance. Perhaps day two gets you three feet away. Day four gets you four feet away, and so on. At this point it would be a good idea to get a long line (a long leash of 15 feet or more made from cotton or polyester) so that you can teach him to stay at longer distances.
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Don�t rush it! Don�t progress too fast! Make sure that your dog is perfect at three feet before you go to four and so on. You want him to have a firm understanding of this exercise before you move to the next step. Once your dog will reliably stay at a distance of 10 feet for 30 seconds or more you can move to the next phase. The next phase is to remove the leash tension from the equation. Start out again with your dog by your side. Tell him to �stay� and step away one step, this time without the leash tension. If he stays, great. Give him some calming, verbal praise. Again, progress slowly with this exercise. If he is perfect at two feet, go to three. Then to four and so on. At any stage of this training, whether during the leash tension stage or after, there are going to be times when your dog breaks the �stay� behavior. The way to prevent him from breaking the �stay� behavior is to immediately give him a correction when he moves. When your dog begins to break the �stay�, immediately choke up on the leash and give a quick, strong correction straight up in the air as you repeat the command �stay�. What you want to do is re-anchor him in the original spot where you told him to �stay�. If he breaks the �stay� and is able to get a few feet make sure you give him a few corrections on the way back to his original spot, before re-anchoring him with the final upward correction. Repetition. Practice. Go slowly with this exercise. If you do it as instructed you will see that your dog will soon perform this behavior reliably. Once you have mastered the �sit-stay�. You can move on to the �down-stay�. It is important to master the �sit-stay� first. If you do so, transitioning the �down-stay� will be a cinch. To train the �down-stay�, begin with your dog by your side. Have him lie down. Step away from him as you tell him to �stay�. Go just one step to begin with. If you have properly taught the �sit-stay� you won�t need leash tension for the �down-stay�. Again, go slowly. Master each step before you go to the next. If he breaks the �down-stay�, do just as you would with the �sit-stay�. Immediately give him a few corrections to get him back to the original spot, then one final downward correction to re-anchor him in the �lie down� position. Repeat the command to stay and begin anew.
Follow these steps and you will soon have a dog that stay reliably in both the sitting and lying down positions.
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