Clicker Training – Stay Command

The stay command isn’t difficult to teach as such, but it does take time and patience. Teaching the stay command is about building the time that your dog “stays” gradually over time.

The principal for teaching sit-stay and down-stay is exactly the same although it is likely that you may find down-stay easier to teach. The reason for this is quite simply that your dog will be more comfortable in the down position than he will be in the sit position, so it is helpful to remember this.

With your clicker and treats ready, you should ask your dog for the “sit” or “down” position (depending on which one you are teaching). Count 2 seconds, then click and treat ONLY IF your dog has remained in the sit / down position.

(If he moved out of the sit / down position before you reached 2 seconds, try again, this time only counting to 1 second.)

Now, this is the part that will take the time and patience. You need to build up the time between when he goes into the sit / down position and when you click and treat. Don’t be tempted to wait too long at first; you should build up the delay by a couple of seconds at a time.

Sometimes, he will move away before you have clicked; at this point, you should patiently put him back into the sit / down position and wait for a shorter amount of time before clicking and treating.

If he continually moves away before you have clicked, it is likely that you are waiting too long before clicking; some dogs will take longer to teach and when this is the case, you should build up the time much more slowly. Have patience, eventually he will stay for longer!!

When you have built up the time and he is reliably staying for 30 seconds, you can introduce the verbal “stay” command. So, you will say “Fido, sit” then as soon as he is sitting “Fido, stay”.

It is useful to introduce a hand signal with the verbal “stay” command, so that you are able to reinforce the command from a distance. Just imagine if you could ask him for down-stay at one end of a field and walk away from him, using a hand signal to reinforce the command and ensure that he stays.  Introducing a hand signal is just as easy as teaching a verbal signal – dogs are experts at body language, so it will be much more apparent to him that you might think. A good hand signal to use with “stay” is to hold up the palm of your hand to your dog whilst you say “stay”.

You should continue to build up the time before he receives his click and treat – if you work hard on this command, you can expect that your dog will stay for many minutes, even if you walk away from him or even leave the room.

This lesson should also include teaching a release word for your dog – a word that literally means that he can stop staying. You could say “release” for example, then call him to you, as soon as he stands, click and treat. He will learn that when you say “release”, he is free to move away. This will ensure that he understands when he should “stay” and when the command has finished.