How do you train a dog to stay

Bella is such a good girl, but the only problem I have with her is getting her to stand still when I need her to

I stopped crating her during the day while we are at work and the cleaning people were coming today so I at least wanted to keep her in an area where she can still let them do what they needed to, I ran around in an f-in circle for 20 min's this morning trying to catch her and was late for work and got so frustrated that I just left.

She is ridiculously fast and it's literally a comedy act of me trying to catch her.

Any advice?

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

Positive reinforcement!!!!

In one of my installments of "Adventures in Puppy Parenthood" I talked about the "backyard tango" that we used to do with Arnold whenever we were trying to get him to come back in the house.

Well, to overcome this issue I stared going up to the kitchen getting a treat and then I'd stand at the door and call Arnold to come. I would hold the treat up and when he came he got the treat. I would do this in the house too. He'd be in another room and I'd call him while holding a treat. After awhile he caught on and now he comes whenever I call him.

Well, the same training holds true for staying. When you need Bella to stay, make sure you say "STAY" in a stern tone and when she does, she gets a treat. Trust me, it may take awhile for her to catch on, but she will.

ETA: In addition to giving her a treat also make sure you reinforce her good behavior with telling her "Good Stay!!!, Good Stay Bella!" when she's doing it but also give her the treat.

Good luck!!!

Message edited 6/24/2008 4:00:25 PM.

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

there are a lot of diff methods. if you google it, a whole bunch of ways come up

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

The way we trained our dog is we would say sit and push her butt down, once she got the sit we would say stay and point at her (keep a cookie in your hand) and walk away backwards with tou finger still pointed at her when she goes to get up say "STAY" and walk back over to her and do it again (we snap our fingers) she listens, its tough but you will get further away, once she has followed the order then you give the cookie. And keep practicing this way...it takes awhile to get them out of the habit of getting up and following you with the cookie but they are more prone to listen when they know they get a cookie

HTH

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

We trained all 3 of our girls the same way and have had success so far- We make them sit and then lay down, we then put our hand up as if you are telling someone to stop and we told them to stay, then we would walk around in their line of site until they didnt move, (bone/cookie reinforcement) as they got better at staying we would go upstairs, downstairs, wherever, just making sure they couldnt see us anymore and then we would wait a minute and tell them to come.
After about a month we would introduce distractions, me walking past them or calling them, if DH told them to stay the point was to get them to not move until HE called them, not me, this takes a while, especially if you are doing it with only one dog, I found it easier to train the 2nd and 3rd b/c they just follow what the oldest does.
Best of Luck, just remember to be patient, it will pay off

ETA: My avatar pic is me telling them to stay- it works-LOL !!!

Message edited 6/24/2008 5:55:30 PM.

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

Very helpful

Thank you

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

I find both my dogs respond better to a hand command with a spoken one rather than just spoken. I say STAY in a commanding voice and hold my hand up in a Stop position. I can sometimes get them to stay with just the hand command but not if they arfe excited or distracted. We taught this to our first dog and the 2nd he just picked up on all the commands maybe by mimicking I'm not sure

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

For some reason, my dog took to learning the command as "WAIT" instead of "STAY." Who am I to argue? I hold my hand up in front of him while I say it. Our trainer does not like the hand up thing but it works so well for us.

We used a few methods to teach him and some of those methods were not directly related to the command. Before giving the dog something he wants, we make him calm down. He loves his walk but we do not put the leash on while he is excitedly running all over the place. I used to try to grab him but he has learned that he has to sit calmly and then I will leash him. It took less and less time to get him to sit calmly. We also make him wait after we put down his food bowl. We taught him by saying wait and physically blocking him and now we just say "wait" and use the hand command and he will sit until we give the okay to eat. This also generally teaches him that we are in charge and my dog needs that reinforced a lot.

Re: How do you train a dog to stay

oh no - char would never even think of pulling that shiit.

i would just say, in a stern, LOUD, voice "STOP" or "NO - STAY!" or "BELLA! SIT DOWN!!!" and see if she'll stop dead in her tracks from your voice while she attempts to flee.

then, i would work with her on staying still by putting her in a spot and putting her butt down and saying sit, stay... then giving her positive reinforcement and FIRM and STERN "NO" when she doesn't do it.

i would not chase her around b/c, to her, it prob does become a game. then, if she doesn't stop dead in her tracks with the stern, raised voice i would get a can of coins and shake them when she tries to run away.

sometimes a little firmness and fear can go a long way. i'm old school lol we raised our dog very strict.