Chapter 6. Stay-in-place

Thus far in this course, your dog was not told to do anything. He was simply exposed to some training actions. In the present work, you will teach your dog to Stay-in-place whenever you move away from him. Stay by hand-signal is taught first (Steps 1 and 2), and followed by teaching a Stay by voice command (Step 3). Stay is probably the most useful behavior that your dog will learn in this course. In these exercises, the dog is allowed to be standing, sitting or lying down when you signal or tell him to Stay. You will want your dog to maintain his present attitude, with little or no moving about during the Stay period.

The early Stay signal. Begin the trials by facing the dog, and, without waiting, place the flat of both hands in front of the dog's face in a non-threatening way—palms facing the dog for two to five seconds. The signal fills the wait-space in the Still-quiet mode (see modes discussed in the section, "The Game-playing trial" of Chapter 5).

This signal often gets the dog to stay in place, reflexively. You may bend your body, if necessary, while performing this action. Maintain the "early Stay signal" in place for several seconds. If the dog Stays, say GOOD, and end the trial with a tasty tidbit (food is kept in a dish on a nearby table, not in your hands). If the dog breaks from the Stay, repeat the procedure. When the dog begins to stay still with this early Stay signal—it usually happens in the first training session—replace the signal with the "refined Stay signal," next.

The refined Stay signal. After one or two training sessions with the "early Stay signal," refine the signal as follows: Place the palm of one hand close to the dog's face for a fleeting moment, then bring your hand back to your side—all in a continuing, yet unhurried motion. You will not move away from the dog during Step-1 Stay trials. Follow the signal with a wait period (see action 7. of Step 1, below).

This exercise lends itself to Team Training, as are most exercises in this course. It's a fun way for you and your dog to "play the game," that is, sharing the below actions with another person.

Step 1. Getting a Dependable Stay

1. Say READY. It asks the dog if he wants to play a game.
2. Pick up your training foods and go to the work site.
3. Place the food tidbits in a plate on a nearby table.
4. Allow the dog to be sitting, standing or lying down.
5. Face the attentive dog.
6. Without waiting, give the Stay signal.

Begin with the "early Stay signal." Then, when appropriate, change to the "refined Stay signal," also done at Step 1.

7. You want your dog to Stay-in-place for two to five seconds. If the dog breaks during the wait period, repeat the Stay signal.
8. Say GOOD when you get the Stay. If you are still using the "early Stay signal," hold the signal in place until you say GOOD. The dog is allowed to break his Stay after the GOOD sound.

If the dog is sitting or lying down during the Stay trials, you may on occasion want to do Stays when the dog is standing. In which case, you would entice the dog to break from the Stay after you say GOOD. To get the dog to break, hold the tidbit close to him, but still far enough away so that he has to rise to get it.

9. Deliver the food tidbit.
10. Go to action 4 of this Step. You are ready to begin another Stay trial. Do eight to ten such trials in the session.
11. On the last trial, replace the GOOD sound with OUT, and follow with a grand reward.

Problem: What if the dog repeatedly breaks from the Stay in action 7, above?

Solution: Make the following change in the training step:

4. Allow the dog to be sitting, standing or lying down.
5. Face the attentive dog.
6. Without waiting, give the Stay signal (use "the refined Stay signal." See definition, above).
7. Then place your hands lightly on the dog and hold him in place for two to five seconds. Experiment with the best way to do that (if you are doing Team Training with another Team Player, she could hold the dog lightly in place).
8. Say GOOD while still holding the dog in place. Then let go the dog.
9. Allow the dog to break from the Stay after you say GOOD.
10. Deliver the food tidbit.
11. Go to action 4 of this Step. You are ready to begin another Stay trial. Do eight to ten trials in the session.
12. Gradually fade out the holding correction. When the dog no longer needs to be held in place, resume the work without the "hold-in-place" correction.
13. On the last trial, replace the GOOD sound with OUT, and follow with a grand reward.

Do one or two more sessions in this step, then go to Step 2.

Step 2. Stays with Distractions

Continue Step 1 trials, but now make brief and smooth distracting movements, such as slowly backing-away from the dog after you give the Stay signal (you are now in "motion" mode). If the dog moves before you release him with the GOOD sound, start the trial over again. That is, go to the dog and deliver another Stay signal and go on from there. Do other distraction movements at this training step, such as a stretch exercise away from the dog. Add complexity to your distraction in small increments from one trial to another. If the dog continues to break from the Stay at any distraction level, go to a simpler level for awhile, or have another Team Player hold the dog in place after the Stay signal is given.

On the last trial of a session, reinforce with the sound, OUT, and deliver a grand reward.

Plan to do about 10 trials in each training session; conduct five to eight training sessions per day, for as many days that it takes to get a reliable Stay under the above distracting conditions. Two training days should give you the desired control. Then do Step 3.

Step 3. Learning the Voiced STAY

In the present Step, an additional action—the voiced command STAY—is added to the basic trial configuration.

Learning the Stay command is achieved by pairing it with a Stay signal that already controls the response. The voiced, STAY, in time, will come to control the same "stay-in-place" response, when given alone. For learning to take place, the voice-command STAY must appear a moment before the hand signal is given. No part of the signal must be started before the command is voiced. In this way, the hand signal is used as a prompt for learning the command, STAY. Perform the following actions, with simple distractions, for one or two days. Plan to do about 10 trials per training session and five to eight training sessions per day.

1. To begin a session, say READY.
2. Pick up your training foods and go to the place where you will do your training.
3. Place the tidbit foods in a dish on a table.
4. Allow the dog to be sitting, standing or lying down.
5. Face the attentive dog. Hands are at your side.
6. Without waiting say STAY.
7. Follow closely with the Stay signal (see "The refined Stay signal," above).
8. After giving the signal, walk away and leave your dog in Stay. While away, you may do a brief distracting movement.
9. Say GOOD while you are still doing the distraction.
10. Allow the dog to break from the Stay.
11. Deliver the tidbit.
12. Go to action 5 of this Step. You are ready to begin another paired command-signal Stay trial.
13. On the last trial of the session, replace the GOOD sound with OUT.
14. Follow with a grand reward.

In the work of this chapter, your dog was already in a particular attitude (Sit, Stand or Down) when you told him to Stay. In the next chapter, you will first tell your dog to change attitudes, and then you will tell him to Stay.

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