06 May Don’t teach your dog to stay.
Stay is a command many dog owners use regularly; however most professional dog trainers don’t use “stay” as one of our commands. It may sound strange, but there is good reason why. Let us explain: Most stay comes after a “sit” or “down.” At that moment, the dog has to think about doing two separate commands, which is more difficult for the dog to retain. Ultimately the dog will break one of those commands. Maybe you use “stay” to keep your dog in one area. This may work for a short period, however what pictures does the dog have of what stay really is? Most dogs will lose focus or get bored of being in one area so they will lay from side to side or get up and turn. There is no focal point for the dog of what “stay” is, and will become misconstrued. Over a period of time “stay” will become a much larger area. This is not what we intended when we set out to teach this command.
What is the solution? Teaching the dog that stay is implied with commands like sit, down, and place. For example, down means to stay laying down until released or called. It is much easier for a dog to learn implied stay then “stay” itself. This is because once the dog knows commands like down, sit, and place we can see if they break a command and so can the dog. This makes the dog more successful as opposed to teaching a secondary command with it. Now, if you use “stay” already as one of your commands don’t worry. It is not too difficult or too late to teach an implied stay.
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