How We Teach Every Single Dog To “Stay”
This is such an important behavior to teach. Not only can it be a safety issue if you can’t teach your dog to stay, but it also helps your dog learn to be calmer, more relaxed, accepting, and more focused.
It surprises people that the dogs we train all learn to stay yet we never even say the word ‘stay’. This is called the implied stay, and it’s beneficial in many ways. Believe it or not, it’s actually much easier for your dog to learn as they have to make fewer discriminations.
Remember, your dog doesn’t know words. You have to teach them what they mean. So if we are talking about the basic commands, your dog now has to learn ‘sit’ and ‘sit, stay’, ‘down’ and ‘down, stay’, ‘place’ and ‘place, stay’. That is much more difficult than just learning the three commands and that they always hold their position.
We also tend to create the pattern that they should immediately spring back up after a command for a reward. This is inadvertently cemented over time, only making it harder for them to sometimes ‘stay’ when you ask them to.
In this episode I talk about how to teach the implied stay and what that precise process is including the use of markers (catch our future episode on the use of markers), the sequence you use when training, and how to keep your dog motivated.
Link to video on teaching the implied stay: https://youtu.be/hNgShtTqJ6s
Love the show? Sign up to access our new exciting Xtra content! This content is unique and is ONLY available to our paid subscribers.
Subscriptions are only $3/month! You can also just sign up to make a small donation monthly if you want to support the podcast. Or, if you can’t do that right now, just hit subscribe in your favorite app and tell a friend about the show!
Any support in any form from our listeners is sooo appreciated! We count on listeners like you to help us keep putting out content. Visit the link below to subscribe or donate.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2124912/support
I want to hear from you! Email me directly to ask your questions and suggest topics for the podcast.
[email protected]
Visit our social media for free training videos and to connect with us!
https://www.facebook.com/diamondk9dogtraining
Minute-by-Minute Breakdown
- 00:00 – Host Kati Peppe opens the episode and asks listeners to subscribe.
- 01:00 – Caller reported a serious situation involving their approximately five-year-old St. Bernard.
- 02:00 – Primary question: what realistic outcomes can training achieve for this dog’s behavior?
- 03:00 – Kati emphasizes dogs don’t inherently value human life or understand a child’s wellbeing.
- 07:00 – She states parents’ priority must be child safety, above dog ownership.
- 08:00 – The St. Bernard has history of resource guarding and a dominant streak.
- 10:00 – Owners must teach dogs guarding people or the home is not the dog’s role.
- 13:00 – Babies’ small size, abrupt movements, loud noises, and prolonged eye contact can unsettle dogs.
- 16:00 – Common advice to let dogs sniff babies and share space can be counterproductive.
- 18:00 – Instead, send the message that the baby belongs to you and you will guard them.
- 19:00 – Correcting a dog that approaches the baby teaches respect and enforces distance.
- 20:00 – In this incident, wife misinterpreted sounds, then found the dog snarling over the baby.
- 21:00 – Immediate imperative: strict management and complete separation of dog and baby.
- 22:00 – Never leave baby and dog unsupervised, even for short outdoor tasks.
- 24:00 – Kati says euthanasia is an acceptable option if a dog is unsafe in the home.
- 26:00 – If keeping the dog, Kati recommends enrolling in a structured, committed training program.
- 29:00 – Use high chairs, tummy-time mats, and boundary devices to teach the dog to keep distance.
- 31:00 – Train neutral, respectful shared space with calm boundaries, not terrorizing the dog.
- 35:00 – Goal: reliable place, down, and kennel behaviors to maximize household safety post-training.