How We Teach Every Single Dog To “Stay”

00:00 — Kati introduces basic obedience as the foundation beneath more advanced dog-training topics.

Welcome to Off Leash and Unfiltered Trigger Warning. I'm Kati Peppe, delivering the Truth in Dog Training.

Hey everybody, this is your host, Kati Peppe. Before we jump in, I just wanted to take a quick second and remind you to hit the subscribe button because that helps us so, so, so much. We appreciate every subscribe and follow, and we have so much valuable information we wanna share with you. So we don't want you to miss an episode. Without further ado, let's jump in. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Off-Leash and Unfiltered. We're talking about staying today, so I thought it would be nice to have a lighter topic. <laugh>, we've been talking about some really heavy stuff and some in-depth stuff, and honestly, that's the stuff I'm passionate about, right?

But at the foundation of all of that stuff is the basic obedience, and we don't talk about that a ton. Um, I've recently done a couple of episodes specifically on certain commands, and those episodes did really well.

Um, and I think even though I don't talk about that stuff a ton, um, it is really important and we use it day in and day out, and we leverage it day in and day out to, uh, accomplish the stuff we wanna accomplish with the dog. So it is important. And so I wanted to talk today about a really common one, which is stay right, uh, stay is something almost everybody wants their dog to do. And most people do manage to achieve at least some level of success teaching their dog to stay and hold a command, right?

But most people when we meet them, have not achieved it at the level that they would like to. So let's talk about that a little bit today. So first of all, in my opinion, if your dog doesn't know how to stay, and I'm using air quotes for a reason, and we'll get into that in a minute, <laugh>, but if your dog doesn't understand, um, the concept of staying in command, to me, the commands are useless.

Like they're really, there's just no point really in any of them. If your dog doesn't know how to hold them until, that's why I think the behavior of staying is so critical because otherwise all of your commands are essentially just a trick, right? You ask your dog to sit and they sit, but there's like, it's like there's a spring on their ass and they just pop pop right back up. Um, it's like, okay, so your dog knows how to sit kind of, right? They, they don't stay there though. They just get right back up. So it's more like they're performing a trick than a useful, productive behavior that's going to help you in some way.

Uh, same thing with down, right? And I've gotten dogs in here who, and we get a lot of dogs in here who haven't done anything except tons of positive reinforcement, right?

That's super, super common. Um, but some dogs <laugh>, if you tie into that really drivey, energetic, crazy, uh, genetics and you couple that with a relationship full of nothing but excitement and play and reward and tons of, tons of obedience training where you never raise that standard. We get those dogs in here and I've had some, it's like you tell them to lay down and the elbows hardly hit the floor and they bounce back up. I mean, it's so fast it hardly even counts. Sometimes it doesn't count. I've had dogs in here who came to associate the word down with the behavior, but only when the word is also tied with a toy like a ball.

04:00 — Some dogs associate “down” with briefly touching their elbows to the floor before popping…

So I, I have one dog specifically in mind, <laugh>, who um, would only lay down when his owner sat down if he was holding a tennis ball and <laugh>.

It was really something. And this person happened to be doing private lessons. I have no doubt if he was doing a board and train, we would've worked the dog through it, but we had a lesson or two. Yeah, we must have had at least a couple lessons, but I, I don't know that we had a couple lessons working on this specific thing. But anyways, the guy gave up <laugh> and it was that ingrained in the dog to only lay down when he saw a tennis ball. And by the way, that that's easy to fix, right?

But you have to stick with it and follow the instructions and all this stuff. So, um, for whatever reason he just decided <laugh> it wasn't worth it. Um, but so these things happen, but stay can be a difficult one, especially just depending on your dog's personality, their energy level, um, their amount of drive, what motivates them, how old they are.

All these things play a role. So let's kind of break down, um, what is a realistic expectation and how we teach the concept of staying in position. So first off, I wanna just say if you have a young puppy, meaning 2, 3, 4 months old, staying is the last thing we do. It's like the last thing I worry about in a sense. We start building it in right away. And I'm gonna talk about that in a minute, but we're not actually asking the puppy to stay in position at all. So my advice to people, and for some puppies it's not that hard, but for other ones that are very, very squirrelly, high energy, wiggly, it's a little harder.

Um, and they're so young and they have so much to learn that I think you can really lose ground by getting focused on something that's not that important right now. So I'm not saying not to challenge your puppy or not to teach them stay at all. I'm just saying don't make that your priority right off the bat. There are so many other things to do and I'm not gonna make this a puppy episode, but you know, usually when we have a puppy, we're using all of their food for training and we're teaching them what sit means and we're teaching them what down means and we're teaching them the manners at the door, um, all those things.

And so staying, um, comes later. But the way we start building it in from the beginning, well, let me back up just a second here. So some people may not know this if you haven't trained with us or if you don't follow our social media, but we don't use the word stay, which is why I'm using these quotes every time I say stay, right? So we teach the dog the behavior of stay. I'm just not using that word for it. And there's a very good reason for that. So to some people, this sounds super weird.

Lots of other trainers out there do it this way as well. And it is hands down my favorite method. Um, which is why we we do it this way. We've always done it this way. You make things more difficult for your dog by using the word stay, which people really struggle with. They feel like it's so much easier if you just tell the dog that's what you want. But here's the thing, if your dog doesn't know what stay means, it's not helpful <laugh>. Okay? And to teach them what it means, you now have to teach them an additional command, right?

08:00 — Using a separate “stay” cue creates additional difficulty because dogs must learn more verbal…

And so now take the three basic uh, stationary commands, right? Sit down in place. Now instead of learning three commands, your dog has to learn six, right? They have to learn, sit, sit, stay down, down, stay place and place stay instead of just sit down place.

And by default we expect them to hold the position and we build that in or we start building it in from day one. And that makes it so much easier for your dog. Guys, think about how they have to make fewer associations, fewer discriminations. They don't have to sit there and wonder, am I supposed to hold it? Am I not supposed to hold it right? Is this gonna result in far fewer mistakes and they're gonna learn what's expected much faster? It's so much easier for your dog to just expect stay all the time. And the trick to this is when you start training your commands, you're not gonna expect them to hold the command, but you are gonna start building it in right away.

And this is the key by using the release word and just using it right away. So in our case, we use the word break, okay?

So from day one, even with a little puppy who I don't expect to stay now and I'm probably not gonna expect them to stay in another five days, right? And if, if you're not a dog trainer, like we're dog trainers, right? This is what we do. We start teaching the puppy stay before they go home. If I had my own personal puppy, right? And I'm not a dog trainer and I'm not super efficient and like experienced and all the nuances, it's not gonna be five days, right? It might be weeks, uh, before we, we start going there.

Um, I'm not gonna expect them to stay anytime soon, but I'm still going to use my release word and I'm just gonna slip that release word in there before the puppy pops up and I might miss some. And that's not a big deal, right? But so for instance, usually the first command people teach is sit. And that's a good one to start with because it's pretty easy to get dogs to sit just naturally. Um, that's a behavior that's already in their repertoire. And most dogs are gonna do it if they're looking up at you, especially if you have food.

So it's pretty easy to teach, right?

Once you teach your, I shouldn't say once you teach, as you're teaching your puppy to sit, right? You're gonna get the behavior, they're gonna put their bum on the ground, you're gonna immediately mark that letting them know they get a reward and you're going to say break or whatever your release word is, might be break, might be okay, might be free, whatever your word is, right? So it's sit and then you get the behavior and then it's click or yes or whatever your marker is for food and release word. So by just squeezing that release word in there real quick, you're not increasing your expectations at all on your puppy.

You don't expect them really to do anything. You're just setting up the pattern that you say this word and then they get up, you say this word and then they get up, right? Because you know they're gonna get up.

12:00 — Introducing “break” early teaches dogs that the release word—not the reward—signals when they may…

So you just squeeze that word in there before they do. And so now you're just starting to create the pattern that you're going to use to your advantage down the road when you do expect them to stay. 'cause that pattern is going to stick and you're gonna use it forever. The only thing that's going to change is how long you expect the dog to hold the command before you say the release word, right? So you raise the bar over time and when you're just starting to teach at command, the bar is very, very low, right?

You just say break right away. Uh, but over time we will increase the amount of time until we say break and we'll increase the amount of distractions too, right? So that is critical in my opinion. It's very, very helpful, right? You're gonna lose a ton of time and efficiency if you don't do that by building in that release word right away from the beginning. Um, you're really helping yourself and your dog 'cause you're setting that pattern for them, that association. So they will start to learn, oh, I hear break. I get up, I hear break, I get up, I hear break.

I get up just because that's what they've been doing over and over and over again.

Okay? Now I don't wanna get too deep into markers. I'll probably do a whole separate episode on markers. Um, I think this is a very poorly understood concept among most dog <laugh>, dog trainers, dog owners, and a lot of dog trainers, believe it or not. And it's really, really, really critical if you want to have effective communication with your dog, right? So they're going to develop associations much, much faster if you know how to properly use markers. So we'll do an episode on that. I think it's too much, too much material to squeeze into this episode.

Um, so, but marking the behavior when it happens and then following that marker with your reward, which is usually gonna be food, right? And you can use whatever it is your dog likes, right? I like using just their regular food if they're driven enough for it. If they're not, then use a treat.

Use whatever motivates your dog, right? It doesn't matter. I will say most people give treats that are very, very large. Um, even like the little dehydrated liver pieces that we order, we have to cut them up. Like one piece in that container I can cut up into like 10 pieces, right? It should be like the size of your pinky nail guys. Like you're gonna gonna do so many reps when you're teaching this stuff. Um, you don't wanna be giving your dog real big treats. 'cause number one, you don't want them to get overweight, you don't want to upset their tummy and you don't wanna go through all those treats.

And also it takes longer for them to chew it unless you have one of those dogs that just swallows everything whole, which we get plenty of those <laugh> too. Um, but so small, small, small, small, small, right?

Because we're doing tons of repetition. So when you think about how fast these reps are, I mean you can do a 10 minute lesson and you can fit in like 40 reps just over and over and over and over again. They're very fast reps with lots of food. So, um, whatever your dog is motivated by. Now, if your dog is not food driven, you can do this without, but usually in those cases we recommend jumping right to e-collar. Um, and using that really low level stem to tie into their command. So whole separate topic, whole separate episode, lots of videos on that, check them out on YouTube.

Um, but any dog over six months that's not into food, we would, we would jump right into e-collar. But otherwise, if you have a young puppy or if you have a dog over six months that is food driven, we usually will start building up the commands using food first.

So let's talk about how that works with your behavior of stay, right? So we call it the implied stay because we don't say the word. So here's how we do it. We use a marker, okay? Your marker might be a click, your marker might be a yes. So for the sake of ease in today's episode, I don't wanna keep saying that over and over and over again. I'm sure you don't wanna hear me say that over and over and over again. So I'm just going to say click right? But just so you know, if you're using a verbal marker, a noise, that's fine.

Whatever you use, as long as you're consistent, that's fine. So we teach the dog in obedience command, like sit down or place.

And we do that by using our marker when the dog does the command correctly, even if we have to help them in the beginning, that's fine, right? So we say the word, then we get the behavior and we immediately click, alright, we're gonna do that dozens and dozens, maybe even a hundred times. It just depends on the dog and how quickly they're getting it and how motivated they are. But once it's looking really good and they clearly know it and they understand that the word means a certain behavior and that it leads to food, we now raise our bar.

17:00 — The basic training sequence is command, correct behavior, immediate click, and eventual release.

And what does that mean? It means, okay now instead of clicking the second the dog does the behavior. Now we wait.

Now we wait. So I'll say sit dog puts their butt on the ground. I was clicking and feeding, right? But now I'm gonna say sit and the dog's gonna put their butt on the ground and I'm just gonna say good. And I'm not gonna feed the dog. 'cause they have to wait for the click. They have to wait for the release word to get up, which is break. Now they don't know that yet, right? We're just teaching them that this is the process. So most dogs, what they're gonna do is they're gonna get up, I'm gonna say good, they're gonna pop their butt up and that's when I'm gonna say nope.

And I'm gonna reset them and they might do it again and they might do it again. You might have to have that conversation a few times before they go, oh, I guess I need to keep my butt on the ground. <laugh>.

Okay? So at that point in the training, you can't go, you can't get all flustered and be like, oh he doesn't get it. He's confused. It's like, yeah, of course he's confused. You're just starting to teach him something new. You gotta stick with it and give him a little time to see the pattern and then the confusion will melt away. Okay? But so I'll say sit. Once the dog knows it really well, they put their butt on the ground, I say good, right? If they make a mistake and get up, I mark that with a nope.

Now notice I'm saying nope. You can say no, but I generally reserve no for when I'm actually going to correct the dog. And at this stage of the training, there's not usually a really a correction, especially if it we're talking about a little puppy. Okay? So I'm just resetting them, right?

So it's just nope. And then I reset them. So I do that as many times as I have to and we start small, okay? Uh, at this stage of the training, I'm not gonna go walk across the room, I'm not gonna drop the leash, I'm hanging onto the leash. I might just take a couple steps to the side back and forth and that's it. And then at the break feed, okay, or click break feed, right, that marker, it's good to have that marker in there. Um, so now the bar is moving for what I click for.

20:00 — Once sitting is reliable, Kati increases criteria by asking for movement around the dog…

We started out, we click right when the dog sits. Once they're really good at that, now I'm raising the bar and I'm only gonna click when they can tolerate me stepping side to side a couple times and then I'm gonna raise the bar again and I'm only gonna click when I can do a half circle around them and then I'm gonna raise the bar again and I'm only gonna click when I can do a full circle around them.

Right now I can use a neutral good because that doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean I'm gonna feed you. It doesn't mean you can get up, it just means you're doing the right thing, right? And a lot of dogs will interpret that as they're done and they'll pop up and no big deal. You mark it with a nope, put 'em back, right? But I wanna be able to tell the dog you're doing the right thing, right? And after you, you have that conversation a few times they start to interpret it that way and they know they just have to hang in there, right?

That's what they start to learn. And so I'll say good, right? I'll do my full circle around them and as I'm walking around I'll say good very neutrally. Um, and then when I get all the way around, click break feed, right?

So I just keep raising the bar that they have to meet in order to get the food. That's what's happening in the beginning. You get it as soon as you sit and I say break and release, you and I feed you. And then we start to raise that bar and you have to hold that sit. Well I take a couple steps and then I release and feed. You love the show. Well I have great news. We are offering an inexpensive subscription to our new premium content. This is content that isn't available to the general public.

We make it just for our subscribers. We're gonna cover a variety of new topics in these episodes and I think it's gonna be a ton of fun. So you can jump right down into the show notes to get that website address and then skip over there and sign up for this premium content. Just wanted to take a second to let you guys know about that. Thank you so much for your support and now on with the show. And then I want you to stay there and hold that sit while I do a full circle around you and then I release and feed you.

But that release word is in there from the very, very first day that we start training and that really helps to cement that pattern before we even expect the dog to stay and hold the position.

Um, but raising that bar is how you really start to ingrain that concept of you gotta hold the position, you gotta hold the position, you gotta hold the position, right? And before you know it, you can walk to the other side of the room and back. And with a lot of dogs you can do that in one lesson. And with some you can't, especially young puppies, right? So young puppies be a little more patient and go a little slower, do more reps. Don't rush it. But it's gonna look a little different for every dog and what every dog is capable of.

But generally with most dogs over six months, by the time we're doing that, we're tying in low level e-collar. Um, and it really helps to improve the communication. And um, you get that nice physical layer communication in there and things develop faster.

And I'm not gonna get into all those details today 'cause we could be here forever doing that <laugh>, but certainly dogs under six months. It's just tons of food and guidance and resetting, um, and patience and reps and just being very, very consistent about your process. Pay attention to your sequence. Make sure you're doing things in the right order. There are are some things that don't really matter. So your marker is very important as it marks the exact moment you're telling the dog, okay, you've accomplished the thing. That's the thing I wanted you to do.

24:00 — A marker clarifies that the dog completed the requested behavior and may soon be…

That's the thing I wanted you to learn. And you are now going to be released and fed, right? So that marker is really critical to make things clear.

And so we're usually using a clicker for that, especially with puppies. And you'll just move when you apply that marker again in the beginning, it'll be right away. And then you're gonna raise the bar, raise the bar, raise the bar. Now ultimately at some point, guess what? You need to provide accountability. So if you're not new here, you already know that. 'cause I talk about that all the time. And so here's the thing, sure you can use food and if you have a dog that's really driven and motivated, they're gonna go through a little period of getting a little frustrated probably.

'cause they just want the food and they want it now. Um, but if you stick with it and you, you say nope and you reset 'em and you have that conversation a few times, they're gonna start to hold that position, right? Because there's no other way to get the food unless you cave, which some people do. Don't do that. You're working against yourself, you're teaching your dog not to say if you do that. So work them through their frustration, reset them, be patient and teach them they have to hold that position if they want to get the food right.

And you can take baby steps, right? If it's super, super hard for your dog, um, don't jump in the fire and expect them to hold <laugh> the position for 20 minutes. Um, take it slow.

But once they start to understand, oh, I hold the position a hundred percent of the time until I hear the release word, now it's time to start rolling in that accountability. So how do we do that? It's like, well you do what I just described, right? You start small, you raise the bar, before you know it, they're holding the position. Now you can walk across the room. Now you can start adding distractions if you want to, right? Knock on the door, roll the ball, fill the food bowl, whatever it is. And chances are, once you get to that phase of training, you're gonna wanna start rolling in your accountability because a lot of dogs are just not going to be able to tolerate those things unless you give them a reason, which is, well it's unpleasant to break the command because now there's a correction, right?

But you might be able to still just continue using food depending on the dog, right? If the dog doesn't go absolutely ape shit when someone knocks on the door or you fill the food bowl or you roll the ball or whatever it is, then you might be able to just say nope and reset them like, like you've been doing right along and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with doing that. And just continuing to build up the behavior and change the distractions and add the challenges and just say nope and reset them. That's fine guys. But still at some point, even if you have a pretty easy soft dog you can do that with and continue to have those conversations and increase their understanding and build up their tolerance.

27:00 — Distractions such as door knocks, food bowls, and rolling balls can be added after…

Those things are great and they're fine, but it doesn't change the fact that at some point, if you want this to be a solid behavior that's reliable, that you don't have to keep resetting the dog. You will have to punish the behavior of breaking the command before you release them. That's always the final stage to training any command, right? So how long you spend building it up with food just depends on the dog and your skill level, right? Because it might get dragged out if you're just not very good with your timing or you're not very good, um, with other parts of the sequence.

So let's talk about the sequence a little bit. Here are some of the common mistakes I see when people are trying to teach their dog a command. Some of the common problems I see are that people are already moving, they're already in motion when they say the command. That's a huge mistake. Doesn't sound like a huge mistake, but it is. You really want to be conscious of that and say the word before you start moving. So we'll even encourage people to say the word and then count to two or three in their head before they start to move.

And what I mean by that is before you move in any way, shape or form, like before you move your leash, before you guide your dog, before you walk over to the place cot, before you reach for the food, anything, no moving anything until after you have said the word, okay?

The next really common mistake is using your marker at the wrong time. So as we've already discussed, the timing of your marker is going to change and that's okay, but you need to understand what it is you're trying to accomplish. 'cause that determines when you mark. So in the very beginning of teaching your dog sit, you're going to click the instant that butt hits the ground. And I mean the instant. So if your dog hits the butt, hits the ground and you have time to say good or even have a thought before you click, you're too late.

30:00 — The click must occur immediately when the dog’s behavior is correct, or training becomes…

And I'm not saying it won't work, but it's going to be messier, it's gonna take longer. The timing of your marker is critical. So in the beginning it's immediate, right? And then you decide, okay, where is my bar? Now my bar is gonna be, I'm gonna take two steps, one step to the left and then one step to the right and then I'm gonna click. So you have to have an idea in your head. This is what I expect the dog to tolerate. This is when I'm Mark.

And you need to be consistent. Okay? Now to confuse you, when we're training young puppies, we don't like a solid progression in one direction. So I'm never going to take a real young puppy and increase what I expect every single rep or every single lesson. I'm not gonna do it because the puppy is probably going to get frustrated and lose interest and motivation. So it's in your best interest to keep your dog motivated, whatever that means, right? And so I have a higher standard for older dogs obviously, but you still wanna keep them motivated, right?

Keep your dog engaged, have a good happy energy about you. Alter your voice from low to high to moderate. So adjust your tone. Don't be monotone don, be boring. You know, use some motion, be animated. Draw your dog in, keep them engaged. You might have to work a little bit and that's okay. Use something they're excited for for food.

Don't feel like you're spoiling your dog by doing that. 'cause you're not gonna do it forever. Eventually there's going to just be consequences if they don't listen, that's where we're going with all of this, right? Ultimately, you're not gonna be stuffing cheese down your dog's throat forever. But in the beginning when you're trying to teach them something new, yes, motivate them a hundred percent. So in the beginning you're marking right away and then you're moving the bar and you're marking a little bit later. Once you mark it doesn't really matter what you say after that.

If you say good, good girl, if you use the dog's name, none of it matters. But you don't want to say that stuff before you mark, okay? 'cause that marker is the communication point for good job. You did it, you learned it, that's the behavior you're done. Okay? But at some point after you mark, you must use a release word and you must reward, which is probably food, right? So re so release and feed. Now here's the thing, this confuses a lot of people too. Once you mark right, you click, your dog's gonna start getting up.

33:00 — After marking success, the trainer must use a release word and provide the reward.

And that's okay. At least in my book it is because here's why we're creating an association where every time we click, we immediately follow that with release reward. So it's click release reward, click release reward, click release reward, where your dog learns that pattern. And when you click, they know it's release reward.

But you should still say the release word, which is break at least here it is because that clicker's gonna go away. You're not gonna be using a clicker forever. You're not gonna be feeding forever. So even though it's okay for your dog to break the command and get up, once you click, you should still say break. Now does it matter if you feed the dog before or after you say break? Not really, no. But my preference usually is to create the association, click, then break, then feed. And so then when the clicker goes away, we still have the pattern of break then feed, right?

And then the feeding goes away. And there's just accountability. If you, if you don't listen <laugh>, if you don't hold that command, there's now a consequence. So it has to become non-negotiable at some point.

Um, and that really is the key to cleaning everything up guys. But it's like, take your time, work on all the different scenarios and start small and work your way up. Too many people put their dog in a sit and then it's stay, stay, stay. And you get the body language and the hand motions and they're slowly backing up and they're going all the way across the room. I would take that method and I would ball it up into a tight ball and throw it in the garbage. I would remove the word, stay completely and just start building in that release word from the beginning and start super, super small.

Just take a couple steps, release and feed right mark, release feed, do a half circle, do a full circle. Once that's looking good, drop your leash, turn your back, take a couple steps away, start walking across the room. And with a lot of dogs, like I said, you're going to, you're gonna be able to do that in one lesson. And with other dogs, not so much depends on the dog, but most dogs, if they're motivated for the reward and they're at least seeing the association, you're gonna progress fairly quickly. But your sequence is important. So pay attention to your sequence.

36:00 — Kati emphasizes that the sequence remains command, maintained position, marker, release, and reward.

Make sure the timing of your marker is where it should be.

And that includes your nope, marker, right? If your dog gets up early before you've released them, you need to say nope right away. Not after they've taken 15 steps, not after they've taken three steps, right? The second they come outta that command, nope. And then take your time, walk over, help them reset. They have them dragging a leash, okay? But to be clear, the sequence is you give the command, whether it's sit, whether it's place, whether it's down. They have to learn that first. But while they're learning those commands, you should build in your release word from day one.

That's gonna help you down the road when you start asking them to hold that position.

So it'll be sit marker, break down, marker, break place, marker break, okay? Then you start expanding what you expect before the marker break, right before the click break. And if they get up early, you mark it with a nope. Immediately reset them and start over. Right? And that start over is important. You don't wanna just say nope and move on with your life, it's, nope, put 'em back. Do it again. If you have to have that conversation 2, 3, 4 times before they get it right, that's okay. And once they get it right now you're cooking with gas right now they've seen it, now they're more likely to do it again.

And every time they get it right, they're more likely to get it right. And then you start cementing that and then you raise your bar again.

Okay? And then you can rope in any distractions you want to, any amount of duration you want to, right? But at some point we finish this all off guys with real accountability, which means instead of just saying nope, and resetting the dog, it's now a no and an actual correction. And what does that mean? Well, it can mean whatever's meaningful to your dog. A leash pop on a leash and prong an eco correction on an eco. Usually we've been working with the dog on the obedience commands using low eco if we're gonna do that. But you don't necessarily have to, but there's some skill associated with the stuff, right?

So if you don't know, you don't know and you need to get that information before you try to apply it so that you know, um, what you're doing, right? How your dog is gonna internalize this, what sequence matters, how to control things so that you get the outcome you desire.

Um, we don't usually, at least us when we're training, we don't usually just jump in and correct the dog on e-collar. They already know the e-collar by the time we do that. But it is absolutely an appropriate tool, um, to correct breaking a command with. You just have to know how to do it. It could be a bonker, which is a rolled up towel, it can be anything, but at some point a correction is necessary, uh, for breaking command, right? But hopefully after listening to this episode, you understand how much work actually goes into building up a behavior.

And believe it or not, it's actually a lot more complicated and time consuming than just stopping a behavior, right? So I can stop a dog from biting, I can stop a dog from counter surfing, jumping on people in just a few minutes, right?

But teaching a dog how to do something, how to execute a specific behavior, it's a lot more time. Im patience. It's a lot more focus on the sequence and the rewards and motivating the dog and patterning. So a lot goes into building up a behavior with your dog. And I think just to reiterate, you need to pay a little bit of attention to what kind of dog you have, how old your dog is. If your dog is a real young puppy, just focus on the basics, teach them the basic commands and just start building in that release word.

But don't expect them to stay yet. You have plenty of time to focus on that. Um, and I would say once you do get all the basics out of the way and you wanna start building up that implied stay, just do it slowly. That's all right. Find the threshold that challenges your puppy, that's difficult for them and just spend some time there. Don't try to jump in the deep end like, oh, I taught my puppy to get on the cot when I say place. So now I'm gonna put 'em on there and I'm gonna go outdoors.

41:00 — Handlers should find a challenging threshold for the puppy and increase difficulty in small…

No, like do a half circle, do a circle, take a few steps backwards. Just turn your back, right? And find the trigger where your puppy goes, oh, I'm getting off. Oh, I'm getting off. And just spend some time rehearsing that until they get it right and then keep rehearsing it so they can keep getting it right. And then if you wanna make it a little harder, make it a little harder. Hopefully this helps guys. I love the implied stay. Uh, would never do it any other way, but working great for us really makes it easier for the dogs.

And here's the other perk that I didn't mention earlier. It results in a calmer, more focused dog. Because here's the thing, if you don't teach the implied stay and all the commands are really ultimately just tricks that are, you know, they do them for one instant, they spring back up, you are rehearsing and cementing excitement.

You're rehearsing and cementing. I do what? I get up. I do what? I get up, I do what? I get up, I do what I get up, right? So when you want them to stay, it's so much harder, right? And their mind is all forward and aroused and stimulated and they're used to getting up and so it's just, it's simmering inside them, right? And eventually they're gonna boil over like, and you're just patterning more excitement and charging these commands with more excitement, which of course makes them harder, right? If you pattern hundreds of times your dog sits, bounces up, gets food, sits, bounces up, gets food, and then you're like stay.

It's gonna be so much harder where if you pattern from the beginning, sit, break, feed, sit, break, feed, sit, break, feed, and then you start patterning sit and they have to hold it and then break feed, sit, they have to hold it and then break feed. And before you know what, you're increasing that duration for as long as you want. And that becomes the default. That becomes the norm. They go when they, she tells me to sit. I don't know how long I'm gonna be here when she tells me to lay down or go to place.

I don't know how long I'm gonna be here, right? It might only be a few seconds, might be a few minutes, it might be a few hours. But your dog goes into position with no expectation to bounce up and get food.

They know it'll come when it comes, when it comes. And your dog for that will be by default much calmer, much more focused and it'll be much easier for them to do the command. And also just much easier to learn the behavior of staying in position. I'm putting together a little video of the progression of holding command, the implied stay with Jenny, a board and trained dog. And I'm gonna post that and I'm gonna put a link to it in the show notes so that you can reference that if you want to. If this all sounds a little bit confusing to you and you wanna see a visual visual, I think that'd be very, very helpful.

I will say we are using e-collar in this video, um, but I still think it will help really clarify what the sequence is and how we increase, uh, the expectation over time and what that really looks like and the timing of our markers and such. So reference that video. I think it will be helpful for you if this is something you're trying to do with your dog at home. Hey guys, thanks for joining us today. I really hope you enjoyed the show. If there's a specific topic you'd like to hear discussed, you can send that to me directly via email or fan mail.

Just jump down into the show notes. That information will be there for you. I really look forward to hearing from you. Thanks for supporting the show and I look forward to next time.