How to Teach a Dog to Stay

Teach stay by building duration first, then distance, then distraction, and never two at once. Most dogs have a one minute stay in a week and a five minute stay with you out of the room in three to four weeks. If your dog's stay keeps falling apart, it is almost certainly because you added distance and duration in the same rep.

The other thing that breaks stays: no release word. A stay with no defined end is a stay your dog will end himself, and once he starts doing that you are no longer training a stay, you are negotiating one.

Set up the pieces first

One cue. "Stay" or "wait," pick one. Say it once.

A release word. "Break," "free," or "okay." This is the word that ends the stay and it is not optional. Do not use a word you say fifty times a day.

A continuation marker. A word like "good" that means you are correct, keep doing that, food is coming to you. Without it, every reward breaks the position and duration becomes very hard to build. Teach it separately: ask for a sit, say "good," feed the dog in position without releasing. Ten reps a session for three days.

Feed in position. Walk to your dog and deliver food while he is still in the sit or down. Do not call him to you for the reward.

Stage 1: duration, and nothing else

You stand directly in front of him. You do not move. This stage is boring and it is where the behavior is actually built.

Ask for a sit or down. Say "stay." Count one second. Say "good," feed in position. Then release with your word and let him move.

Progression, roughly one session each: 1 second, 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60.

Ten to fifteen reps per session, five minutes twice a day. Vary the durations within a session rather than climbing in a straight line. Go 5, 15, 3, 20, 10. A predictable ladder teaches him to anticipate the release at a certain count.

Most dogs get to a one minute stay in five to seven days.

If he breaks, you went too long. Reset without comment and do the next rep at half the duration.

Stage 2: distance, with duration reduced

Here is the rule people ignore. When you add distance, drop the duration back down.

Your dog can hold a 60 second stay at zero feet. When you take one step back, ask for 5 seconds, not 60.

Progression: one step back and return. Two steps. Five steps. Ten steps. Across the room. Out of sight for two seconds. Out of sight for ten. Out of sight for thirty.

Ten reps per level. Always return to your dog to release him at first, rather than calling him to you. If you call him out of every stay, he learns that the stay is a launching position and he will start creeping toward you in anticipation.

Once you are at ten steps, start rebuilding duration at that distance. Five seconds, then ten, then thirty, then sixty.

Two to three weeks to get to a solid one minute stay with you across the room.

Stage 3: distraction, with duration and distance reduced

Same rule again. New distraction means everything else gets easier.

Ladder of distractions, roughly in order of difficulty:

• You clap your hands
• You walk in a circle around him
• You bounce a ball
• You drop food on the floor two feet away
• Someone walks through the room
• The doorbell rings
• A toy is thrown across the room
• Another dog walks past

Fifteen reps per distraction, at two feet away and five seconds of duration. Then build back up.

Expect performance to drop 30 percent every time you add a new distraction. That drop is normal and it recovers within a session or two.

The creep problem

Creeping is the most common failure and most owners let it slide. Your dog holds the stay but arrives six inches closer than where he started. Then a foot. Then he is at your feet and technically never stood up.

Fix it by resetting the position every single time, without comment. Put him back exactly where he was and repeat the rep at an easier level. If you allow the drift, you are training a slow motion recall.

Sit stay versus down stay

Down stays are easier to hold for long durations because the position is more comfortable and harder to break out of quickly. Sit stays are better for short holds and for polite behavior at doors and curbs.

Build both, but if you want real duration, build it in a down. Anything over two minutes I would do as a down.

What to do when it breaks

He gets up immediately every time. Duration is too long from the start. Go back to one second. Truly one second.

He breaks when you turn your back. That is a distance and body position change, which is a new criterion. Turn 45 degrees first, then 90, then fully.

He holds in the living room and fails in the yard. Normal. New environment means starting closer to the beginning, usually around 30 percent of your indoor duration.

He whines or barks during the stay. Usually the duration is past his comfort level. Shorten it and raise the pay rate.

He breaks and you say "stay" three more times. Stop doing that. One cue. If he breaks, the rep failed, reset and make it easier.

What it looks like when it is working

He holds position with a relaxed body rather than a tense one, hips rolled to one side in a down. He does not track you with his whole body when you walk around him. He waits for the release word rather than reading your posture. Most tellingly, he does not creep.

A realistic use case

Five minutes of down stay while you eat dinner, with you seated at the table, is a genuinely useful household behavior and it takes about three weeks to build. Thirty minutes of settle is a place command rather than a stay, and it is worth building separately.

My free 10-Minute Foundation blueprint includes the session structure and the marker work this depends on, including the continuation marker. Download the 10 Minute Foundation blueprint.

Ready to train your dog?

Every drill in this article comes from the WorldWide K9 Academy course library. If you want the full step by step system, start with the $5 intro course.