Hi everybody! Can you believe we are in September? This weekend we had some fun. I introduced Boots, Yeti and Bruno to agility. We set up a tunnel, weave poles and jumps. They had a blast! Yeti loved the tunnel and Boots sailed over the jumps. Yeti is a big puppy and watching him navigate the weave poles was pretty funny. He’s too young to jump so we put the bars on the ground and let him run over them. Even little Bruno got excited about running the tunnel and jumping over his tiny inch high hurdles. Dogs are fun!

It was a great way to mix up training and we were able to practice sit and down stays in between and right before each dog ran the course. That’s the topic of the day: STAY! What is a stay (how is different from wait?) Why do I use stay? How do I train it? 

Sit & Down Stays

What is it?

• Dog remains in a sit (or down) position until released. 
• Wait is more of a boundary training - don’t cross this line - dog can move around behind the line though
• Stay is remain in a sit position or a down position until released.
• Useful throughout the day
• Think of all the things your puppy can’t be doing while in a stay! 
• What a good way to create calm around your house.

Specific Uses

• Around the house
• Prevents counter surfing
• Prevents jumping on counters, sofas, people while out on walks
• Guests who come to your home
• When your kids walk down the stairs first thing in the morning 
• When your partner comes home from work
• When your kids come home from school 
• Small tasks - collect mail, open the door to bring in packages, unload dishwasher, make bed, brush teeth, make-up, hair, pull weeds, pick up toys...

Sit Stay

• Dog can hold for a few minutes - if longer ask for down stay
• Pause
• OK is release
• Move away to get treat
• Start with 1 second
• Goal is 20 seconds without you moving
• Then add 4D’s - distance, duration, distraction and difficulty
• You can say stay or you can make it automatic with the down or sit cue. If you want to say it, add in the cue stay. If you want it to be automatic, simply say down or sit - pause, then release and it will become automatic. 
• Let’s practice - ask your dog to sit, mark yes and reward for the sit. I like to pay them for position. Then say “Stay” (or not if you want it to be automatic) pause for one second - don’t move - you imitate the frozen position too - then say OK and move away so your dog learns OK means they can now move. 
• Repeat at the one second level five times. When you have 5 out of 5 1 second stays, let’s push on to two.
• Ask your puppy to sit, mark yes and reward, say Stay, count to two, then say OK and reward them when they get to you.

Down Stay

• Same as sit stay but down
• Dog can hold for hours eventually
• This is a more relaxed position. 
• If you are training on a slippery surface like tile or wood floor you may want to start here.
• Be sure your puppy can do a down first before adding the stay.

TIPS:

• If dog breaks, lure them back into position but do not feed them the treat until they do some duration with a successful release
• Set dog up for success 
• Mix up times you ask them to stay
• Be unpredictable - they’ll want to engage longer