Swank Pets Dog Blog

I must admit, smaller dogs seem a little tougher to train than larger dogs. I don’t have much experience with larger dogs, but I have many friends that do. I recall one friend that had their Doberman Pincher completely potty trained in 1 week! It took me nearly 6 months to completely potty train our little teacup Yorkie, Munchkin! However, I do have to admit that potty training toy dogs is much tougher because they do have really small bladders and require more frequent trips to the bathroom. Anyhow, the key to training any dog is patience and persistence. Also, never ever get angry or upset with you dog when you are training them. They are simply trying to learn and they are not perfect just like us.

In this post, I’m going to go over how to train your dog to stay.  The ‘Stay’ command means DON’T MOVE. Training your dog to stay is an important and safe “trick” for them to learn. It allows them to control themselves in situations where danger may present itself. Training your dog to stay can also make your life easier. For example, you may want your dog to stay put when guests are in the house. Or you may want your dog to stay put when there are lots of cars driving by. Either way, the ‘Stay’ command is a great one for your dog to learn.

I will now outline the steps required to training your dog to ‘stay’.

1. Get your dog to sit down and face you. You’ll want to stand in directly in front of them and place your palm about 6 inches from their face and say the ‘Stay’

2. Next, slowly take a couple steps back.

3. After taking a couple steps away, turn around to face your dog and repeat the word ‘Stay’

4. After a few seconds, immediately return to your dog’s side.

5. Once you get back to your dog’s side, say the word ‘Okay’ and then get your dog to move and then praise them with a nice belly rub and a happy and enthusiastic voice.  You may also want to give them a treat, but ONLY when they are in the ‘Stay’ position.  Do not treat them if they have moved or else they will think that they are getting rewarded for moving, and not staying.

6. You’ll want to repeat the steps above, slowly increasing the time you spend away from them.

7. Once you have your dog able to ‘Stay’ for a extended period of time, perhaps 30 seconds to 1 minute, you can slowly increase the distance between you and your dog.

8. Repeat this training for the next week until they have mastered the ‘Stay’ command.

You may also want to train your dog to stay in different situations and distractions.  Perhaps bring a friend over and have them stay with a stranger in the house.  Or perhaps repeat these steps in a dog park where the biggest distractions are.

Hopefully, this simple command will become mastered in less than a week, but if not, please remember to be patient.  I hope this helps out for anybody wanting to teach your dog how to stay.