When should you teach a dog to stay?

Nothing is more beautiful than welcoming a new puppy or dog into your home. They bring so much joy into our lives and fill every corner of the house with fun and laughter. Part of the pleasure of owning a puppy or a dog is teaching them how to sit, drop, come and stay.

There’s nothing quite like watching your puppy pick up commands, and with every new command the bond between you and your dog just grows stronger. So, here is a guide to teaching your dog some of the most important commands – sit, drop, come and stay.

Remember, no matter what command you’re trying to teach your dog, it’s all about positive reinforcement. You want your dog to love and respect you, not fear you. So, be sure to reward your pooch for good behaviour—never punish your dog or puppy if they get things wrong occasionally.

How to Teach Your Dog to Sit

We suggest teaching your dog how to sit first. This is one of the easiest commands for your dog to master. Training your dog to sit is also the base for many other commands.

To teach your dog to sit:

1. With your puppy in a standing position, hold the treat in front of their nose allowing them to sniff it. Avoid holding the treat too high or they will jump up instead of sitting.
2. In a slow, steady motion move the treat up and slowly back over your puppy’s head. As your puppy’s nose points up, their rear end will ease down to the floor, taking them into the sitting position.
3. Reward them immediately when they sit with the treat and some verbal praise.
4. Only add the word ‘sit’ when your puppy is reliably responding to the visual hand cue.
5. You should gradually phase out giving food every time, however your puppy will still need intermittent food rewards throughout its life.
6. Continue to say ‘good dog’ when your puppy sits on cue.
7. With practice your puppy should sit with a visual cue such as with a sweep of the hand in an upward movement, even without treats.

Things to look out for when teaching your dog to sit:

• If your puppy or dog backs away when you try to reward him or her, this is a sign of uncertainty, possibly fear. Monitor your body language and try to approach your dog a friendlier, more open manner. If your dog feels safe and loved, it will be able to learn much more quickly.
• Remember, training is never done. Continue to reward your dog with both verbal and food treats when it sits on cue.
• If your puppy raises its front paws you are raising the treat too high.
• If your puppy consistently backs away go back to just rewarding the puppy for approaching you and then restart the sit training again at a later date .

How to Teach Your Dog to Come

Getting your dog to come back to you on command is the next step in training and an important one. If you can’t recall your dog, it may not be safe to let it off the leash in dog parks and other areas.

To teach this vital skill:

1. In a safe environment, stand a short distance away and say your dog’s name in a happy, friendly voice so that your dog turns around and make that all important eye contact with you.
2. Next, move your hand towards your dog with some food or a treat.
3. In a clear motion, move the treat towards you and say ‘come’. As soon as your dog moves towards you, give him/her the treat. Follow this up with some verbal praise.
4. Grab a second treat. Move away from your dog again, and repeat ‘come’. Once your dog comes towards you, follow the reward process again.
5. You should practice this at home on a regular basis, moving further and further away from your dog until you can recall your dog when they’re not even looking at you.

How to Teach Your Dog to Stay

This is another important command, as it can keep your puppy or dog out of danger. To teach your dog how to stay:

1. It’s essential your dog can sit reliably before you try to teach him or her how to stay. So, ensure that your puppy has mastered the art of sitting first!
2. Calmly lean towards your dog and extend your hand. You should position your hand so that your palm is facing your dog. Say ‘stay’ in a calm voice, being sure to keep your hand and body still. Once your dog remains still, be sure to give them a treat and reinforce this with some verbal praise.
3. Remember that it is important that the command to ‘stay’ is backed up with a verbal cue that lets your dog know that they can move—be sure to say ‘go’ or ‘free’.
4. You can increase the amount of time your dog must sit still every two days or so. Once your puppy can reliably stay for up to 15 seconds, you can begin practising stays when you are moving away. Just say ‘stay’, take a step backwards, and the give your release command.

Only teach this command when your puppy or dog is calm. It’s a lot to ask your dog to sit still if they’re excited about something! If you teach your dog how to stay when they are calm, eventually, they will stay when they’re excited too.

How to Teach Your Dog to Drop

This is an excellent trick for puppies or dogs that tend to jump at food, people or anything else that excites them. To teach your dog to drop:

1. Get your dog into a sitting position, and give them a treat.
2. Grab a second treat, and slowly move the treat from your dog’s nose to the floor until the treat is between your dog’s front paws. Your dog will naturally follow the treat with its nose, so that their chest eventually rests on the ground.
3. You can repeat step two until your dog reliably drops to the floor each time, using the verbal cue ‘drop.’ Only use this cue when the dog’s front end has reached the floor and reward immediately. Remember to reward when your puppy or dog takes the treat from your hand with a nice, ‘good boy’, or ‘good girl’.

If you’re teaching a very young puppy, make sure the floor is nice and soft. You can even use a dedicated mat. It’s also a good idea to practice when the puppy is tired. Again, teaching an excited puppy or dog can make it that much harder to learn. And remember, training is for life. It is important to reinforce these behaviours with dedicated training sessions and intermittent rewards every so often so they do not forget what is expected.

For more information about training your dog, you make also want to take a look at:

Even if your dog masters a stay, we would never recommend leaving them unattended in public, for example, asking them to wait outside whilst you’re in a shop.

Watch our video below outlining the steps to teach your dog a stay:

Teaching a dog to stay

Step one

To start teaching a dog to stay, choose a quiet location that is familiar to your dog. This should mean they are less keen to go off exploring or get distracted.

You also want to make sure that your dog is calm when you start this training. If your dog is naturally energetic, you may want to try after they’ve been for a walk.

You can teach a dog to stay from any starting position, a sit, down, or stand but you do need to have taught them that first. Choose whichever position they find most comfortable. You will also need to pick a cue word, and make sure you stick to it. Something like ‘Stay’ or ‘Wait’ works well.

Step two

Ask your dog to get into your chosen starting position and praise them for it. Then, give your dog the verbal cue ‘Stay’, followed by a clear hand signal. Holding your hand up with a flat palm facing away from you works well. Take the hand signal away, and quickly reward your dog before they move.

You’re going to need to be fast with this, so you may want to practice this without your dog there first. Once you can do this 5 times in a row, without your dog getting up before you have chance to reward them, move on to the next stage.

Step three

Now, you’re going to repeat the same steps, but this time, as you remove your hand signal, break eye contact by looking away from your dog. Then, reward them as before. Eye contact is a big anchor for dogs’ attention, so this is a great way to really test how good they are at staying. Again, once your dog is comfortable doing this, move onto the next stage.

Step four

Next, you want to start to build up the amount of time that your dog can stay before you reward them. This is going to be different for every dog. For some, you might only be able to increase by a second at a time, whereas with others you will be able to increase by as much as 30 seconds.

Keep a record of how long you are building up by, each time you practice. If your dog is moving, then you may have built up too quickly. If this is the case, go back, decrease the time, and work your way back up.

As a general rule of thumb, you want your dog to stay successfully 5 times in a row before increasing the time.

Step five

Next, you can start to put distance between you and your dog while they stay. You will want to make sure your dog can stay for a good minute or two before you progress to this.

Each time you ask for a stay, take a step away from your dog, and then return to them to reward them. Your dog may start to find it harder with the distance, so you may have to reduce the amount of time that you ask your dog to stay for and build back up.

Gradually increase the distance that you move away from your dog. If they are finding this too hard or are very sensitive to movement, you may need to begin by just shifting your body weight away from them instead.

Step six

Once you can move around your dog freely while they remain in a stay, see if you can quickly pop out of sight and then come back to reward them. You could also begin to add in distractions, like toys, or dancing around them to test your dog’s impulse control.

As with all the other steps, build things up gradually, and if habits start to slip, go back and build up again.

Once your dog is comfortable being asked to “stay” in a familiar environment, you can change location and start the training again. You can also teach your dog a release word, like ‘OK’ to let them know that they can leave the stay. However, you should always return to your dog to let them out of the stay. Don’t call your dog out of a stay because this could confuse them.

Download steps as a handy advice sheet and use it as a reminder to train regularly:

Advice sheet