# Stephanie, LibertyME, Tilly's Mum... anyone



## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

But I know ya'll train a lot...

Just out of curiousity, could you explain to me how you personally teach stays? My dogs have REALLY good stays- remarkable- but, that is the one area I do use some corrections for. I have never been able to clicker train a truly bombproof rockin' out of sight kickass stay. Any thoughts? How do you do it?


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## HovawartMom (Aug 10, 2006)

Do you have a dog that sit well?.
If you do,use him!.
A puppy has a tendency to learn from another dog.You can also attach a small 8 in coupler to both collars,tell them to sit and he will learn to do it.That's how i did it with Priska and titus. 
You start with small distances and then move further and further.Use yr clicker technic,at the same time.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

I have tried so hard to click an out of sight stay but the only way my dogs do it is if I correct them for moving a few times. I would like to stop that. 

Starlite will sit outside of a building where he cannot see me for 20 minutes and not move- he's that good- but I couldn't have gotten that w/out corrections personally, so I want to know how you all do it 

That might not be a bad idea- to try a coupler... have never considered that


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## katieanddusty (Feb 9, 2006)

I have a decent out-of-sight stay on both my dogs (not for obedience, but part of proofing start line and contact stays for agility), Boo will stay while I walk around the corner to the door and let Dusty out, and one time I left Dusty on a stay with food on the ground while I went inside to get more glucosamine pills and he stayed  Just really tiny steps as far as how much of you is out of sight and how long you ask the dog to stay. By the time I got to that point with Boo, he had a pretty good grasp on the idea of stay since I'd done so much proofing with food/toys/movement, I probably spent a month or two just on stay proofing and other obedience stuff to get him used to working before we started agility.


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## lgnutah (Feb 26, 2007)

I am not a "dog trainer" and so my methods probably aren't standard. The stay" command was taught as a part of a game we played. 
The way we started was with a game "find it". It started by my asking him one day, "Where's your new toy?" He recognized what I wanted and went and found his new toy and brought it to me. From there I started to play hide it and I would tell him to stay while I hid the toy. As he seemed to grasp the point of waiting while I was hiding the toy, he found "stay" to be a rewarding thing to do, I guess, as after he finished the "stay" he got to go "find it".
I also would always hold my hand up in a "Stop" motion in front of his face as I would back away to go hide his toy. So now, he knows the hand held up with my palm facing him means to stay.


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## Emma&Tilly (May 15, 2005)

'Stay' has been a weird one for me...they both just seemed to 'get it' straight away...I don't think my dogs are particulrly clever or anything, infact with Tilly I think she is darn right LAZY!! She would always rather stay in one place than move! so she was a doddle...infact maybe she doesnt actualy know the word at all!! no no, Im sure she does but just was easy to train because of her sloth-like qualities. Harry did seem to pick it up really quickly too and I don't recall using the clicker, it is one I do by just standing infront of them and at first not even move away and just repeat stay and treat when they do (I don't use the clicker because Harry goes a little crazy at the click and I reckon 'stay' should be an execise that is as calm as possible!) so I just gradually walk backwards whilst using a very definate hand signal...if his bum moves (he has an incredible shuffle bum!) then I just put him back and no treat so he understands pretty quick. With Harry I was doing out of sight stays within a few minutes...as we havent really gone over it in a while he can probably do about 2 minutes 'out of sight' so not amazing or anything but that is down to me not practising enough!


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

LOL I do believe a good part of why my Whippets do such great stays always (all my sighthounds) are that sighthounds are so lazy and would rather lay there than heel or anything else anyway. My biggest problem w/sighthounds stays is they want to lie down on the sit stay. I wouldn't dream of trying a sit stay outside on grass on a sunny day- my whippet would be flat as a pancake and snoring within 20 seconds... (yes, he has fallen ASLEEP during the sit stay at an outdoor match)


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

OK... more later (cuz I gotta go get the car service...) but in general:

I teach distractions before distance (and I mean crazy distractions!)

I never use food in the beginning of a stay (b/c to me, it creats a dog who can't relax b/c they're waiting for the next treat)

I don't do leash corrections, but I do sound very worried when the dog breaks as I rush in to re-set the dog.

(All this is done when young - outside of "competitive" obedience)

When I start "groups" I have *other* people go in and feed for me or re-set the dog if it breaks. I don't want the dog thinking that breaking brings me back (watch people train - you'll see it!) and I DO want the dog thinking that if he's good, a ring steward might mosey by with a treat.

I teach the long down as a food refusal exercise. Quiz drools during the down stay now... but I had a 10 min OOS stay on him by 18 months for the working trial!

OK. Gotta go!


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Thanks!!!!!


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

Speaking of distractions...it's pretty funny when you have a group of adults doing jumping jacks around their dogs while they're in a "stay"...Ugh! And they made us do so many... Then, they had a young child zoom around with an empty baby stroller!


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Starlite would have had a heart attack...


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> Starlite would have had a heart attack...


If this is in response to the jumping jacks, I nearly did myself! The one thing I've found during organized training sessions, you need to be in good shape, especially for agility. A person can look pretty silly with their tongues hanging out while their dogs are jumping and climbing! It's also a sight when you have two left feet!


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

The baby carriage LOL


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

AquaClaraCanines said:


> The baby carriage LOL


Oh, that one was easy. The young man did the running!!! 

Some of these things happened during the training for the CGC cert. We were told are dogs would experience much more than what they would need to pass the test.


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## AquaClaraCanines (Mar 5, 2006)

Starlite is a loonie- that would have terrified him  that's why he'll never be an obedience dog


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## LibertyME (Jan 6, 2007)

To teach a basic stay...
I usually begin with self control exercises.....leave it, waits (at doors etc...) When I know they are capable of some measure of self control.....
I start with down stays then quickly go on to sit and stand stays...

Hand feeding the treats (versus tossing) - step 1 step away-step in feed-use the visual of a flat hand to signal stay...step 1 step away-step in feed…I reinforce about every 2 seconds…it is pretty fast…the pup really has no need to make the choice to move….the rewards come fast and furious…short sessions…Over time building up time and distance…I use about an 80% sucess rate then I up the criteria...

Eventually working my way all around the dog, over the dog, touching the dog with hands-dragging my foot over them, clapping, other people calling out their name, balls rolling, balls bouncing, food, remote control cars, kids, bikes, bubbles, wheelchairs, other dogs eating near her, other dogs sitting-running-etc... <never have done the jumping jacks>
Always I return and deliver something incredibly good to eat, or a new toy or a great game of tug....her favorite is definitely food!

I repeat for sits….

Then I teach the stand position with the clicker…not so much the stay as the position..
When the understand ‘stand’ I add the stay….by this time they already have a good understanding of what a sit-stay and a down-stay mean…


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