Puppy Training Guide

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Training Your Puppy to Stay

The great thing about training your puppy is that they are willing to learn! Unlike older dogs that have developed habitual behaviors, a puppy is like a blank canvas of obedience and so are much easier to train in the long run, although you need to follow some simple rules when training.

One of the most important points to note is that you need to make training happen in short frequent bursts, and that training should be fun and rewarding so that your puppy enjoys taking part while actively learning. For this reason, we say to make training sessions intense, but to only last around 5 minutes at a time. It's okay to have multiple training sessions throughout the day, as long as your puppy continues to show interest.

To maximize your training efforts, find out what sort of praise your dog best responds to. Depending on the breed, your puppy may best respond to food treats, praise or toys. Observe what excites your dog most and use this as a reward during training.

When you decide that it's time to train your puppy to stay, you need to have already taught either the 'sit' or 'down' command. These commands put the puppy in a position where it is focused on you and not distracted, making an ideal lead in into the 'stay' command.

Your puppy will also need to understand a release command such as 'come' so that they know an appropriate time to move from the stay command.

Begin by commanding your puppy to sit. Standing in front of them, place an open hand, palm facing your puppy, in front of their nose. Give the firm command 'stay' then take a few steps back. On your first few attempts, the puppy may move with you, but this is okay, just reinforce the 'sit' command and start over.

When your puppy doesn't move with you, give them praise in the form of 'good dog' and then immediately give the release command. When they come to you, shower them in praise and give them their favorite treat.

Your puppy will probably begin with staying for just a second or two, but you should gradually work at increasing this by slowly moving further away and extending the amount of time that they stay sitting.

Your puppy will soon learn that each time they do as you say, they are rewarded. You can then gradually phase out the rewards to get to the stage whereby your puppy will simply obey your given instructions.

The stay command is useful in a number of situations, including when people come to your house, or there is an imminent danger in the form of a vehicle or other hazard. In addition, utilizing the stay command can stop your puppy from running off when it sees another animal that it would like to chase.

Once your puppy is at the stage of following your commands without expecting to be rewarded, you will have reached a level in dog discipline which allows you to take control in a number of different situations.