I was having coffee on day at an outdoor cafe. A gentlemen with a Chocolate Lab approached me. He asked me to watch his dog while he went inside to get a cup of coffee. The man told the dog to “stay” and walked inside to get his coffee. I was a bit concerned since the dog was not tied or fastened to anything. I kept a close eye on him but he did n0t move even as other patrons kept walking past him. The dog stayed until his owner came out and told him to “come.”  Now that’s a well trained dog!

Here are some tips for training your dog to stay.

1. Put your dog in the position that you would want him to stay. After about one or two seconds, if he is still in this position, give him a treat and praise him.
2. Now add a verbal command and hand signal. Once again stand directly in front of your dog and place him in the position you would like him to stay in. As soon as he’s in this position, say “STAY” and hold your hand out in front of you with your palm facing down.  After a second or two reward your dog with a treat and praise.
3. Repeat these steps over and over and gradually increase the time between the “stay” command and the treat and praise.
4. The next challenge you can add to the stay command is to move your training session to a different location, possibly somewhere with a few distractions such as other people or animals. Remember take it slowly and only add one new variable at a time.

Before you know it, your dog will stay whenever you give him the command!

Remember, your pets count!