Training "Stay"....How Long Can Your Doodle Go?

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I remember when I went with my brother to pick up his Lab from obedience "boot camp", and the trainer was talking about the importance of a really solid "stay" command.  He said "the longer they stay, the smarter they get".  I believe he meant that this takes real discipline for the dog, which is developmental in many respects.  Guinness had to do a "sit/stay" for five minutes (while I left the room) for his TDI evaluation.  It took us months to get to that point, but he did finally get there.  Murphy clearly knows the meaning of the "stay" command, but he's a bit of an "ADHD" puppy with a very short attention span.  Last night he did the best "stay" that he's ever done.  He was in my bedroom chewing on an antler....I told him to stay, and I went downstairs for a couple of minutes.  He actually did it.  Normally, he will run and follow me...he seems to hate it when I'm on a different floor of the house than he is.  What's been your experience with teaching "stay"? 

[BG and Gavin]

When we are practiced up and we are in the house Gavin's down stay is really good. We got lots a practice in June because we put new flooring in our small cottage. There was paper and glue and the tile and floor had to be kept pristine (no doodle prints or hair). So I would put him in increasingly longer down stays so that we could get our work done. He was well over 1/2 hour and would often fall asleep in his stay. Recently he has been getting up after 10 minutes or so and has to be reset. I have been making it a habit to put him in a down stay over dinner hour and this has been good practice. I also need to practice outside, as he would be no where near that good with distractions!

[Adina P]

I LOVE stays. Boca has yet to learn stay but there's a plan in place so we'll get there eventually and I'm pinning my "Boca does not jump on people" hopes on a future strong stay.

Rosco. Rosco. Rosco. He was SUCH a good sit-stayer and down-stayer. Seems to have forgotten lately. What has been happening is I'll make him down stay and then forget about him until I see him somewhere else and feel like an idiot. I cannot even remember that I'm boiling something on the stove let alone that my dog has been in a down stay for more than 5 minutes. So essentially I've been inadvertently doing a GREAT job of teaching that, despite what I have said in the past, stays are actually optional after the first few minutes. *sigh*

When we were actively working on things and I was actively enforcing things we practiced lots of sit stays around the house...and started doing sit stays in really comfy places like his dog bed (because it's really easy to slip into a down when sitting on a comfy bed) to really seal the deal and ensure that SIT stays do not get translated into DOWN stays.

[Camilla and Darwin]

We haven't worked with Darwin as much as we should as far as extended stays go. He has a fairly reliable stay, and in the house he can hold a stay for over 10 minutes... but we have to "refresh" the command by repeating "stay" maybe two or three times during the stay period.

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Spud has to be with us at all times, is also hyper ( or Murphy ADHD puppy :) and it took him a lot longer--months to be able to do an out-of-site stay. Starlit, who is mellow, took just days for her first 1 minute stay.

The out-of-site stay seems to be the hardest. I would start with only seconds--not minutes with a dog a happy, hyper puppy. 15 seconds the first week. 30 seconds the next week. Then build on minutes. This way you reinforce the command and get positive results.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

I haven't actually tried timing a down stay with Tara but the other day when I took the ping pong ball video, I was so excited about getting a good one that I ran to the computer and forgot all about releasing Tara. She just laid there on the little rug for I don't know how long!!! :(

Last week I took her to a meeting and it turned out to be about 2 1/2 hours long. She broke the down stay 4 times during that period. Twice because DH nearly kicked her in the head with his size 14 feet (so I don't count those-it was self defense). The other two times I was out of her sight but she could hear me talking. She stood up but did not walk and DH reinstated the down stay command. We brought a bullystick along for her to chew and she fell asleep part of the time. It wasn't perfect but I was pretty darn happy with it! :)

Tara learned to down/stay really quickly I think because we made a game of it. She would down/stay in the kitchen or LR while I went to the other rooms of the house and hid a treat. If she broke the stay I just kept returning her to the spot. Soon she learned that if she stayed where I asked her to stay she could start hunting for the treat much sooner. It seemed to work pretty well. Hunting for the treat seems to be a higher reward for her then just handing her one!

[Linda and Murphy]

Your Murphy seems a lot like mine. I think that is pretty darn good.
I always said that Murphy was like my ADHD son, so I've had practice. He does not like for me to be out of sight..that is still tough for him and he is 4. And if he isn't on the same floor with me, he is probably doing something he shouldn't.
Stay works well when he is tired...hmmm.....exhausted.