Let's Show off Our Sit Stays!

[Adina P]

The sit stay is so very helpful in every day life.  So it's an important command to master.  It can help when people come over, when you want to collar and leash your dog, keeps your dog still when you need it, etc.  Those of you working on Stays of any duration, regardless of distractions your dog can/can not handle...let's share our videos of where we're at and share our next goals!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This is helpful, Adina. I probably moved to very difficult distractions outside the house too fast in my sit/stay training. I forget there are plenty of distractions that I can stage right here at home. That's what I'm going to work on for the next couple of days.

[Adina P]

I don't think it is a problem to take the stay out of the house.  Just remember that when distractions are tougher the distance (between you and him) may need to be shorter and you'll need to hold the leash.  

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Wow, very nice Albus! He never even flinched when he heard the squeaky toy....great! I like how you brought him back to his position when he broke the stay and then let him finish the exercise on a successful note. Great, great job!

[Carol Brand]

Really nice start, but make sure that you set your dog up for success. He is clearly not ready to go quite so long. Make the sit/stay just a bit shorter so that you can PARTY PARTY PARTY when he does it right.

Other thoughts.....

When you went back to him you told him Sit/Stay again. Try not to give double commands. Just put him back in his original spot.

I always return to my bitch before I break her off. I NEVER call her out of a stay because I want it clear that a stay means DO NOT MOVE FROM YOUR SPOT until I break you off. A "stay" is not an intermediary step to another direction (come). That would be the "wait" command.

When I break a dog off I really PARTY!!!!! I make a big deal out of it. This helps build drive in my dogs and it also makes it really clear that the exercise is 1. finished and 2. done correctly.

[Adina P]

I agree with Carol that you have a great start! He holds very nice and still and seems to be trying to be correct. But re-giving the 'stay' command I think confuses dogs. Not confusing in the sense of "what does she mean?" but confusing in the sense that they don't know that they didn't finish their last stay. So he's not getting a clear message that sit stay means sit stay no matter what. Albus probably just assumes whatever that was is OVER and now he is starting stay again. But dogs need to know that they were wrong in getting up not that they are staying AGAIN. I hope that makes sense.

Has he been successful with sit stays with you out of the room before? Was the squeaky OUT of his line of vision or could he see you squeaking the toy?

The way I teach out of sight stays is to heel the dog to the edge of a corner (helps to use a building or fence outdoors, but you could use the end of a hallway or room by the door). Then I give the sit and stay command and go around the corner (leash in hand) and out of sight. When you do that you have to start with a short time again. Even if the dog can do over a minute...because you've just changed things majorly it helps to reduce the time of the stay. Let's say 10 seconds to start. Then return to your dog, praise and release. I think Carol releases then praises/parties. I prefer praising first then releasing, but it depends on what exercises I'm doing. But whichever you do, do it the same every time.

[Carol Brand]

"He didn't break when I was out of sight, he broke after....."

This can be a killer in competition. They hold the stay the whole time but then break as you are coming back or walking around into place. To proof this, you can walk up to your dog and around it and back out of sight again.

I always break before I PARTY. This is because I want the dog to have a clear ending to an exercise before he is rewarded.

[Adina P]

I guess I don't 'party' before the break. I just give subdued verbal praise and maybe a quick, calm pet and then do an exercise finished and then maybe some more festivities IF it was a really great performance.

[Adina P]

You know, as much as it's great and ideal to set your dog up to succeed...all dogs are going to make mistakes and break commands at some points in training. It's not necessarily a 'screw up' it just shows you where the dog needs more work. That's all. So do your best to plan for success (maybe with an occasional planned challenge), but even when you think you've done everything right...the dog might STILL break a stay and then all that matters is you respond to it appropriately.

Even if an exercise was indeed tougher on the dog than you expected...unless he broke a command because obeying the command was imminently dangerous (the bookcase was falling toward him), he still has to be put back into place and made accountable for his mistake. As well as given more chances to be right. So even if it seems "oh well he just wasn't ready' or 'that was just too hard...he was too excited' we still have to be consistent and follow through because the dog won't understand being given 'grace' by not following through. To a dog, I imagine, it just means 'oh when I'm REALLY excited I don't have to sit stay."

[Julie, Izzie & Max]

I don't have a video of this and this gets a little away from the serious training. But Max has a very good sit/stay and I used that while trying to make their picture for our Christmas card. After sitting for about 15 minutes, Max decided this was a good time for a quick nap while waiting to be released. They both were so good and

sat still for about 30 minutes with only a few reminders.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

OMD! This is about as good a sit/stay as I've ever seen. He goes to sleep while still holding his stay. You definitely win the "sit/stay" prize!