To teach a dog to stay, you stand beside the dog, say, “Stay,” pivot so you are standing right in front of the dog, then pivot back into your original place (standing beside the dog).
Next, you do this whole sequence but when you are in front of the dog, you step back one step. Then, you practice moving back 2 steps, then 3, until you can eventually tell the dog to stay as you back up to the end of the leash.
Remember, being able to back up and return to the dog is not the end of teaching stay. When the dog is reliable on stay as you back up, you have to practice walking away from the dog (with your back to the dog), leaving from the side, and so on.
Otherwise, you end up with the “Walking Backwards Stay” that we sometimes see in CGC with beginning trainers. The owners who do the “backwards stay” leave the dog by backing up a step at a time with one hand rigidly held in front, palm facing dog, like a policeman who is commanding, “STOP!” They tentatively back away as they plead, “Stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay, stay….”
When you see this, you’re seeing a dog who needs a little more training on stay and an owner who needs a little more confidence.
AKC's Canine Good Citizen and S.T.A.R. Puppy Director, Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist
I prefer to teach duration and distraction tolerance before we allow out students to move from their dogs. Until the dog can hold a sit for 1 minute with a variety of distractions (such as other dogs moving, people moving, the handler circling the dog, toys being tossed, treats being dropped, and even our helper cat walking about) our handlers do not start to add distance. By teaching duration and distraction tolerance first adding distance is easier and both dog and handler are confident with the duration of the behavior (sit). We also do not use the stay cue at all, unless our student is AKC obedience bound and so they want to be able to use 2 cues (sit and stay). All other students learn to teach their dogs that sit means sit until released. I think this is much simpler for both dog and student than trying to teach a dog the concept of “stay” which really just means perform as cued until released when that is exactly what the sit cue also means. Since clicker training is a quiet form of training our students have already achieved control of their mouths before they are working on the CGC, so machine gun cues are not a problem at this level of work for us.
I love this article. Yes, you do see a large number of dogs that will tentatively stay as the owner backs away. I want the dog to be able to hold position while I step around, over, etc., especially on a down, before I start moving away. I want total trust and relaxation from the dog while i move around him/her. When the dog is at ease with the command, then it’s time to move on to the next step.
I agree with Susanne adding distance to fast to soon is only going to set the dog (and trainer) for failure. Very nice post Suzanne.