How to Train Your Dog to Stay on Cue Step by Step

Teaching your dog to stay when asked is SO beneficial.

My own dogs stay while I clean up dangerous messes, wait for it to be safe to cross the street, stay inside while I load groceries with an open door, and so much more. 

It is one of our most used cues and most useful cues for safety, I think! 

But it is also one of the cues I find dog owners struggling most with.

Many tutorials include expensive tools, fear inducing methods, or at the very least frustrating and annoying to the guardian and the dog.

So let’s learn a NEW way to train a stay cue without those things, shall we?

First things first… we need to learn a bit about how dogs learn.

How do Dogs Learn?

All dogs learn through the same processes. What gets rewarded gets repeated, and what gets punished stops.

NOW rewards and punishments don’t have to be what you immediately think of with those words. 

Rewards and punishments are different for every dog. One dog might love being pet while the other absolutely despises it. That means that pets could be rewarding for one and punishing for another.

We’ll assume that your dog would love treats in this example, but you could replace the treats with toys or other things your dog loves. The first step to any type of training is to find the things that are MOST rewarding to your dog.

Here’s a very old video I’ve shared with my clients for years to find the treat that is most rewarding to your dog:

Once you’ve got your rewards set up, we can begin our training! 

The Foundation

The first step to teaching a stay behavior is to choose a position you would like your dog to be in. 

I always start with a down or a sit because it is easy to maintain for long periods of time and is simple to learn to train.

Let’s start with getting that position behavior on cue first.

Here is how I train both cues:

The next thing that I like to work on is teaching our dogs a MARKER word or sound (this could be a word, sound, or even clicker).

To do that, you can follow this tutorial:

Beginning the Stay

Now that you have the tools you need (a position on cue and a marker word that is charged and ready), you can start to teach the stay.

I don’t add in the vocal cue until the behavior is ready, so we’ll start just by modifying our sit or down cue that we worked on earlier.

Here is how I like to practice the beginnings of stay:

1. Practice your sit or down and mark as soon as your pup’s rear end hits the floor three times.
2. This time, cue the sit or down and delay the mark just a tiny tiny bit.
3. Then go back to immediately marking a few more times.
4. Repeat.

This routine sandwiches easy and quick wins around the behavior that is new.

You will want to make sure to reward IN THE POSITION you cued. For example, if you mark and your dog gets up, lure them back into position to reward. Over time and practice, they will stay there to receive the reward.

During this practice, you should be right next to your dog! 

Once your dog is able to ace the tiny pause you added in the middle, start to lengthen it second by second, continuing to add in easy wins with no pause to help your dog maintain excitement and confidence! 

You should use this method to build up to a pause of 5 seconds or so before marking and rewarding before moving on to the next phase of training.

Increasing 3 Ds

Now that you have a short stay, you can add in one of three things:

• Distance
• Duration
• Distractions

Choose one to start with. If you pick duration, you will need to stay right next to your dog until that area is hitting the goal you set. If you pick distance, you will need to stay within your 5 second current stay time that you have.

I like to start with more duration and add distance and distractions afterwards.

You can lengthen the duration by selecting random times for the stay each repetition.

For example, count out 10 treats and ask for:

• Just a sit
• A sit for 3 seconds
• A sit for 1 second
• A sit for 6 seconds
• Just a sit
• A sit for 2 seconds
• Just a sit
• A sit for 4 seconds
• A sit for 1 second
• A sit for 5 seconds

See how the durations are random and not getting harder every time? This helps keep your dog’s motivation and excitement high while still forwarding your maximum duration. You can use this method to increase your duration all the way up to multiple minutes even! 

Once your duration is going well, you can add in steps. 

One mistake I see a whole lot is immediately adding in a full step. 

This is weird for your dog. 

Instead, add in leg movements and weight shifts first, then full steps.

For example a session could look like: 

• Sit for 3 seconds
• Sit with handlers foot tapping
• Sit with handler shifting weight between feet
• Just a sit
• Sit with handler shifting weight behind them

And each session could include a bit harder step until you are taking steps away! 

Same with distractions - start easy with just a change in location in your home, then try outside in a familiar area with no other distractions.

Adding the Cue

Once you have a 10+ second duration, have added a bit of distance, and have added some new locations and distractions AND your dog is successful, you can add in the cue. 

Stay cues are optional. Some handlers choose to make the stay implied with the sit or down cue. It is fully up to you.

When you are ready to add in the cue, you can simply cue the sit or down, then cue the stay and immediately reward in position. Sometimes when adding in another word, the dog will break on the other word, so stay close to them and reward immediately after the stay cue. Then use some of your old practice sessions to add back in duration, distractions, and distance like before.

What to do if your dog breaks position?

The old school advice would be to walk towards your dog and place them back into position. That is outdated and unnecessary. Not to mention super frustrating for all who are involved. When your dog breaks the stay, that is information for YOU. 

You have either:

• Trained in the session for too long (your dog is tired and done)
• Not used high enough value rewards
• Pushed the 3 Ds too far too soon
• Not been clear enough in your training and marking
• Not been including enough easy wins with the challenging steps
• Your dog has unmet needs like exercise, enrichment, sleep, food, potty, etc.

Take the break as information and make the next one easier, OR end the session and try again in a refreshed state! The goal is to never have a broken stay, and the way to do that is to choose things intentionally for your dog.

Training a stay cue can be frustrating, but hopefully with these tips and steps, you’ll be on your way to a confident stay in no time.

This is one of the main things that I coach guardians through training in my membership, the Pack. Click here to learn more about it.

Come join us and learn a new, fun way to train!