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Teaching the
Stay
Teaching the stay is a progressive exercise never progress
to the next level until you and the puppy have mastered the current
level.
To start with sit next to the puppy and give the
"SIT" command then say "Stay" and count to 10, then praise.
Now repeat "SIT" and "STAY" again and count to 20, continue
this sequence until the puppy is happy to stay for 1 minute without
getting up. In between each "Sit/Stay" walk the puppy around with lots of
Praise at the end of the sit/stay exercise.
Once the puppy is steady for one minute with you sitting or kneeling
beside him, start the process again with you Standing Up beside
him.....if your puppy has correctly mastered the first part, you
will quickly progress to a one minute sit/stay with you standing
beside him. Remember....you do not go to the next level until the
current exercise is mastered!
Now, with the puppy on your left side, tell the puppy to stay and
step directly in front of him, your toes and his toes are
practically touching and you are looking down at his face Remember to always tell the puppy what to do, then do it,
in this case, you tell him "Stay", then you step in front. This is
an excellent habit to get into when working with any dog and it's a
lot less confusing for the dog! Again, you are working up to a one
minute sit/stay. If he even looks like he's considering getting up,
remind him to stay but don't become a broken record by saying a
stream of stay, stay, stays.
Puppies are usually pretty good at this, so a good time frame to
progress from sitting beside the pup to standing in front for one
minute is about 7 days, sometimes a lot less, but do not get
overconfident, remember we are dealing with a puppy - short
attention spans rule!
Once the pup is steady for one minute with you in front, try
stepping in front and standing there about 15 seconds, hold your
hand up ( in a "stop"....hand up, palm towards the pup) and give
another stay command, then back up one step. Do this exercise until
you can work up until 2 minutes. Once mastered, back up 2 steps, 2
minutes....then 3 steps, work up to 2 minutes and so on until you
can stand about 10 feet away and the puppy will remain in place for
3 minutes.
The secret to having a dog be reliable on the long sit is to build
steadiness
at close range - the quicker to correct him - and then to add
distance.
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