Home Based Dog Training

Once you feel your dog has mastered the stay, begin testing the dog.  Have it stay in positions other than the sit.  Put your dog into a down, and then tell it to stay.  For an even bigger challenge, put your dog into a stand and tell it to stay.  For an even bigger challenge, have your dog go from heeling along beside you to a stay:  As you're heeling, simply give it a stay command, both verbal and hand signal, and then keep on walking.  Your dog should stay where it was when it heard and saw the command.

Or try this:  Tell your dog to stay and then turn your back on the dog.  If that works, put your dog in a stay and then (in an enclosed environment, or with someone else watching) move out of sight of your dog.  This may well prompt the dog to come out of its stay, in which case, you will need to scurry back to correct the dog.  The “out of sight stay” is a popular portion of the AKC Obedience Trials.  Just remember to come back.

Create distractions for the dog.  Have it sit and stay and then ride by it on a bike or a skateboard.  Pop balloons.  Blow bubbles.  Roll balls by the dog.  Dump a bag of potato chips out on the ground ten feet in front of the dog.  Ask a cat to stroll by.  If you're training a retriever, it can be worthwhile to throw a ball, without giving the fetch command, and challenge the dog to stay.  Remember to praise the heck out of the dog when it stays.  If it does come out of its stay, correct the dog by giving it a quick pop in the upward direction on its training collar and then slide it back into position, even if that means that you have to (gently) drag the dog 100 feet back to where it started.

Don't do anything that scares, pains or traumatizes the dog, and testing the dog's obedience to the stay command can be rewarding.  In real life, you want the dog to stay, with no questions asked.  In an emergency situation, you might need the dog to stay when you tell it to.