Training Your Labrador Retriever: The Stay Command
Perhaps one of the most difficult commands to teach your retriever is the stay command due to the fact that with this obedience exercise the dog is getting rewarded for doing nothing. Normally the canine is rewarded for performing a certain task; your pet may become confused in the beginning processes of this exercise because they are used to being praised for engaging in an action. Although it may take some time to learn, be patient and stick with it and your Labrador retriever will soon be on its way to mastering the stay command.
The first step in the exercise involves coupling a hand signal along with the word “stay” itself. Step one, give your dog a positional training command that he/she already is comfortable with, such as sit. Then, with your hand completely open and all fingers placed together bring your palm up in front of your pets face and give the stay command in a firm tone.
You will then want to give praises along with the stay command. When your dog is able to hold the stay for a period of time, give him/her praises around two or three times. You don’t want to reprimand him for breaking the stay command and not provide some sort of positive feedback. Instead compliment your pet for obeying and only reprimand the canine once the stay command has been broken.
Finally, you will want to end the stay command with a praise and some sort of reward, such as a treat. Start off training your dog to stay for five or six seconds and then once this is mastered you can build the difficulty level further. After your dog has obeyed, give him/her a reward such as a treat to let your pet know that the task was successful.
Thank you for your question. As this site is dedicated to labrador retrievers, the articles are focussed on that breed here. I might consider a site dedicated to a different breed in the future.
I hope you find the hand gesture re-inforces the ‘stay’ command for Cassie. Don’t forget to praise her when she does stay and I’m sure she’ll get it really quickly. Eventually, you’ll find that Cassie will ‘stay’ just by using the visual command.