Stay

[Luckymummytoone]

Any tips for getting 5month pup to stay? We’ve done puppy classes and they touched upon this - but she just doesn’t seem to be getting it 😂 xx

It's just lots of practice and building up the time they stay for gradually.

You may already be doing this.. instead of moving backward, take a step to the side. Then back to the pup and reward. When you step back they automatically want to come towards you so I start off with going side to side and then introducing backward steps once they have are more steady. Good luck

Are you using a hand gesture as well as the word “stay”? Like, putting your palm up like a “stop” signal? I find that my dog responds better when I use hand signals along with words.

Basically you just start really right! “STAY”, then lean back on your foot, return to dog, treat/praise. Then take a small step to the side, or backwards, return to doggo, praise/treat. Etc.

With my dog I also correct him if he breaks the sit and say “ah ah” and return him to his position.

*just start really small

If it's any consolation the only time I ever use stay in real life is when I want DDog to pose for a photo

At five months she probably won't really get it yet.

It goes against everything a puppy of that age thinks should be happening: I want to run, I'll run, my human moves away from me I'll follow and run after them.

It just needs repetition, repetition, repetition and treats, treats, treats.

After a lot of training my dog to stay we eventually got to the stage where we would arrive at the park, she would sit down and wait for me to walk some way away from her, I'd then call her and she would come running for her treat.

She clearly thought she'd trained me well, and she had, but she was a great deal older than five months when she started doing that.

Just keep working at it and give it time. She will get it.

Thanks for all the great tips and suggestions - will try the sideway step first and the hand gesture too as not been doing that!
Good to knows others pups hasn’t mastered it at this age… I keep saying Instagram videos of tiny puppies staring at a treat… would never happen with my girl 🤪 xx

And just on a side note OP, don't know if you're aware that when she hits adolescence, around 8 months or a bit after depending on breed, everything you've worked so hard to teach her will very likely go out the window, particularly recall.

Again, just keep on reinforcing the training through adolescence and eventually it will all come back and you'll, hopefully, end up with a well trained dog.

Good to knows others pups hasn’t mastered it at this age… I keep saying Instagram videos of tiny puppies staring at a treat… would never happen with my girl

I'd say it's personality dependent too, my puppy would sit and watch a treat in your hand until you gave her an ok from about 10 weeks. But she's not hugely food motivated and she finds other training exercises much more difficult.