The "Stay" Command

Crispy

I've been wondering (as I'm uploading videos for my friends to marvel at of London), how many people are absolutely confident in their dog's "STAY" command? I've never actually questioned London's. He's always been excellent. In fact, nearly all of my dogs have had a near-perfect "stay" to the point where - barring very few things - I would trust them through nearly anything to just sit and stay.

"STAY" has always been a very important command to me since I watched our GSD get hit by a truck when I was young. It left an impression, to say the least, and it really could have been avoided.


Now, regardless of Breed Hypes, London will stay outside a shop and wait for me to come out around a bomb dropping. The only time I really worry about him moving is if someone calls him over, but he's getting a lot better about being less sociable when I'm not present and the most he'll do now, if someone calls him, is wag his tail like "yeah, I'd love to... but--Mom's gone somewhere and--no."

A lot of people seem to find London's ability to follow the "stay" command shocking, and while I will still tie London up if I'm provided with a spot, if there's no spot available (such as, outside the coffee shop on our morning walks), I'll just get him to settle down and stay.

I guess my real worry is that... maybe I'm missing something? Should I not trust my dog this much? I'd love to hear what other people think about it because I really didn't think anything of it until I got the repeated "really? He just stays like that?" like my dog sprouted six heads and I may have four arms.



Here's going in, yesterday:


Here's coming out (he'll sometimes sit up or stand if he's settled into a down if he notices me):



(look at that rockin' snow nose, guys)

I always, no matter how well I feel he knows the command, make sure he knows I know he did a great job on his stay (verbally) and I'll always give him a little "jackpot" of cookies/kibble for it.

Saya

Aww! He's so cute!

Saya is pretty good with her stay command and so is Bella.

Sorry about your GSD must been hard.

jellyfish

Ah that is beautiful to watch, lol! Very impresseive!
Toki only does stay for like, 4 seconds until he can't handle the torture of food being around him cause i usually work on stay at dinner time. I really should make more of an effort to teach stay, so that is my fault. I think that it is super beneficial, like the points you mentioned. Sorry about your gsd

Edgewood

My 2 shikoku have a strong stay. My male most especially, he very, very rarely breaks his stay. The female was much harder to train to stay, but now she is quite good at it. That being said, I would not have trusted them on a street like you did with London.

But at least in my weekly dog club working group, my two have the strongest stays of the 30+ dogs in the group, even with people coming and going and opening doors and other dogs walking right by. The session leader often tries a ton of distractions to get the dogs to move and break, but mine never do.

I think trusting your dog is up to you to decide. None of us own your dog so we cannot comment on whether it is risky or not. London looks like a very good boy!

Sangmort

That's amazing! Ok, you've inspired me to put more training time in with my pups

I remember growing up in jersey seeing tons of people do this with their dogs. I probably wouldn't do it with mine though, primarily, for two reasons.

1. You just never know what your dog might decide to do.

&

2. There are a LOT of bad people in this world. You never know what they might decide to do.

However, huge kudos to you! This is pretty amazing, IMHO. ~

Losech

Wow, my dogs have the worst stay ever... Sasha had to learn it for the CGC but she just barely passed that part. I've never been good with teaching stay. I normally use wait, and wait is temporary, as in "you can get up in a couple seconds, just wait for me to do this or that first".

I don't think Conker would be able to do that if I weren't around. He's got stranger danger problems and anyone coming near him while he's with me on-leash is scary enough. I imagine he's have a meltdown if I wasn't there and someone came near him.

Juneau would probably do the best. She likes people but isn't like a magnet when they are around. Sasha will go right up to anyone and completely ignore me (which is annoying) and Juneau's only big problem are animals.

Anyways, I'm still working with Conker. I doubt I'll ever be able to leave him outside someplace (plus I probably wouldn't. Trying to steal a Malamute is one thing, a cutesy Shiba is something else entirely) but I'm slowly getting him to where he's better with strangers while on the leash. Now, if I were to take that leash off, he'd be amazing. But sadly that's not only dangerous but illegal.

ttddinh

wow, impressive. Bea's stay is put your butt down for a few seconds, lol. Unless the hub says it, then she stays (for a longer time)

Crispy

haha, thanks guys! I've worked a lot with London. There was a period of time from when he was a year to almost two years that I was unemployed and we were never apart. We'd go on hikes and walks and "explore" someplace new every day and I think that really helped the bonding process. Even to this day, he gets to go to work with me and I bring him with me when I can.

I also got very lucky in his temperament. He's unlike any Malamute I've ever met and he reminds me of my childhood Akita more than my childhood Malamute and I think his "focused" sort of drive made him a lot easier to train than the crazy all-over-the-place Malamutes I see elsewhere.

When he was a pup, there was a man that tried to cart him away in his truck. Fortunately, I noticed. The guy didn't have much to say for himself and I was a little too shocked (and happy to be holding my dog) to really act further than "what do you think you're DOING?". Now that he's a 100 pound adult that "woo woo"s, I'm less worried about people stealing him. I still look out the windows like a crazy lady from time to time.

I think I'm most impressed with his ability to tune things out when I'm not around. He'll just sit and wait... and wait... and wait until he knows I'm close to the door. I do trust him and he's never done anything while I'm not around. It's like his whole world disappears when I'm gone. It's actually quite sad.

The trouble happens when I'm attached to the other end of his leash, lol.

shibamistress

My GSD was super good with it. Once I had him stay on his bed, but then I forgot to release him and left! I came home 1/2 hour later and he was still on his bed, but looking very anxious, and I remembered I'd never said "free!"

My NKs? Ha! Stay? What's that? Toby will do it for about a minute if he can see the reward and knows he's getting it. Neither of the other two stay at all.