Getting your dog to stay is not as easy as it seems, for one; your dog is more prone to follow you around than to stand still in one position. Most dogs are inquisitive, curious about their surroundings and tend to get distracted a lot. As you can see, getting them to stay in one position is a little difficult, especially if your dog happens to be a pup. Dogs are easily distracted and that goes double for puppies. That said, it is quite possible to teach them to stay in one position, as long as you follow a structured method while training them to do so. Here are a few pointers to help you get started; you can probably find some of these pointers covered in the secrets of a professional dog trainer.

1. Heel to stay – the best way to get your dog to stay in one position is preferably from the heel position. Once your dog is trained to heel, training him to stay is not that difficult. Imagine yourself walking in the heel position with your dog and now the only thing that you would have to do is to get him to sit. Just press his nose down [gently] so that he sits down. Now walk a few steps ahead and ‘before’ he gets up, reward him and use positive reinforcement. The idea is to get your dog to realize the value of staying in one position.

2. The stay command – Start verbalizing the command right away, follow the directions in step 1 and verbalize the command ‘stay’, so that your dog associates this command with the ‘still’ position. Now that your dog can connect the command with the ‘stay’ position, start increasing the distance gradually. As you do so, see how long it takes for your dog to start moving, if he manages to sit still in the same position for more than 4 minutes, well he has got it.

3. The stand with the stay – This position is slightly harder than the ‘sit stay’ but you should be able to train your dog to stand still with little difficulty, just follow the same directions as you did for the ‘sit stay’ position. The ‘stand stay’ position is slightly harder for most dogs to get as they are energetic by nature. So it is a ‘tad’ difficult for them to stand still but with the steps given here, you should be able to do just that.

It is important to remember to reward your dog with a doggy treat every time he manages to perform correctly. Once he has got the trick down pat, start phasing out the treats slowly. Soon, he will obey the verbal command without the need for any incentive. With these pointers from the secrets of a professional dog trainer, you should be able to get your dog to stay in the stand/sit position for about three minutes and over.