I've listened to your three podcasts on the stay command and I understand that it is a formal command and the dog is not to move or change positions. How far does this go - meaning, if the dog doesn't move, but they look around or turn their head as they watch you, is that ok? Or, do you truly mean that they are to be an absolute statue and not even twitch a muscle?

Thank you for your question! The answer is dependant on your purpose for training your dog to ‘stay’.

If your goal is to train your dog for an obedience trial then he learns to stay completely still.

If your goal is to pass the Delta Society’s therapy dog test then he can turn his head or ‘twitch’.

If your goal is to teach your family pet to ‘stay’ until released, then the answer to your question depends on you.

My advice is to not allow your dog to shift positions. In other words, maintain the integrity of the position that you started with. Once you have asked for a sit stay then your dog remains sitting the entire time. Remember that scratching, crawling, rolling, and turning to watch you is ‘sloppy’. If you accept ‘sloppy’ in a training situation then you are going to get ‘sloppy’ times 100 in real life.

I prefer to reserve the true ‘stay’ command for special circumstance training. Examples would be obedience trials, Rally, Canine good Citizenship tests, and Therapy Dog Tests.

Concentrate on wait and settle down for family dog training. I hope this is helpful. Thank you, Margaret

Thanks for the reply. We have two dogs (labs 14 months old) and we're in basic training here locally in WA right now. We just went through the 'stay' command last night. Their philosophy is TOTALLY different than yours - so I think what we'll do is take the best of both and fit it to what works for us and what we need. We will end up making 'stay' hold the position but not necessarily be a statue and 'wait' means more of "hang out right around here, make yourself comfortable, but don't leave". I can't really see a huge need in our lifestyle for the 'stay' command. We've been using 'wait' since they were about 4 months old and they do it really well. However, I do know that 'stay' is the common word that others will use and I want our dogs to know what it means if it's ever used on them and we're not around.