Teaching your dog to sit and stay is basic obedience training that will benefit any owner and dog bond. It can be tricky to navigate and often frustrating when trying to teach a dog how to do a new skill, particularly stay, as it is natural your dog will want to follow you as you move. See how to teach your dog to sit and stay in a few simple steps! 

Benefits Of Sit & Stay Training 

Training your dog to sit and stay has many positive benefits, including the following: 

  • Allows owners to feel more in control of behaviours 
  • Allows you to comfortably do tasks without interruption, such as putting down their food bowl
  • Eases guests into the home 
  • Keeps your dog from dangerous areas or situations 
  • Stops your dog from reacting to situations 
  • Teaches patience 

How To Teach Your Dog To Sit 

Teaching your dog to sit first is a fundamental skill that can then progress into further commands afterwards. Here are easy steps to follow: 

  1. With your dog facing you in the standing position, hold a treat in your hand.
  2. Move the treat to your dog’s nose and move over their head.
  3. Continue this movement until your dog goes into the sitting position, and reward when this happens.
  4. Repeat until your dog is comfortable with the movement. 
  5. Begin to do the same movement without the treat in your moving hand but continue to use positive reinforcement when the action is complete. 
  6. Introduce the verbal cue ‘sit’ along with the hand movement. 
  7. Repeat until your dog responds appropriately to the verbal cue. 
  8. Continue to repeat earlier steps if you have difficulty with introducing the verbal ‘sit.’ 

What Age Should You Teach Your Dog To Sit? 

Training your dog can happen at any age, but puppy training is ideal from a younger age as it will help you with commands from an early age. If possible, you can incorporate sit training from as early as eight weeks and gradually build up consistency from here. 

How Long Does Sit Training Take? 

Teaching your dog to sit can take as long as it needs to as it can depend on your dog’s temperament, ability to pick up new commands and how much time you can commit to this. Typically, your dog should be able to do this command after 1–2 weeks of starting the training. 

How To Teach Your Dog To Stay 

When teaching your dog to stay, it is easier if they can do a beginning command such as sit so they know to stay in this position. 

  1. Do the command to sit and keep your dog’s attention. (If your dog knows the command to lie down, this is also a good starting point)
  2. Give your dog the hand signal for stay and then wait before rewarding your dog with a treat
  3. You can build this up gradually to 5–10 seconds, if it doesn’t work straight away. So start with two seconds, then a treat, and work your way up. 
  4. Once your dog begins to understand the command and can stay with you engaged and still, start to do the command whilst moving away.

What Age Should You Teach Your Dog To Stay? 

Again, stay training can be done from around eight weeks, and getting these commands in early will help you establish obedience from the puppy stage. Stay, however, wouldn’t be the first command to teach – start with sitting and/or lie down, then work towards stay. 

What Is The Dog Hand Signal For Stay? 

The most frequent hand signal used in dog stay training is the stop hand sign (palm facing outwards). This is a great way to start this type of training and building up to the verbal command. 

Top Sit & Stay Training Tips 

Here are some further top tips to extend your training regime: 

  • Start training in a familiar environment that has few distractions – this will help keep your dog’s attention. 
  • Train regularly and consistently – if your dog has seemingly mastered the sit or stay skill, this still needs to be practised. 
  • Try training outside the home in increasingly more busy environments to get your dog used to doing the commands in a variety of places. 
  • Build slowly – many factors can affect training, and it is important to show patience, resilience, and consistency throughout the process. 

Find out our best dog training methods here. 

Sit & Stay Training With A&T Trained Dogs 

If you are struggling with sit-and-stay training at home, getting an external trainer could be the key to moving forward with your dog’s training. If you have a busy schedule, are not confident in training or simply want some help, our specialist trainers are here to help you! 

With extensive facilities and experience, our team will make a bespoke dog training plan for your dog and give you a thorough handover to extend into the home. Contact us online or call us on 01524 587 315.