by Kayla Griffin

Created on: January 23, 2009

Obedience training has many advantages for you and your dog. If done properly it gives you both the opportunity to bond and learn to work as a team, with you the leader who is in control. Teaching your dog to "stay put" will be successful with a combination of knowing how to get your dog's attention, and how to make your dog "work" for you.

When learning to train your dog a lot of people and resources recommend using treats. Although this might work you must consider this: every time your dog does something right you are going to reward him with a treat, so when you don't have treats your dog is not going to obey the commands you are giving him. Also do you want to have your pockets full of treats when you go for a walk. If you answer no to this, if your looking for a more reliable way to teach your dog to stay then this article is for you.

Before you start teaching your dog to stay put, you should buy a pinch collar also known as the prong collar, and place this on your dog. Yes a lot of people think this is an inhumane way to train their dog, however if you have noticed when your dog is wearing a normal collar or choke collar he will pull and you will hear him struggling to breath this is actually causing damage to your dogs trachea and neck. A pinch collar however when used properly with a downwards jerk, will pinch the skin around your dogs neck in the same manner a mother will when she teaching her pups. This pinch gets your dogs attention focused on you and the commands you are giving.

Next you should buy yourself a six foot lead or leash, this is an essential tool to the proper training of your dog. This lead in combination with a pinch collar gives you the opportunity to "work" your dog, gain your dogs attention and opportunity for lots of praise when your dog successfully completes something he/she was asked to do. Before you can start training your dog to stay they will already need to know some basics like down, heel and sit. So now assuming you have already taught your dog these obedience commands and have the lead and pinch or prong collar we will start the stay command.

You will want to start by holding your lead in your right hand with your dog sitting on your left side. Your left hand should be kept free for grabbing the lead to provide a correction with a downwards pull when your dog does not obey. Now that your dog is sitting at your side and you have your hands placed correctly on your lead give your dog a stay command by saying the work "Stay"

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