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Teach your GSD to stay

Want to train your German Shepherd to stay? Start with a really short amount of time, such as 2-3 seconds, and reward your pup with a treat for holding still while he or she is in the stay position. Release your dog with a word and toss a treat, so he or she gets up. Repeat 5-6 times, and end the session.

During training sessions, slowly build up to a longer period of time (such as 5-10 seconds), without changing anything else — don’t move around, don’t increase your distance from your dog, etc. Remember to release your dog with a release word or phrase (“Let’s go!”) when the stay is over! Once your dog is reliably holding a 30-second stay, add a little distance or body movement — pick only one — with the same gradual build-up to the next challenge.

Let’s break down stay training:

Never ask your German shepherd to stay for a longer period of time than he/she can. If your dog wants to break a stay after 2 seconds, feed a treat and release after 1 second. Your job as the trainer is to make the dog think it’s fun to wait for a treat!

Go nuts with the treats. One treat each second the dog stays is a good starting duration! We want the dog to think that staying put was the best idea she’s ever had. Of course you will start to slow the rate you give treats, as your dog learns to stay put.

If your dog breaks a stay, ask yourself how long she stayed, and what else was happening in the area. Did she stay for 10 seconds, but not 15? Or did she get up when the neighborhood cat came by? You have to release your dog before you think she will get up. If you feel tempted to say “stay” to your dog again, go back and feed her.

The more distance  between you and your dog during a stay, the more treats she should get when you return. A fun game to play is “Four steps away equals four treats, one step equals one treat,” and so on. Your dog will start to hope you go farther away, so she gets more treats!

Instead of backing away from your dog to make the stay harder, start by turning your back. In a real-life situation, we would turn and walk away.

My preference is to always return to my GSD before I release him, rather than calling my dog to me from a stay. I don’t want my dog wondering when he can get up and come find me — I want him thinking about how many treats he’ll get when I get back!

If your dog breaks a stay, you have increased the difficulty too much, or too quickly, or both. Go back to the last place your dog had success, and work from there.

Teach your German Shepherd ‘Wipe Your Paws’

“Muddy paw print” by Becky is licensed under CC BY 2.0

With cooler weather comes rain, sleet, snow and ice. Wiping your German Shepherd’s paws after every walk is not only good for your carpets and flooring, but helps ensure your dog’s feet aren’t harboring burrs or don’t get burned by road salt.

If your German Shepherd is one of those who always kicks up the grass and dirt behind him after he does his business, the bulk of the groundwork is already laid out for you. What you need to do is use the positive reinforcement technique while speaking the phrase you want him to associate with this behavior. Tell him “Good ‘wipe your feet’, Rex! Good ‘wipe your feet’!” repeatedly when you catch him in the act, while scratching his favorite spot and treating him to a cookie. This will encourage him to try with all of his might to replicate the action.

The next step to take is getting him to repeat it in the appropriate place. Once he has caught on to the command of wiping his feet, bring him to the area you want him to begin performing this trick. For example, walk him to your welcome mat or a rug inside your front door. When he is standing on the rug or mat, use the phrase he is accustomed to. Make sure you have a treat, and that he knows it.

If your German Shepherd never kicks up the ground, getting him to perform the act is the first step. What you can do instead is train him to wait on a mat or rug so that you can wipe his feet off for him. Use the basic “Stay” or “Wait” cue every time he comes in the door. Wipe his paws, telling him “Wipe your feet” or even just “Foot!” Give him a special treat after each foot. Pretty soon he’ll be holding up each foot for you to wipe.

Your friends and neighbors will want to know how you manage to keep your floors so clean!

How to teach your dog a rock-solid stay

Your dog’s first reinforceable stays will probably be about 1-billionth of a second long.

Training your German Shepherd to perform a reliable stay is not as difficult as it might seem. You only need two things:

  1. Really yummy treats or some other desirable reinforcer.
  2. Patience.

The easiest way to envision stay training is to think of the “No running in the hall” rule. When you were in school, if you were caught running in the halls, your teacher did not grab you by the collar, physically drag you back to where you started, slam you to the ground and yell “Walk!” (Or at least, I hope not.) The teacher simply looked at you, possibly pointed a finger, and requested in a normal tone that you return to where you started and walk – rather than run – down the hallway.

This is how we instruct our dogs – although, because German Shepherds are experts at nonverbal language, we can simply accompany them back to their original starting position rather than ask them to return.

Here’s the hardest part about teaching the stay exercise: It’s your job to make sure the dog doesn’t get up! This is where we need patience.

There are only two possible scenarios in stay-land.*

Scenario #1:
Dog sits, you ask dog to stay, dog stays, you click and treat, or say “Good” and release.

Scenario #2:
Dog sits, you ask dog to stay, dog gets up — you accompany dog back to the start of the exercise and repeat, hoping for better results. (An alternate version of Scenario #2 exists if you don’t have the dog on leash or in a fenced area, whereby the dog gets up, then proceeds to run away, chase squirrels, cats, birds, trucks, etc., or pee on the neighbor’s trash cans.)

The easiest way to ensure that Scenario #2 never happens is to time your click and treat before the dog gets up. Your dog’s first rewardable stays will probably be about 1-billionth of a second long, because that’s how long your dog will remain sitting after the first few times you say “Stay.”

Gradually extend the length of the stays to whatever amount of time suits you, using the principles outlined above. However, throw in some random stays of shorter duration so your dog doesn’t begin to perceive the “stay” command as an aversive (i.e., “Each time she asks me to stay, I have to sit here for longer and longer periods before getting a treat – forget that, I’m outta here!”)

Extend the distance of the stays gradually, as well. Remember to extend distance the way you want the real-life behavior to look: For example, don’t begin to increase distance by backing away from your dog; begin by turning away. A stay the length of several football fields doesn’t do you much good if you can’t turn away from the dog!

As usual, the click ends the behavior, which means the dog can get up after you click. Eventually you can replace the click with a release word. Toss the treat after you click, to get the dog in standing position for the next stay exercise.