Stay at the Door
In this lesson you will teach your dog to stay at the door until released. This command can be used around the house, getting in and out of vehicles, and in public places such as the pet store. It also reinforces proper sit-stay behavior for company arrival.
Why teach your dog to stay at the door?
- Leadership Role: This command reinforces your position as leader by letting you go through the door first.
- Safety: This command helps keep your dog safe by keeping your dog out of traffic and out from under your feet.
- Multiple Dogs: This command can be extremely helpful for multiple dog households – keeping the peace and allowing you to put on collars and leashes.
Suggested Command Words:
| Stay | Wait | Halt |
Process
We recommend that you first train Stay at the Door at home because you will have greater control of distractions. Find a household door that opens towards you with a good amount of space in front of the door to train your dog (i.e. you don’t want to pick a door that is crowded with lots of distractions). It should also lead to a secure location such as the backyard, closed garage, or dog’s favorite room before moving to the front door. Once you have successfully trained Stay at the Door at home, start applying the techniques at locations outside your home.
- Start with your dog on leash.
- Stand with your back to the hinges of the door.
- Issue the sit command.
- Issue the stay command.
- Slowly open the door with the hand closest to the doorknob while continuing to reinforce the stay command. Reward, Reward, Reward – for many dogs this is an extremely difficult exercise because they are excited to go somewhere! Be sure to reward for holding the stay position.
- If your dog gets up, close the door and correct the sit stay (if needed, review the stay lesson on how to appropriately correct the stay). Repeat steps 4 and 5.
- If your dog remains in the sitting position, move through the threshold of the door, issue your release word, invite your dog through the threshold, and reward.
Entering and Exiting Vehicles
Once your dog has learned to Stay at the Door at home, you can apply the process listed above to entering and exiting vehicles. The key is maintaining control of your dog with appropriate use of crates or dog safety restraints and leashes. Note: Even the best trained dogs can be tempted by wildlife and other distractions causing them to bolt into traffic.
- We recommend that your dog always travels in a crate or with a dog safety restraint such as a seat belt designed for dogs.
- When entering the vehicle use the technique above and only remove the leash once your dog has entered the crate or you have put on the restraint.
- When exiting the vehicle be sure that you put the leash on before issuing your release word.
Multiple Dogs
Train each dog individually until each of them can perform Stay at the Door with a moderate level of distraction (i.e. each of them should be able to Stay at the Door in a public place). Then start training your dogs to Stay at the Door together. If you have more than two dogs, you will want to train 2 and then 3 and so on. When you start training your dogs together, don’t be surprised if your well trained dogs act like they don’t know how to Stay at the Door.
Read more tips on training and living with multiple dogs
Tips
- When you begin training Stay at the Door, it is perfectly normal to only be able to barely crack the door before your dog breaks the stay. You may need to reward your dog for staying when you touch the doorknob.
- You may need to return to your dog and reward even if you only get one toe through the door.
- Be sure to select treats or toys that motivate your dog (treat value).
- Not getting the response your desire? Try rewarding your dog with a jackpot of treats. A jackpot is a surprise reward of several treats given out one after another. Just like Vegas, remember to only use this periodically so your dog never knows when he or she will hit the jackpot.
- With Stay at the Door it is very important to keep training sessions short because your dog may become easily frustrated that he or she is not getting to go on a walk or do something fun!