I have an abused chow chow and can't get her to stay in a spot when I step back she steps forward.?

Question

She always wants to be at my side. When trying to do basics commands, she does sit, lay down, and come. But trying to get her to stay and not follow me has not been learned yet. I take a step back she goes a step forward. I can give her attention all day long, but it seems she can't get enough. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Good for you for working with your girl. Training exercises can be a huge help to dogs that need to learn trust and confidence. Make sure that all training sessions are very upbeat, positive and fun for both of you. Sounds like you're making great progress already.

Based on your description that you take a step back and she comes with you, you're moving the stay too quickly. Try again only taking a half step. If a half step is too much, don't even move your feet... just shift your weight back a bit and then reward. The next level might be to shift your weight *almost* like you're going to take a half step, and reward. Then the next level might be to move your foot backward as though you're going to take a step, but then put it back and reward. That one step backwards that you are taking today can actually be broken down further in to lots of little itty bitty baby steps, and you should make sure she can do each level without shifting her weight forward before you progress to the next level. Don't wait for her to get up... if she even shifts like she's thinking about getting up, make the exercise a tad easier.

You can also try to practice stays in other "real life" situations. You don't need to make them into full-fledged training exercises, only reinforce that sometimes you want her butt to stay on the ground until you give her a release. One example is to ask her to sit and then wait when you put her food bowl down. If she gets up to early, you don't reprimand her, you simply pick the food back up. Another example is to do the same thing with the front door; she has to sit and wait while you open the door until you tell her "Okay". If she gets up, no reprimands, simply whoops! The door closes. I find that doing these exercises regularly means that I don't have to spend a lot of time training Stay, because it's just part of the dogs' lives that they have to wait until I release them. More detailed information is in the link below.

Good luck!

Answer 2

To teach the "stay", get a great handful of treats and let your dog know that you have them. Work in a place that's 'boring' for the dog - that is, don't have any distractions around (toys, etc). If your dog knows a 'sit' , put her in a sit. Then, just shift your weight back a half-inch - and reward her immediately with a treat! Let her break the sit if she wants to after you reward her in position. Then ask for a sit again, and shift your weight again. Reward her for maintaining the sit. What you're doing is starting her off at a very easy level that won't stress her out. You'll gradually work up to taking a step, and rewarding her for staying.
Remember to not 'muddy the water' and call this trick anything. Let your dog get information from you by being rewarded or not rewarded. It's OK for her to make mistakes - but if in a session of 10, if she breaks her stay more than 5 times in one session, she's telling you that you're progressing too fast.
Watch for signs of stress (licking lips, yawning, her breaking off the training session to go sniff the floor somewhere else....) and keep your treat value very high and your sessions short (10 treats is a good place to start) and remember that this method succeeds because you're asking her for little bits of the behavior before you put it all together. You have to train first before you run a marathon!

Answer 3

You simply need to break the "stay" training down into baby steps. Some dogs need this to learn it properly. Start by standing in front of her, commanding the stay and have her maintain it for about 1 1/2 minutes. Do this several times before attempting to "step back". When you think she is ready for you to "step back" then do so. If she moves, correct her and put her back in place.

Answer 4

Baby steps. Instead of a whole step back, take half a step. Try the "bar is open, the bar is closed" technique. If she stays, you continue to feed her very small pieces of soft food. If she moves, the bar closes, the food stops.

Put her back into her stay and open the bar. And keep her head up. If she drops her head and takes her eyes off you, she will get up. Keep her head up and looking at you.

Remember with stays:
With Time, comes distance.

So get her to stay for a long period of time before moving away.

Answer 5

Sounds normal. None of the dogs I know will stay; they'll follow you as soon as your back is turned---sometimes for a mile on arthritic hips.
Staying is a different type of command from the other ones. For those, they do it, then they're done and they get your approval. For staying, they have to stay, and stay, and stay, and stay, and if they follow your command, there's no way they'll get rewarded by you. They're not used to following commands for that long, and they're not used to the idea of being away from you; after all, a good dog sticks with the master.
Not being able to stay isn't by itself a sign of separation anxiety; it's pretty typical for any dog that actually likes people. If you try to get her to move away by sneaking off behind her back, you're probably aggravating the problem; now she's afraid to let you out of her sight.

Answer 6

You do not just start with "stay". They have to be taught "stay". Go to a training class and they can help you. You are expecting too much too fast!!!!!

Answer 7

get her to sit down
then slowly move away
if she gets up
stick out your hand and say "sit!"
in a harsh strong voice
make it look like you are bigger then you really are
puff out your chest
and try not to show any affection unless she did what you want