Why Teach a Down/Stay and Not a Sit/Stay
For the pet dog, the main purpose for teaching the down/stay is to teach a dog self-control. However, there are many other practical applications as well that we will discuss in in the final chapters of this book. For now, I want to discuss why we don’t train both a down/stay as well as a sit/stay in the early stages of training.
Many people teach both a sit/stay and a down/stay early in a dog’s training. We have chosen to leave the sit/stay out of this course altogether so that we can focus initially on building a strong down/stay. We do teach our puppies a version of the sit/stay, but only while we remain close to them without stepping away from them. In early training, we never leave our dog expecting him to stay unless the dog is in the down position. We have four reasons for initially limiting our stay work to the down position only.
Reason #1: The Down/stay is More Comfortable
One reason we limit our stay exercises to the down/stay is that the down is simply a more comfortable position for a dog to maintain than a sit. Therefore, it is easier for the dog to be trained to stay there for longer periods of time. Furthermore, we want our dogs to be comfortable if we are going to eventually ask them to stay there for more than just a minute or two.
Reason #2: Training Only One Position Creates Self Control Faster and Better
Another reason, we limit our foundational training to the down/stay while excluding sit/stay work is this. Our main purpose for teaching a stay exercise is to build the internal quality of having self-control. We’ve found that for real life situations, more dependable self-control is created faster when the dog doesn’t have to remember or think about what position he is supposed to be in. Therefore, we initially only teach one position to leave our dogs in until self-control is well-built. The one position we have chosen is the down.
Reason #3: Most Pet Dogs Don’t Need to Know Both a Sit/Stay and a Down/Stay
A third reason for training only the down/stay initially is that we don’t see a reason for the average pet dog to ever need the ability to distinguish between which position he needs to maintain when we leave him. I can’t think of many real life situation where a pet dog would ever need to be left in a sit verses a down.
The sit/stay as we see it is a little more advanced skill than the scope of this book. Well-trained competitive obedience dogs, therapy dogs, service dogs, and even dogs who get an AKC canine good citizen certificate need the ability to perform a sit/stay. However, few pet dogs need this skill and if needed, the sit/stay can easily be taught once self-control is built and the down/stay is mastered. Therefore, we recommend teaching most puppies only the down/stay. Then, if families determine they need their dog to learn a sit/stay, it can be trained later.
Reason #4: Training Two Positions Simultaneously can Cause Confusion
The fourth and final reason we’ve chosen to teach the down/stay until it is solid before introducing a sit/stay is for clarity and understanding when training sessions are new to a puppy. Teaching too many things at once can create confusion which de-motivates dogs that are new to this work.
Comparison of Teaching First Teaching One Position Well Verses Teaching Two Positions at the Same Time
We’ve tried teaching the sit/stay sooner as well as later. We’ve found that later yields better and faster results. Early in our time of training young puppies, we began teaching the sit/stay much earlier in a puppy’s life. We introduced the sit/stay when the down/stay was learned but not solid. We sent home puppies as young as 10 to 11 week old puppies with knowledge of both the sit/stay and the down/stay.
However, we found that when we began limited our stay training to only the down position, self-control was built far faster and the puppies were far more dependable with staying in the one position than when asked to differentiate between when they were to remain in one position verses another.
These puppies who learned two positions early on often forgot what they were supposed to be doing. They’d go down while sitting or sit up while downing. This was especially common when the handler began increasing distance or time. When the handler delayed reinforcement, the puppy would begin wondering if the reason reinforcement wasn’t coming as quickly might be because the puppy was wrong.
Confusion causes failure and if I can minimize confusion, I can minimize failure. Therefore, we have adopted a policy of training only one aspect of all exercises at a time. This includes the two very different aspects of learning to stay in place: self-control and position.
We also carefully and methodically add new exercises to a puppy’s repertoire of learned exercises in a way that minimizes failure. This policy builds confidence, motivation, and self-control far faster than asking a dog to learn too many things at one time. Teaching the down to a point of being solid before introducing the sit/stay has proven to be the most efficient way to teach even the dog who needs to eventually know both.
When to Start Training the Down/Stay
Before getting into the specifics of training the down/stay, I want to discuss how teaching this skill fits in with teaching the other skills related to the down.
For the most part, this course has a very definite order for teaching the various behaviors. Many behaviors have other behaviors as prerequisites. However, there are times when the order that I teach is different depending on the strengths and weaknesses of a particular dog or puppy. The time-frame for introducing the down/stay is one of those times that order may vary.
We recommend that you start teaching the down/stay when the puppy offers a momentary glance of eye contact before they get up from the down. This could come at any stage of training the puppy to down. Some puppies pop up quickly after every reward when learning the mechanics of getting into a down. Others will tend to linger longer in the down position.
This momentary glance of eye contact while in the down position could happen as early as while the puppy is in the luring stage of learning the down. It most often happens when the puppy is in the pointing stage of learning the down which we’ll discuss in the next chapter. However, sometimes, for some puppies, it doesn’t happen at all without help from the trainer.
For the most part, more active puppies will tend to pop up over and over again. They don’t offer to stay down without more work from the trainer. Therefore, I work more heavily on teaching them the mechanics of getting into the down sooner. These puppies will be slower to learn to stay in the down, but quicker to learn to get in the down.
On the other hand, other puppies will offer to work on the stay portion of the exercises sooner. These puppies will find it easier to be rewarded over and over again for just staying still than to do the work of learning how to get their bodies into a down. These puppies will tend to be slower at learning the mechanics of getting into the down, but faster at learning to stay in the down.
As a trainer, it is always easier to work with whatever your puppy is offering. You’ll want to train both behaviors: getting into the down and staying there. Make it easier on the puppy and on yourself by focusing on what the puppy offers first.
Whenever your puppy starts offering eye contact while in a down, you’ll begin reinforcing staying in a down over and over for as long as your puppy will stay there. Then when he gets up, you’ll practice having your puppy get into the down again. Alternate between practicing getting down and staying down.
At some point, all puppies will learn both skills: getting into the down and staying in the down. The order you teach it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you follow the steps in order for the mechanics of getting in the down and you follow the steps in correct order for staying in the down. How you mingle the two behaviors and how they overlap with each other isn’t important.
In our next chapter, we’ll discuss two steps for training the down/stay. In actuality, you will only need to use step #2 if step #1 doesn’t work or for those puppies who develop a habit of popping back up from the down after taking their reward.
