Hot Take: You Don’t Need To Say “Stay” In Dog Training: Here’s Why Release Cues Work Instead! #310

Shaped by Dog with Susan Garrett

DogsThat

Education, Puppy, Recallers, Animalbehaviour, Dogs, Kids & Family, Pets, Dogtraining, Dogsthat, Petmanners, Susangarrett, Pets & Animals

4.8 • 679 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Visit us at shapedbydog.com

Hot Take: You don’t need to say “stay” in dog training! I’m sharing how clear release cues give dogs greater clarity and confidence. I’ll take you through how I introduce this concept early with my puppies, how Crate Games helps build a strong foundation, and what it all looks like in everyday training, including when working with more than one dog. When our dogs truly understand what’s expected, they gain confidence and confident dogs make brilliant choices.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why I don’t use the word “stay” and what inspired this episode.
• How cues get eroded over time.
• What “controlled behaviors” mean for dogs.
• How I introduce the release word to my puppy.
• What my dogs’ cues are for leaving position (and why they don’t need “stay”).
• Why I never use “sit” to stop my dogs at the door.
• Why I teach “go chill” separately from control positions.
• Step-by-step training for clarity when working with two dogs.
• The difference between outdated “stay” training and modern-day release cues.
• Why Crate Games builds impulse control and clarity from the start.
• How release cues help build reliability and understanding.

Crate Games
Get Crate Games Online - https://get.crategames.com/

Resources:

1. Podcast Episode 52: The Five Most Common Words in Dog Training and Which Ones I Never Use - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/52/
2. Podcast Episode 155: 10 Ways To Teach A Sit WITHOUT A Food Lure! Unreal Results For Puppies And Dogs Of All Ages - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/155/
3. Podcast Episode 151: How Location Specific Reinforcement Markers Will Improve Your Dog Training! - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/151/
4. Podcast Episode 266: Hot Zone And Stays – How One Dog Training Nuance Can Fix Anxiety And Duration - https://dogsthat.com/podcast/266/
5. YouTube Video: Target Training for Dogs with Susan Garrett - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLphRRSxcMHy3ylCyQ2bJQSCwo_ERiVHj3
6. Watch this Episode of Shaped by Dog on YouTube - https://youtu.be/C8BaOL7LB4Q

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Earlier this week, I was on a live stream and got more than one person upset when I suggested
0:06.5	that when you ask your dog to sit, you do not require the use of the word stay afterwards.
0:14.8	And that created a lot of questioning, a lot of commenting, a lot of confused people.
0:20.5	So I thought, time to do a podcast
0:22.7	about why the use of the word stay is redundant at best and possibly confusing to your dog.
0:47.2	Hi, I'm Susan Garrett. Welcome to Shape by Dog. Think about the words that we use with our dogs. We want them to be cues that have meaning for the dog. And so, in order for those cues to have impactful, long-lasting meaning,
0:58.0	we have to be consistent as people. And that's when it gets a little bit dicey. Because how many
1:05.3	times have you asked your dog to sit, but if they laid down and said, you didn't really care?
1:10.4	So, that's how
1:11.9	cues in general just get eroded. When you repeat a cue, like the dog, you ask them to sit and
1:19.2	if you use the word stay, I find especially in sports like dog agility, the word stay is used
1:25.2	and repeated and used with a great deal of passion for those dogs who are
1:30.6	highly unlikely to stay. So what does that mean? The meaning of the word stay, which is just an extension
1:38.2	of what you want the dog to do, which is really sit, has been eroded. So the sit got eroded.
1:43.2	So then we add the stay and now the stay has got eroded. So, the sit got eroded. So then we add the stay and now the stay
1:45.4	has got eroded. So what do I mean by this? Let's just talk about the word sit. When you ask
1:51.0	your dog to sit, is there a time limit? Like, is it okay when you ask your dog to sit if they just
1:57.7	touch their butt to the ground and then pop right back up again and start wagging their
2:01.2	tail and say, where's my treat? Probably not, right? You want your dog to sit and maybe you're
2:07.4	just going to give them a cookie. Maybe you're going to give them two cookies. So then when is,
2:12.3	does a sit become a stay? And if it's not automatically a stay, that means that they can leave any time
2:19.1	when you say sit if you don't say stay. Do you see how confusing this can be for a dog?
	...

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