The power of Stay

Things we should train for but don't for fear of the service dog community, otherwise known as "Why I included both an out of sight stay and a 30 foot down stay on my newest public access test."

Recently I've been revamping my public access test. I don't formally take clients for training at the moment, and unless something in my health improves I likely won't for the foreseeable future. That said I still will volunteer my time to do public access tests for friends and local service dog people, and when I'm done revamping my public access test to be better in line with my own training goals with service dogs I'll put it back online publicly for other people to use.

All of this is a prequel to what started out as an innocent video of my own service dog and a friend's service dog doing a 10 foot in sight, 3 minute stay in a very public and very busy place that started a witch hunt. Why this started a witch hunt I will never know, except that many times we in the service dog community try to protect newbie handlers from their own stupidity, or people are just jerks. Privately I'm going with that second option but that is neither here nor there.

For me personally the stay is one of the absolute most important skills my service dog will ever learn. Stay is a very generalized concept that can include 'lay down and stay still while I swipe my credit card' to the more complex 'lay behind this wall with the tech where you can't see me while a bunch of loud machines move around me'. One of these stays I will use every day, the other I may not use very often but there is a wide range of 'stay' in between the two that it is important that any service dog will need to understand.

Stay is at it's simplest form nothing more than a static position. A sit or a down is no use to a handler if their dog pops up right after doing the behavior. But I also need a 'stay here' command. stay here while I pick up a bag that is going to take two hands, stay here while I grab a pack of gum one foot away, stay here while I dig through my purse. No matter how you handle your service dog you will use a basic stay in every outing you have.


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So why then do I chose the rather controversial route and take the requirements of my public access test even farther? Because I don't train for the every day, and I don't test for the every day. I want to know that not only can my dogs, and the dogs I train, handle the every day but also can handle that day that something unusual happens.

My stay requirements in my Public Access Test now include three separate yes/no pass/fail stays that go far beyond the ADI's 6 foot held leash stay. I include a 30 foot dropped leash stay, an out of sight stay, and a 1 minute stay.

And honestly I don't think these are enough. I'm going to use at least two of these and more complicated stays in the course of a dogs working life. I'm going to use far more than a 1 minute stay during regular doctors appointments where my dog is going to be required to lay out of the way during exams and me moving around with people coming in and out of the room. I'm disabled, doctors appointment for Me are a regular and unpleasant part of life and if my dog can't handle them I'm just going to feel worse about the whole thing. I'm going to have to use out of sight stays many times when having x-rays, MRI's or any other procedure that I may or may not be able to have a back up handler with me to grab the leash while I do whatever. In many of these the stay is also going to add duration of up to or even over 30 minutes.

I'll admit that there is not going to be many situations (outside of the MRI/x-ray situation) that I need to be 30 feet from my dog. But there is going to be a multitude of times, and reasons that I'm going to need to drop the leash and step away from my dog for a second.  Many will claim that is because I'm a lax handler, or come up with excuses why the leash should Always be held but most of these reasons won't hold water. It's a fact of life for me that there are times when intentionally or unintentionally I'm going to drop a leash. It is vital for my dog to remain under control in All of these situations, not only in control, but also stay relaxed, calm and not concerned.

I test my stay, and practice my stay all the time. Because I need to Use my stay.

Stay isn't the only thing I do differently. I have a bunch of commands on my public access test that I include that other public access tests do not include because I and every handler I know Use ease of handling commands or if they don't, could if they had them.

I don't think a public access test should test the minimal skill required of my dog on their best day. I think it should test their skills and their mettle under the worst life can throw at them because that is the day that I'm going to need their training the most. And let's face it. Most handlers aren't also trainers, so before I hand off a dog as trained I want to make sure it is trained to as high a level as I can mange so even if skills slip that dog will still be functional, safe and professional in public.

Just my honest opinion. Plus it opens you up to a world of epic photo opportunities. Cheers, and happy staying from Loki and I.