How to Teach a Dog to Stand: Luring & Capturing Methods

Teaching your dog to stand is one of the basic yet valuable commands your dog should master. It’s beneficial when you need to keep your dog standing on all four paws without moving during a vet visit or a grooming session. It’s also one of the fundamental commands for further obedience training.

Do you want to know more about how to teach your dog to stand? Let’s explore the effective methods of teaching the command and learn how to avoid common pitfalls in the process.

How to Teach Your Dog to Stand: Lure vs Capture

When you consider training your dog to stand on cue, you can choose between two training methods: luring and capturing. Each has specific advantages and challenges, which we will discuss below.

Lure the Behavior

One of the most popular training approaches is luring. The idea is to use a treat or any other reward to encourage a desirable behavior. For example, to train a dog to stand, you hold a treat in front of their nose and pull it forward until your dog stands up to catch a reward.

Luring is usually the easiest and most effective method of teaching a dog new commands. But remember that some dogs may too strongly associate the treat with behavior and refuse to follow the command unless the reward is present. If you lure your dog to stand, remove or fade the treat as soon as they grasp the command.

Capture the Behavior

How is the capturing method different? In fact, it uses another training approach that consists of noticing and rewarding the desirable dog’s behavior, which they tend to perform naturally. Suppose you want to teach a particular command. Your task is to catch the moment your dog demonstrates the behavior. Then, mark and reinforce it with a reward.

The most significant advantage of capturing is that it encourages your dog to think independently. Your training sessions aren’t formal, so you can practice everywhere. However, the method requires some patience and experience from the owner to achieve positive results.

How to Teach Your Dog to Stand Using Luring

So, you've decided to use luring as a training method to teach the stand. What should you start with? First, prepare the treats your dog likes to reward for obeying the command. You can mark the moments your dog follows the command using a clicker or the marker words “Good!” or “Yes.”

Introduce Your Dog to the Stand Command

Here are the steps to teach your dog to stand with a lure:

1. Give your dog a command to sit or lie down in front of you.

2. Stand in front of the dog, bend in their direction, and hold a treat in front of the dog’s nose.

3. When your dog stands up, mark the behavior with a clicker or say “Yes!” Then, immediately give your dog a treat while they remain in the standing position.

4. Gradually start fading the lure by guiding your dog with an empty hand. When the dog stands up, offer them a treat from your other hand.

5. When the dog consistently follows your hand signal, introduce a verbal cue: “Stand!” Say “Stand” before you guide your dog to a standing position with your hand, mark the behavior, and offer a treat.

After several repetitions, your dog should start responding to a verbal command only.

Work On Time and Distance

When you see your dog obeying the standing command regularly, you can complicate the training process by increasing the time and distance between you and your dog. These techniques are great for helping your dog learn to self-regulate and improve obedience.

To increase the distance, step back after your dog stands up and reward them for not moving in your direction. Then, keep increasing the distance until you can move a few steps away from your dog.

Simultaneously, you can add more time to the equation. You’re aiming to make your dog wait longer in the standing position until you release them. Start with pausing for a few seconds, then move to a minute or more before you offer the dog a reward.

How to Teach Your Dog to Stand Using Capturing

Capturing works best when you have to teach your dog commands that rely on behaviors they perform naturally. Standing is an excellent example of such behavior. So, how do you teach your dog to stand by capturing the behavior?

If you use this method, start marking (or clicking), praising, and rewarding your dog each time they stand up. This process requires you to focus and look out for the moment your dog stands. Though it may seem tiring, it will pay off eventually.

After you capture stands regularly, your dog will start to initiate standing to earn a reward. Pair the behavior with a verbal cue or hand signal when you see it happening.

Bottom Line

Teaching your dog to stand is helpful in various social contexts where you must keep your dog standing without moving for some time. Depending on what works best for you, you can use a luring or capturing method to train the stand command. Regardless of your chosen method, you should mark the behavior and reward your dog to reinforce it. With patience and dedication, you will teach your dog to stand on cue quickly!