Teaching a dog to “Stand” is a helpful command when placing a vest on your dog, trimming your dog’s nails or when your dog needs to visit the dog groomer or examined by a veterinarian. To start, train your dog to go to “place”. Â When the dog understands to sit on a place board, it makes teaching the “Stand” easier as the dog will learn to pop it’s hips up into a stand position instead of stepping forward. Being on “place” prevents the dog from stepping forward. In short, it is a fancier way to teach the dog to stand as well as more clear understanding to the dog.
Once the dog understands “place”, there are two ways to teach the stand.  One way is to shape the new behavior by waiting for your  dog to stand and then click and treat or using a verbal marker word such as “good” and treat.  Then cue the sit and wait for the dog again to stand and click and treat as before.  After enough repetition, your dog will learn that standing results in rewards and will repeat the stand more frequently. Just as your dog starts to stand, name it by saying “stand” and then click and treat as before. Later, cue the stand before the dog starts to stand and mark/reward as before.
A second way to train the stand is by luring. Â With your dog in a sit position, lure your dog to reach forward for a treat. Â Since he understands not to step off the place board, he will stand by popping his hips upward to reach further for the treat. Â Click and reward as mentioned above and later cue it with the word “stand”.
Once your dog understands the word “stand” proof the behavior away from the place board with your dog sitting on the floor. The finished skill can then be proofed in the environments that you want your dog to perform the stand command. Â In the below video, Kelsey uses the lure method to teach Winnie, a Service Dog in Training, to stand during a dog training class at Michigan Dog Training in Plymouth, Michigan.
