Actually the “Stay” command is not meaningless its redundant.
For years I would listen to my dog training students tell their dogs to ‘stay’. Then when the dog would move they would say ‘stay’ again, then the dog would move they would say ‘stay’ again, and again ,and again.. Sound familiar? Unfortunately the ‘stay, stay, stay, STAY’ command is waaaay to common when attempting to train a dog to remain in one place.
So What’s the matter with saying ‘stay’ to your dog? Answer: The definition (from your dog’s perspective).
When you tell your dog to ‘stay’ and he stay’s put for a few seconds. Then he’s done what you asked, right? He’s ‘stayed’.. What’s wrong with ‘stay’ is that for most folks, and their dogs the word/command has no specific meaning. Most trainers (hint: your the trainer) have not taught their dog the definition of the term and been consistent with reinforcing the definition for a long enough time So how would the dog know what you mean?
Eliminate ‘stay’ from your training vocablulary.
What we really want is a dog to “Sit” or “Down” in one place until WE decide he can go, right? So what we really need to train is a dog that ‘sits’ and ‘downs’ UNTIL we release him. In other words ‘‘Stay” is implicit in the “Sit” or “Down” command. Training this way eliminates the confusion for both you and the dog. So you train with ONE command, Sit for example means sit in that one place UNTIL I release you. After all what’s the value in training your dog to “Sit” for 3 seconds? Isn’t it more valuable for the dog to learn to Sit until… Until you release him, or to Down until you release him? Training this way eliminates lots of confusion for both the dog and the trainer. Your dog will learn that Sit or Down means to do so until you release him.
So, eliminate your use of the “Stay” command and have “Stay” become automatic when you tell your dog to sit or to down.