When your dog is able to hold this position for several seconds, you can start adding distance. You can start working this cue in at the beginning of the 'stay' as well, and introduce a hand signal (such as your hand held flat in a “stop” signal). When you have done this little game several times, start to say, “good stay,” when you praise and reward. Keep praise calm, so that your dog doesn’t get overexcited and prone to break position. Repeat several times, gradually increasing the length of time. Wait until your dog is still (or tell them 'sit' or 'down'), pause a second or two (keeping the time short to guarantee that they stay still), then calmly praise and reward. Training for both 'stay' and 'wait' starts the same. Three commonly-used release words are “okay,” “break” and “free.” Saying your release word in an excited, up-beat tone is an extra signal to your dog that they have done a good job and can move around again. “She needs to know when she’s allowed to move again!” says Basedow.

One piece that many dog owners forget when trying to teach their dogs to 'stay' or 'wait' is also to teach them a release word. I just happen to use ‘stay’ as my more robust stay command, whereas ‘wait’ is a more transient behavior.” “You can use whatever verbal cue(s) you want, as long as they make sense to you, and your dog knows what you mean by each one. “The exact words you use don’t matter,” says Basedow. This might be while I grab the mail to keep her away from the road, or at meal times if they are being a nuisance.”īy teaching your dog the two separate cues, they will know that “wait” means that they should still pay attention to what you say next, while “stay” means they can just settle in until you return. In day-to-day life, I use ‘stay’ for situations where I want it clear to my dog that she is to wait for me to come back. “At some levels of obedience trials, there are 'stay exercises' where the dog needs to hold a position (usually sit or down) while the handler walks away. “‘Stay’ means the dog should settle in and wait for me to come back to her,” says Basedow. ‘Wait’ is a temporary pause where my dog can expect a release or another command very soon,” says Basedow. At home, I use ‘wait’ so that my younger dog doesn’t knock over the senior going out the door, when I am lowering a food bowl to the floor, or when I am picking up poop. In competitions, I might use ‘wait’ for the start of an agility run where I want to get ahead of the dog a bit, or when I leave her to do a recall in obedience. “For my dogs, ‘wait’ means stay where you are temporarily and wait for further instructions. To differentiate between these situations, she uses two different verbal cues: Kate Basedow '13, L.V.T., has been training dogs and competing in a variety of dog sports for more than 20 years. Your dog is supposed to stay exactly where you left them, and they should hold that position until you return. This is usually for situations like sitting out of the way while guests enter the house, or staying while you cross the street to get the mail.

Stay: Hold a position until you return or release.

It doesn’t matter what position they are in, and they won’t need to hold that position for long.

This is usually for situations like asking the dog to stay back while you carry things through doors, or trying to open their crate door all the way before they blast out. Wait: Hold back temporarily and then releasing.We tend to use two primary variations of 'holding still' with our dogs: Because dogs don’t generalize as easily as humans do, for them to be successful, it is best to be very specific about your criteria for every verbal cue so that your dog knows what you expect of them.

Holding still and remaining in one place is an extremely useful skill for most dogs to do on command. Use different verbal cues for different behaviors

Hand signal dog training