Also commonly known as “stay”. No matter which word you use: wait, stay, platz, freeze, spaghetti, it should stand for: don’t start moving—for a moment or for longer—and also stop moving and wait till I catch up.
People typically make their dog wait before they release him to the daily ration in the food bowl, but most don’t expand on that. Funny, it’s exactly the food bowl when I don’t ask my dog to be particularly patient because the basics of life have no strings attached. But I use wait in an array of other situations. It is one of my bedrock cues.
Imagine you could request your dog to be still in body while you hide a toy, before you throw the ball, when you prepare dinner, while you work with or give affection to another dog or person or tend to your baby.
Before your dog exits your home or car—an open door should never be the cue for that; your release signal should be.
Wait can tell your dog to hold on a moment when aunt Marcia visits so she can take her coat off and, if you live in Canada, her shoes too.
Wait gives your dog a job when he’s in the car and ready to bark at a dog he sees out the window. It also pauses him to let a car, cyclist, skateboarder, fly by.
Wait when you approach an intersection allows your dog to be on a longer leash and walk ahead of you.
Imagine if in an emergency, for example a friendly kitty coming toward you on a walk, you could place your dog and deal with the problem yourself.
Shall I say dog friendly patio?
In short, how useful is it be to be able to stop your dog from moving anywhere, anytime, for a 2-3 minutes at least, even with you walking 8-10 feet away? Whopping great.
Taught properly, wait is not only über-useful, but also enriching for your dog. Far from it being a passive activity, wait is focused effort, work, a task—mental stimulation.
Before we get to the how-to, wait is irrelevant of the position. So it’s not sit and wait. Just wait: be patient, hold on, don’t move, is the sole criterium. I am not a micromanager—every dog should have autonomy to choose which position is most comfortable for him at the moment: lie, stand, and also sit if he authentically likes that.
Unlike “leave”, my other foundation cue, I don’t lump wait when I teach it. I dissect it; isolate duration, different contexts, distraction, and distance, in that order, and work on each separately. Only when one is reliable, I add the next, and when I do I make the previous one(s) easier. In the end, all the pieces are put together. Here is how it goes.
Starting in your home, equip yourself with a handful of treats and stand in front of your dog. Tell him with a drawn-out, normal-toned voice to wait—to stay where he’s at. Leaning your body a little forward—not looming over him and no finger pointing—makes your body and word congruent and clearer for your dog what you want. If he doesn’t move, if only for a second or two, reinforce and inform him right away with another “wait” that you don’t want him to move yet. With the treat you tell him that he’s done a great job not moving; with the repetition of your signal word you tell him that you want him to do it a bit longer. That way your treat is never a release cue.
In the beginning reinforce after a few seconds, repeat 3-5 times, then end the session when your dog still wants to continue. If you have a super-impatient pooch, holding a treat in front of his nose to keep him stationary is allowed, but try to fade the lure quickly.
Gradually, with some dogs a second at a time, increase duration, building up to 2 minutes. (Later one you can increase duration to however long you want, but I don’t go past 15-20 minutes).
Pay attention to your dog. If he shifts his body he might be about to self-release. Catch him before he does, reinforce generously, ask him to wait for a few more moments, then release him with an “all-done” to do what he wants (in other contexts your release signal is specific: “go now” at the door, “get it” to chase or fetch the ball, “cross” to cross the road, “keep going” to move on, “say hello” to greet, and so on. Taught initially with treats, I rarely use food, but life rewards, once my dog knows the signal). If you misjudged and your dog does self-release, bring him back to that spot. Calmly. Act normal, breathe, and try again. It’s about learning, not correcting. If your dog self-releases a lot, you’ve raised the criteria too quickly. Your mistake. Adjust.
Different contexts:
It’s a dog trait to only understand a signal/action combination the way it has been experienced. In this case, being face to face with you in a specific location. Now you want to teach your dog that wait means the same whether she is in front, by your side, behind you; whether you are standing, walking, sitting or lying on the couch; whether you look at her or shift your gaze away to talk to a family member in the room. One change at a time, and with each new one shorten the duration, to be built back in once your dog generalized the signal to a bunch of contexts.
Distractions:
One new stimulus at a time, increasing difficulty incrementally. For example, if you teach your dog to wait when you open the door, start with you holding the door handle, then opening it a smidgen, then a little more, and so on. Once the door is wide open and your dog still won’t move, coordinate with your friendly neighbor a pass-by, then with a dog, then your helper talking to you or your dog.
Practice in the yard, the sidewalk in front of your home, a block away, the street corner, a playground. The mall parking lot before the mall opens and no one is there, then add people and dogs from afar, gradually getting closer to where the action is. From dogs who are controlled on the leash to the dog park.
Proceed to the next level only when the present one is solid, and be aware that when animation increases the degree of distraction does accordingly, so decrease distance and shorten duration between reinforcement and reminder. When your dog has mastered that, prolong the duration again and shorten the distance, one at a time.
Be patient. If your dog can only manage a wait 30 feet away when you talk with a neighbor (more like yelling in that case) reinforce that. Tomorrow it will be 25, then 20, until he relaxingly waits till you’re done chatting with a person next to you. Wouldn’t that be nice? Imagine that.
When all of this is in place; when your dog won’t move no matter what for a couple of minutes, begin to increase the distance between you and your dog. Distractions before distance because I want my dog to experience that not moving is safe to do, and being right next to him for support does that. From the dog’s point of view adding distance is essentially leaving him and that can be scary so, again, proceed in small increments: one step, with some dogs even just leaning back, then two when your dog feels safe with one, and so on. Begin in the house and with facing him. Once you can back up about 10 feet, slightly turn your body as you walk away, then a bit more, until you can walk away with your back turned. At this point, also vary your speed so that, in the end, you could run if you had to deal with an oncoming problem, like a loose dog or feral child.
Important: “wait” should mean for your dog that you always return. Reinforce what it is you are practicing: not moving. It is all about clarity. If you also want a stationary action you can call your dog out of, use a different word. In fact, dog sport people do exactly that.
Once distance is in place, 10 feet is plenty enough for the companion dog, bring duration and distraction back in the mix, one at a time, and there you have it: a solid wait. Yes, it takes time to train, but is so worth having.
A solid wait is one of three behaviors that prep your dog to be off the leash, and can be easier to comply with than returning to the boring human when called. The latter requires complete mental disengagement while wait allows your dog to stay engaged with his eyes, just not follow through with the rest of his body. Many breeds are selected to keep their attention on the environment, and a dog who is fearful also won’t be able to turn their back on that which worries them. Wait allows the dog compelled to maintain visual control to still be obedient.
Both Will and Bowie had an about 90% recall, but a 100% wait—and a 100% leave.
Will is the brown dog in the photo. Davie, the other dog, had a 100% everything I asked of her. Will was a border collie/shepherd mix, Bowie a border collie. Coincidence that they both liked waiting better than coming? Interestingly, author of the book “Dancing with Sheep Dogs”, Lorna McMasters, prefers to catch up to her border collies when their job is done instead of calling them.
One more thing!
Once your dog has a solid understanding what your signal word means = don’t move, test her when she is a foot ahead of you on a leash walk. If she halts—most dogs will—walk toward her and super reinforce. Then continue the walk with a cue like “keep going”. It is important that your dog doesn’t move until released because this will allow you to, eventually, halt her and catch up to her. For example if she bolts when off the leash because a sound scared her.
Incrementally increase the distance between you and your dog; prompt her to “wait” from farther and farther away.
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