Wait
Good things come to those who wait.
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Wait is one of the most important things you can teach your dog. Wait requires your dog to focus on you for the release rather than simply acting on instinct.
The benifits of teaching your dog to wait:
- It makes daily tasks more manageable and makes life less chaotic.
- It teaches your dog patience and impulse control.
- It helps increase your value since the dog understands that you decide when they go in and out of the doors.
- It keeps you and your dog safe when getting out of the house or the car. You can now open your doors wide in peace.
- It helps your dog enter new areas in a calmer way giving you and your dog more control over situations and how both of you react.
How to train the behaviour:
Conditioning the word: (what is a wait)
- Choose a doorway inside your house or a step or visual barrier of some sort.
- Put your dog on a lead
- Walk to the edge of the barrier and in a calm but firm voice say WAIT then stop the dog from going further.
- Reward the dog for stopping with you repeat the word WAIT and move one step forward while holding your leash hand back so the dog cant go forward with you. Reward the dog for staying in place and then go back to your dog and use your release word (lets go, free, come etc)
- Practice this multiple times then move to an area with a closed door and repeat, this time opening the door in step 4.
Adding Value: (Why wait)
Once your dog understands the concept of the WAIT command use it throughout the house asking your dog to wait before jumping on the bed or the couch, before they eat their food, when you put their harness on before they leave the front door for a walk and before they get out of the car.
This teaches your dog Good things come to those who wait.
In the beginning reward with food but as the behaviour becomes more fluent you can phase out the food and the release word becomes the reward.
Build fluency: (Setting up for the real world)
Add more distance between you and the dog during the wait.
Ask your dog to wait and go around the wall where they can't see you.
Use wait when outside during your walks, by simply asking for a wait at a random time, and rewarding the behaviour.
Use the wait command before the dog goes up to meet the other dog that they are already friends with (Do Not use it with unknown dogs)
Here is how some other great trainers around the world teach the behaviour.
More resources
Whole Dog Journel ,