‘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

Dog training hand signals akc