Wait or Stay? and Free

[woodybear]

Is this the same command, or different? I've taught Woody to "sit", go "down", and lie on his "bed". I would now like to work on holding these positions. He'll hold the sit the longest right now. What is the best way to teach wait or stay.

My follow-up question would be "free". If I'm teaching wait or stay, do I always need to release him from these with a command like "free"? And how long should I expect a 14 week old puppy to hold a wait or stay?

Thanks in advance for all of your helpful thoughts!

[LabDog]

Technically, you shouldn't have to say 'wait' or 'stay' when you've already given a 'sit,' 'down,' or 'bed' command. Those commands should be obeyed until you give a release command. However, I found "stay" useful when they are learning the other commands to remind them to keep doing whatever I asked them to do.

I also do use "wait" as a less formal command - when I don't need them to keep to a rigid command, but want them to not leave that area. With the wait command, they can sit, stand, sniff, etc but can't go anywhere else.

I can't remember the time frame of the stay's but I think I started with 15 seconds and increased the time gradually. By the time my boys were 5 months old, they were staying for 15 minutes with me not paying attention and doing other stuff (that was the time they had to hold a down-stay for novice obedience trial).

[nootay]

i agree. when we were first teaching sit and down. we would put them in a sit, then feed them treats every couple seconds they remained in the sit. then you just slowly extend the time between treats. this is also a good time to work on eye contact. the way dexter learned his name was when i said dexter and he made eye contact, i would give him a treat. this kind of played over in to the sit and down teachings and now when he is in a sit or down, he never breaks eye contact until i say "OK!" which is the release command we use. To teach the release command, just say "Free" or "OK" or whatever release command you want and start to walk forward. he will get it soon enough

[nootay]

sorry, didnt answer your original question about how to teach wait. we learned wait by putting dexter in a sit, kneeling in front of him, taking hold of his collar then put a treat down about 2 feet in front of him. He will squirm and fight and want to get the treat. at his point we didnt even put a verbal queue with it. The second that he stopped fighting and put his but back on the ground, we released him. Did this about 50 times over a weeks period or so until he knew what it meant. Once he got that far, we started saying wait and putting the treat in front of him. by now he wasnt squirming at all. we started at 3 seconds and gradually increased the time over a period of a week or so. we use this at home for when he is in the crate. i say wait, then open the door and he isnt allowed to come out until i say "OK!" if he tries to run out i close the door. We also use wait when preparing his food. This was the biggest test and i can get him to wait for several minutes with a food bowl full and in plain sight without him diving in.

The big thing we have been taught in puppy pre school is that you should not pair a verbal command with an action immediately. Wait until they are comfortable with what you want them to do. When first teaching something, the puppy is NOT going to do exactly what you want them to do. If you say wait when teaching wait in the beginning, he may pair the word with squirming around and fighting to get the food and will get confused with what you actually want him to do. This just makes pairing the word to the command much easier.

Hope that helps!

[Dennis Hayre]

LabDog was right on the money. A sit or wait command should be adhered to until another command is given, such as a release command like ok. or free.

Yet there are times, like when giving a bath, that stay comes in very handy.

[woodybear]

Thanks. This all makes sense. Good thing I've got you guys to help me help Woody!

[bett]

to me, stay is for a longer period of time. while wait, can be for seconds.

[ceridwen]

One thing to watch yourself on is the hand signal you use with these commands. I realized that while I was using two different words (wait, stay) to mean two slightly different things, I was using the same hand signal and confusing my dogs.

My strategy was to drop the difference between them, so my dogs just see wait and stay as both meaning the same thing: to stay where they are for a short period and particularly not to progress through a doorway without permission. I don't use a "stay" command for sit/down. They just have to stay put until released after the sit or down command.

[nmaho]

Yes we use stay for extended periods of time and wait we use for going in and out of the house so he wont bolt.

[Annette47]

I use stay when I mean "stay here in this position without moving until I come back to you". Wait means "wait here in this position until I ask you to do something else". Rest means "stay in this spot, but you can shift positions around".

The main difference between "wait" and "stay" is whether I need them to be paying close attention to me while they are holding it. With "wait" I want their eyes glued to me so they don't miss the next command, but with "stay" I don't care, as long as they aren't moving.

[Annette47]

Originally Posted by LabDog

they were staying for 15 minutes with me not paying attention and doing other stuff (that was the time they had to hold a down-stay for novice obedience trial).

The novice down-stay is only 5 minutes ... it only FEELS like 15, LOL.