How And Why You Should Teach Your Dog To “Wait”

Teaching a dog to wait basically means to hold on for a second before they get access to that thing. If you wait, you can have that thing. I’ve been using this when I go to get Cypress out of the car. I ask him to wait while I harness him and then give him the “okay” so he can get out. This is important for safety so he doesn’t jump out before I’m ready.

Wait is relatively easy to teach. You generally need a leash and you’re going to be leveraging access to something. We start this off by asking for a wait and then opening the door to go outside. If the dog waits, they get to exit. If the dog starts to exit prior to the “okay,” we bring them back in and repeat over and over until they do wait. Dogs want the fastest path to the reward and once they figure out that waiting is indeed the fastest path, they start waiting.

Once you’ve introduced this you’ll likely find other scenarios to use it. And the cool thing about this is that you’re able to use the “environmental reward” which is right there in sight. Remember, we’re trying to communicate,“If you want that, you can have it, just have to wait first.”