Wait, a short pause at the door before going through

How to teach a dog to wait starts at a closed door. Open it a crack. If your dog moves toward the gap, close the door gently, and if it holds still, pay on the inside. Open a little wider each round, then say your release word and walk through together. Wait is a pause that ends in moving forward.

How is wait different from stay?

Wait is a pause with a destination. Your dog holds for a moment, and then you both move through the door, up the stairs or past a gate. A stay is a hold in one place until you return to it, and it can go on much longer.

That difference decides how you teach each one. Stay is built by stretching the hold. Wait is built around a threshold, and the threshold itself does the teaching. The door opens when your dog is still and shuts when it surges ahead. The rule shows itself in what the door does.

Because wait ends in moving, your release word carries a lot of weight. One short word, used the same way each time, is all you need, and the stay guide covers choosing it.

How do you use the door itself to teach wait?

Start with your dog on your side of a door you use daily, with treats in your pocket. Stand close, with no leash or with a slack one.

1. Put a hand on the handle. If your dog stays beside you, pay low at its side.
2. Open the door a crack. If your dog holds still, pay. If it leans toward the gap, ease the door closed and let that be the answer.
3. Open it a little wider after each still moment, and pay each time your dog holds.
4. When the door is open all the way and your dog is still, say your release word and go through together.

The door never closes against your dog. Keep your hand on it, swing it slowly, and stop before it touches a nose or a paw. Only the gap shrinks. If your dog slips forward, close it to the width that was working and begin again.

Let the rounds be dull. Dull and repeatable beats exciting, because the door becomes the same quiet answer each time.

Where should the treat go during a wait?

On the inside, low, behind the threshold, and never tossed outside. Bring the piece to your dog where it stands, in the spot it just held.

The training treat guide makes the case for paying where the dog holds still, and a doorway is a clear place to do it. If you toss the treat through the door, the wait turns into a race to the other side, which turns the lesson upside down.

Small pieces make the pay quick, so the next round can start right away. The cheddar bites come that way: small to begin with and easy to snap down, as our listing tells it, and meant as a treat, not a complete diet.

Where else can you practice wait?

Anywhere with a threshold. A baby gate works as a small door. The top of the stairs is another, and so is a gate at the end of a path. Use the same rule: it opens for stillness and closes for forward motion.

A car door deserves its own turn. A hatchback lifts like a garage door, so the same rule applies as at the house: lift it slowly, stop if your dog moves, pay inside, low, and say the release word before your dog hops out.

Pausing before stepping off a mat or out of the car also ties into place, where your dog goes to a spot and stays put until released. Wait covers what happens at the edge of that spot.

Skip the crate door here. Crate training has its own steps, and wait should stay a door you open and walk through together.