Using The Wait Command For Everyday Situations
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Using The Wait Command For Everyday Situations







[Introduction]

0:31 Announcer: GundogsOnline.com helping you get the most from your hunting dog.

0:39 Hi, I'm Jennifer Broome and welcome to our front porch of Quinebaug Kennels, New England's premier dog training facility. I have with me three of my own personal dogs, my family pets, my hunting dogs. Two of these dogs are master hunters. One is a youngster in training, field trial training: Treat, she's just under two years of age, Elsie, she's four years, and Valley back here, she's six years old.

1:04 So what we're doing today is we're practicing the wait command, a drill that I practice as much as I can on a daily basis. I train dogs professionally but I don't always have the time to work my own personal dogs every day. However, I work the wait command with my dogs, sit, at every door, at every opportunity that I can. Sit.

You're going to see me interrupt myself here, doing this teaching sem, here, because these dogs are excited right now. Elsie, here. Wait. And this is a drill. These dogs are wired. They were just let out. They're raring to go and by me being able to practice the wait command, it's going to give me a measure of their frame of mind, that they're in today. And they're all pretty distractable. Elsie, here.

1:50 So I'm going to say wait. Wait. Wait. And even reinforce with my e-collar as needed. I practice the wait drill at any door, going in or out of my house, in or out of the kennel, in or out of my truck, in and out of a crate. And the wait command is sort of an informal stay. It might not be as formal as the steadiness I want these dogs to have at the mat in a competition or on the whoa with Elsie. So it's my way to practice my leadership, my leadership at the door, and to practice their steadiness.

2:20 I can tell all these guys are a little excitable today so I'm going to use my repetition and my patience to get cued in with these dogs better, to release them, to go inside on their names and to come out on their names. Sit. Wait. So that they've learned over the years and day by day training and practicing, they have to respect the wait command. Wait.

I want to be able to present an open door, wait, and they want to go in. They know that there's fun things in the kennel. They want to go in. I'm their leader. I want to practice releasing them on their names. Treat. Treat. Elsie. Valley. Good. Here. Wait.

3:11 And they also like to come out and for my wait command I've taught my shorthair, my pointing dog that wait for her means that she stands and stays and my retrievers, they sit and stay. So they are respecting the stoop here. Here. Wait. They're respecting my leadership and again this allows me to practice a steadiness drill coming in and out of the door. I can release them again on their names.

Treat, sit. Elsie, whoa, wait, sit. Valley, [bark] sit. Good. Wait. And this is a drill we can practice over and over again. Treat. Treat. Treat. Kennel. Wait. [bark] Elsie. Good. Valley. Good.

4:15 So, again, with repetition, we can practice our wait command quite a bit. I want to be able to open a door, wait, and have my dogs practice my leadership, knowing htat I'm in charge each time I open a door and that I can release them on their names. And this is great practice for steadiness training later on and it also gives me quite a measure of the excitement factor of my dogs.

Right now at this moment they're pretty highly excitable, not in the greatest frame of mind to go to a competition at this moment or to even go out in the field hunting. I'd certainly want to do a couple more drills with them so they're not so, what I call, self-employed. I want them to understand my leadership and follow my leadership, not just choose to run in and out of the door because they want to. They're a little whiny right now. They're a little excited. Good time for me to practice this drill a couple dozen times.

5:08 So nice idea of practicing our wait commands at the door. Any member of your family or your household can do it. It further teaches your dogs to respect that person at the door. I think that it provides a pretty great safety factor so that when they see an open door they don't just try to charge out the door. And it certainly provides you with the environment to practice some of your wait commands, your steadiness training, on a regular basis.

Hope this helps. Good luck with your wait command.

5:37 [Closing]

6:00 Announcer: GundogsOnline.com helping you get the most from your hunting dog.

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