Mona graduated from Puppy Obedience and we’re moving onto Advanced Obedience with her now. Throughout the week, we practice what we learned in class. In this clip, I’m practicing the “Wait” and “Stay” commands with Drewbert and Mona. What’s the difference, you ask? Wait: Is like a pause button. A wait is usually followed up with another command (“come!”) or a release word (“OK!” or “yes!”). You’re telling the dog “hang on a minute”, whether it’s before eating their food, or you need a second to tie your shoes, or working on recall. Stay: Is a more formal command. In a stay, my dog never leaves that position until I return to her, release her from the stay, and then we move away together. My dog should get comfortable and not break position until I return. In the video, I first tell both of them to sit, then wait, and then I walk away. Their focus is on me because they’re anticipating the next action. I used a release word and they came over for their reward. Next, I get them back into a sit. But this time I tell them to stay. I back away, and then I RETURN. As an additional move, I walk around the dogs before returning to the front and then releasing them from their stay. A lot of dogs will break position when you walk behind them or out of sight of them, so I’m really proud how quickly Mona picked it up. My only self-criticism is that my release word didn’t seem strong or clear enough for Mona, because she remained in position even after I gave them the ok. I had to call her over at the end of the video! #Drewbert #Staybert #ItsMonaTime #ToPractice #corgi
