"Wait" Versus "Stay"- What's the Difference?

Dog training lingo can vary from trainer to trainer and owner to owner. Its important that the words you use with your dog have a clear, consistent meaning and that you know what your expectation is every single time. Below we will discuss what the difference is between our "wait" command and our "stay" command and examples of when to use each.

"Wait" is a word that we will use at defined boundaries, such as a doorway, gate, or hopping in or out of the car. For the "wait" command, we do not expect the dog to sit or down,in fact I usually give the example that they can do cartwheels as long as they stay behind the boundary. If I'm walking through a door way and I say nothing, the dog is welcome to follow along. If I approached that doorway and told my pup to "wait," I'm letting them know that they aren't allowed to follow unless I later invite them with their release word (we use their name and okay for this).

"Stay" is going to be a more defined word that has an expected position for that dog to maintain. For example, if I say "Sit -Stay," the dog should hold a sit position until given their release word. If I were to say "Down - Stay," the dog should hold a down position until given their release word. A stay always has an expected position associated with the stay command.

Why can't you say "stay" at doorways?

Well, I suppose you could. However, the problem owners run into is that if they tell their pup to stay as they are leaving the house for example ... isnt the dog suppose to still be there when they get back? Or are you going to always remember to shout a release word to the dog as you slip out the doorway?

The other issue is if I am trying to get out the door with my pup, and we approach that door and I tell my pup to sit and stay, inevitably they are blocking the door from opening. If I have them in the back of the car and I go to close the car hatch and I've told them to down and stay ....inevitably their paws are right where I need to close the door. If I give a wait command, it gives them the freedom to move around without breaking the command given.

Hopefully this explaination has given some insight on what the difference is between "stay" and "wait" and when we would use each.