The sit/stay is a command that sounds exactly like what it is. You ask your dog to sit and stay. Hamish knows this verbally by those voiced command words and he also recognizes that by silent hand signals. His sit is a waggle of my index finger and stay is a vertically outstretched hand. Leave it is one of the finest commands you can teach your dog. Don’t sniff or approach or put it in your mouth is basically what that means for your dog! For Hamish who LOVED to pick up his leash as a pup, leave it was a vital part of dropping the leash. Your dog may not need the leave it here, but sweet Hamish did. And finally, the command wait. Which lets Hamish know he’s going to be in sit/stay for a longer while. I know other dog owners who don’t use wait and they just are comfortable with sit/stay until the dog is released from that command. But for me, I like to give my dog an idea of how long that will be. He seems to relax more and me too. I like knowing about how long I might be waiting for anything so I passed that on to working with Hamish. And thus, the wait command was born! I found that using wait really fostered and deepened my trust from and with Hamish if having him in sit/stay was going to awhile. The command word wait I pronounce in a drawn out fashion and I use a deeper register tone in my voice along with the use of the same outstretched hand signal as stay but with movement just once from the arm in a gentle pushing forward motion . Try that out and see how that might work for you and your dog too.

Enjoy the pictures of Hamish in his “drop the leash” pose. Such a good boy and a pleasure to take along out in the public!

Happy training!

Jennifer & Hamish