Releasing dogs from a Wait one at a time by name is a pretty advanced Wait. We'll show you a group of five dogs who can do it.

Wait is a cue that I use a lot with my own dogs. When we have visiting dogs boarding with us, which is most of the time, it's even more important.

We use Wait at meal times, going out doors, passing through gates, sometimes on the stairs, or anyplace or anytime that we need our dogs to pause for a bit until we are ready for them to proceed.

Our walks on our property are normally off leash with our dogs. We have trails on our 13.5 acres that we walk twice a day.

Zooka and Blitzen wait when we head out the door on our walk and also when we go through the gates on our property. They are so used to doing it, that I often don't even say Wait. They just do it.

When we have visiting dogs, most of the dogs do not join us on our walks. However, we have some “regulars” who are very good off leash as well and sometimes they get to join us on our walks.

This video is from a day in October of 2022 when we had Fraser (an Aussie), Winnie (a Border Collie/Aussie) and Saxon (a mixed breed) all staying with us. I took them along on one of our daily walks. With five dogs, we really need to WAIT at the gate so everyone does not rush through and shove someone out of the way. Because that would just be downright rude!

The first walk with this crew was a little rough while everyone was getting into our routine. Wait at the door took a bit of practice because some of the kiddos (we won't name any names but it was all of the non-Vizslas) struggled with waiting to be released. Same thing the first time or two we went through the gates.

In the case of five dogs, I do NOT release them all at the same time. So everyone has to wait to be released BY NAME.

It was easiest, I found, to release in the same order every time. When I tried to mix up the order, they seemed to get a bit confused, and the one who normally went later would not release himself until I released all the others. But routine is good, so it worked really well for us to keep the order the same every time.

In the video, you see two different Waits. Both are going through the gate that goes up/down our hill.

First to be released is our Vizsla, Blitzen. He gets very worried about others brushing past or running into him (especially after someone – who always goes last now) barreled right into him on one of the earlier instances of going through the gate. So I release him first because it's safer and less stressful for him.

Second to go is our other Vizsla, Zooka. You will notice in the video that he actually is always standing at the back before he gets released. He is not pushy since he knows the rules and never tries to push his way through. But everyone lets him pass by them because he has been released and they have not.

Fraser and Saxon are the pushiest, so they go last. You will notice in the first Wait, Fraser does try to go when it's NOT his turn. You can't see me (because I am holding the camera), but I block him with my body so he cannot go through the gate. I did not tell him to Sit again, but as soon as I blocked him, he sat down again and waited.

Winnie was the third to be released.

Then Fraser.

Then Saxon.

After Fraser broke his wait and tried to go through, I could have released him last. However, since Saxon is normally the pushiest of the crew, he always goes last. The one time I did try to release him before Fraser, he refused to go until Fraser did. He learned his lesson and waits to go last each time.

Once we got a rhythm down, everyone did great and I did not have to block anyone after that time with Fraser. Once they knew the rules, they followed them with very little effort on my part.

Nice job pups!