Foundation
How to teach a dog to wait for a release word
The dog holds position through you moving and talking, and breaks the instant the word lands.
What “release word” actually means
In Proof this is a skill in its own right, because stays and waits only exist if something clearly ends them.
The stages
These steps are a draft pending review by a credentialed trainer. They describe standard positive-reinforcement marker training; the app carries the same notice on every session screen.
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Stage 1 — "Free" means move
Goal: Dog moves out of position on the release word, not before
- With the dog standing around doing nothing, say "free" and toss a treat a step away.
- Repeat until the word alone makes the dog light up and move.
- Use the same word every time, from everyone in the house. It will end every stay you ever train.
If it goes wrong
- Dog anticipates and moves before the word? You are releasing on a pattern — vary the pause so only the word predicts the toss.
- Household uses three different words? Pick one at dinner tonight. This one is a people problem.
How long does it take?
Most foundation skills reach their bar in two to four weeks of short daily sessions. Adolescence can temporarily un-stick anything, which is normal.
Proof does not put a timeline on an individual skill, and neither should anything else — the honest answer depends on the dog in front of you, how often you practise, and where you practise. What it does instead is measure: every session records how many reps landed, so progress is a number rather than a feeling.
Proving it in 3 different places
A behaviour that only works in the kitchen is situational, not trained. Release word counts as proven in Proof once it clears the bar above at the top stage in 3 genuinely different contexts:
- Indoors — the quiet room where everything works
- Garden — outdoors, but home turf
- Street — pavements, traffic, passing people
- Park — other dogs, long grass, real distraction
- Somewhere new — a place the dog has never worked before
Proof also expires. Leave a proven skill for two months without asking for it and it returns to the daily plan as a refresher, because that is what actually happens to trained behaviour.