Question about teaching the Stay/Wait command

I've been practising the 'Wait' command with Dexter a lot in and around the home and garden, so now we've started working on it at the park.

My query is: when he is in the 'wait', does it matter if his attention is fully on me or not? Quite often, he will 'wait', and does not move until I release him - but he is looking around at the park and other people and dogs etc.

Does it matter? Or does his full attention need to be on me while he is in the 'wait'?

I try to only practise this command with him when it's quiet at the park, but it's impossible to have a zero level of distraction there.....

Any guidance will be very welcome, thank you

I don't expect mine to have their attention on me in a wait, so long as they aren't flinching to move. I just watch their body language a lot to catch them before they break it.

Many thanks I do pretty much the same so looks like I'm on the right path Thanks again

I am afraid I do not know as I only ask my dogs to sit, stand or down........................

It depends on the context what I want them to do.

In WT competitions my dogs cannot watch me as I am out of sight for 2 or 10 minutes.

In Schutzhund competitions they have to pay attention to me when the positions are "on the move" and in the long down.

If I am doing a "domestic" sit/down they can view the surroundings, but they generally have their eye on me.......

"Wait" was one of the first commands I taught my two when they were puppies.

At just over two years old they now do it instinctively ... if I stop, say, to put on my gloves ... they automatically wait and won't move again until I tell them to "walk".

Neither of them looks at me ... they'll both stand quietly looking in the direction we are going.

I was taught that Stay is if you are coming back to your dog and Wait is if you are going to request another action afterwards.
Since life isn`t that simple, I tend to use Wait for most things. Unless it`s a timed Stay.
I teach Stay or Wait with one pace away from the dog till it`s solid in all circumstances first. Then you don`t get the creep!

it really depends what you want, neither is wrong or right

For agility start line I prefer them looking at me - basically because I want focus, we are working together, and also it is more likely for a dog to break his stay if you are walking away, they look somewhere else then look back and you are further away than they expected then they are tempted to run to you
Even tho Mias start line is pretty rock solid if she is fixated on something else then chances are when I release her then she is going there rather than where I want her to go

If you want 100% focus then you just train for it - if you are clickering then keep clicking and rewarding for eye contact in the correct position - go back to LOTS of click reward - like eyes lock, click, eyes lock, click, hold eye conact for milisec, click, slightly longer, click, milisec, click, longer ......

Like SB I dont teach a stay or a wait command - sit/down/whatever to me should mean 'do that thing till I give you something else to do'
and I know its different to what many people use but I also dont have them release on anything other than the release word - when I click and reward that dosent mean the stay is broken, they keep on staying till released