Hi does anyone know the best way to train a dog to 'go'  from you on command. When i let my westie off the lead i want him to only 'go' and play when i tell him - he is very good at coming back, but will just run across the park and chase a bird or play with another dog when he feels like it (not a good idea if its a nasty dog!). I read somewhere that you can train a dog to heel and look at you and get 'permission' to go play. Anyone got any advice? thanks

teach him to 'wait' I use my finger point at  him and say wait , you could teach it by putting him in the sit  and say wait as you would teach any other command.
I use 'wait' when stopping to cross the road .

When I want to release from command I say 'go play'  you could try throwing a favorite toy I use both together with the recall .

The heel and 'watch' command are taught with eye contact you can  begin with putting dog in sit facing you then  holding a treat up near your eye as you say 'watch' or 'look at me' so that your  dog looks up at your face (the treat) the second they look at your face you treat gradually  using the look at me or watch command they automatically look up at you then move onto sitting at heel repeat as before then treat , continue this on walks comes in handy if you are passing other dogs to distract .
Eventually the word will be enough treating only occasionally.

Im training my pup just now an have so far mastered 'sit' with a hand signal. Im keen to learn 'wait' but not sure what the steps are. Do you leave her at other side of room, tell her to wait (with a signal) then once shes 'performed' do you go to her to reward her or call her to you?

Maxine788,

If you haven't done this kind of thing before then the best advice would be to enrol at a good training class, one that uses reward based methods, and you will gradually learn all the things you need to do. It is very difficult, if one is completely new to dog training, to get the commands clear from a book or forum. There are countless little tweaks that come into play, depending on you, the type of dog you have and so on. A class is what you need.

I do "wait" with the finger then "off you go"