WORDS, CUES, SOUNDS

Being specific and consistent about the cues, word or string of words I use to communicate with my dogs, not only streamlines their understanding of what's taking place but also alleviates frustration in OUR relationship.


Most of our social interactions I taught by luring, capturing, rewarding, reinforcing and then assigning verbal cues to specific behaviours. Those specific behaviours are now preferable to them, performed automatically for the most part, and are no longer in need of my verbal two cents worth :)


ie. Jumping up is less likely to occur now that Keegan, my Aussie, realizes that in social situations, if he keeps "four on the floor", he gets a body massage from whomever he is interacting with.

Mind you when my dogs are excited, or aroused, there are occasions  however, where it doesn't hurt to provide a verbal reminder. Some of my cues are one word, some are words strung together.  What is consistent is the way I've chosen the words and taught them.


Three things I've been taught to keep in mind when choosing a verbal cue:

1- THINK of cues as muscle movements.

Not all cues are muscle movements but for starters, most of the basic "obedience" cues are.  Before you assign a word as a cue, take a moment to visualize which body parts and muscles are involved to perform the specific behaviour. Does the word reflect the behaviour?

ie;  My cue "back" means to physically move backwards.   Whether it's "back" away from the toy, couch, person, dog, cat, bone, garbage...they understand that they need to move away from whatever is in front of them. 

I would not use the cue 'back" if they had something in their mouth and I wanted them to give it up...in that case I taught them to "give", place whatever they have in their mouth, into my hand.


2- The SOUND of the word and inflection in your voice is important!  I like to choose words that sound crisp if ACTION is required, or on the flipside, a soft and soothing sound if I'm trying to keep things CALM.   All depends.  I also take note how the dog responds to the sound.  Some sounds evoke different reactions in my dogs.  Consider their input as well.

ie. My emergency recall word is "WHOOOHOOO!!!"   I sound it as if I just won the lottery.  The sound of my voice is loud and enthusiastic and I draw the words out.   In turn my dogs respond by disengaging with whatever has their attention and come bolting towards me at mach speed.  

A dog that disengages from the interesting, fun, smelly, adventure they are enjoying; inorder to recall to me, is like winning the lottery in my mind!

On a side note, if you sound grumpy, curt or frustrated when you teach the cue (word), and reward, reinforce their decision to perform the behaviour when you use that tone of voice, you are setting yourself up for them to wait for that grumpy voice BEFORE they choose to respond accordingly.


Once I've thought of a word, sound, cue to describe the muscle movement,  the last thing I consider is to;


3-REVIEW my list of established cues to check to see if the word I've chosen sounds like any other used to describe a behaviour. 

The tricky part is to try NOT to have words sound similar for each different behaviour.

ie.  I taught my dogs to "bow" after having taught them to "down".   And I got a 'bow" half the time I asked for a "down" and vice versa :)

I then changed bow to "ta dah" and poof! No more confusion on my dog's part!  "ta dah' means bow, "down" means body to the ground.



Communication is a two way street. I'm ALWAYS watching to see what their response is to my cuing. I think it's only fair that if I'm the one asking something specific of them, that I put the time in to teach it so they are clear, and enthusiastic to oblige.