Cues - What words should I be using?

Cues - What words should I be using?

So previously we talked about what a ‘cue’ actually is, now we are going to talk about making a cue.

When it comes to deciding the verbiage or signal you want to use for your dog start by making it easy, for you or anyone else to perform and to remember. I say this because if the cue starts to change between each person your dog will get confused. For example: if you use the word “down” as a cue for your dog to lie down but someone else uses the same word (“down”) as a cue for your dog to get off of something your dog will not know which behaviour to perform.

To make it easier on you and who ever else is working with your dog start keeping a Cue Journal. A journal that will keep track of what word and what signal you use for what behavior. This way there is no confusion between humans and dogs, everyone will be on the same track.

Now cues are best for everyone if they’re short and simple because they’re easily remembered, ie.: “sit”, “stand”, “down”, etc. HOWEVER that doesn’t mean you can’t make up some fun words that no else would think of. This is YOUR dog, there is no rule saying you can’t use the word “banana” as a cue for your dog to perform a spin.

Again, whatever cue you make up keep track of it in your journal.

What comes pretty natural for us humans with verbal cue is also a hand signal. Think of when we yell “STOP!” at someone coming toward us, we automatically (most of us) put our hand out in front of us. We are taught at a young age that a hand out in front of us with palm facing away means stop. Even a thumbs up signals to us that things are ok. Hand signals are everywhere, let’s start to teach our dogs some.

Hand signals are great if your dog is too far away to hear you, noises are too loud - like walking by an active construction site, or if you’re deaf and can’t physically use verbiage. If your dog can see you, even though they can’t hear you, they will still be able to perform the behavior you’re asking. I had a great example fo this but of course I did not record it. If you check out my Instagram here you’ll see a video of me with my dog.

Now the day before, same corner, there was construction going on - drilling into the street; Kona of course could not hear me call out her name so I had to rely on hand signals. I first got her attention, then did my cue for “watch me” and then for “wait” as I checked for cars, that whole time Kona is watching me and sees when I signal to cross the street.

What this whole post is getting at, is that cues in general are important for training your dog and to keep them safe. There are no real rules on what words to use or what hand signals/body signals to use either. This is a relationship between you and your dog, make it fun and be creative if you want.