Commands, Cues, Signals
By Scotty Valadao (Animal Behaviour Consultant (Canine) (ABC of SA™)
When you give a pup or dog an instruction, it can be termed any of the above. I personally prefer the word Cue, as to me it means I am giving am giving the dog an indication or prompt for the behaviour I require. I do not resonate with the word command, as I feel it implies that I am forcing my dog to do something rather than having the dog work with/for me. This is all a matter of personal choice and for example, I prefer to make use of the word signal, for when I am using my body to indicate to the pup/dog what I want.
What is very important is that the cue you do give must always be the same. The importance of consistency cannot be overlooked. By giving each behaviour requested (e.g. sit, down, here) a different name, and sticking to this, we are giving the pup/dog a clear indication of what we expect. We need to bear in mind that not only must the owner be consistent, but that every member of the family uses the same cues as well.
The better you are at associating the same cue with the same behaviour, the quicker a pup/dog will learn.
What is very important is that the cue you do give must always be the same. The importance of consistency cannot be overlooked. By giving each behaviour requested (e.g. sit, down, here) a different name, and sticking to this, we are giving the pup/dog a clear indication of what we expect. We need to bear in mind that not only must the owner be consistent, but that every member of the family uses the same cues as well.
The better you are at associating the same cue with the same behaviour, the quicker a pup/dog will learn.
The main things to remember about Cues:-
- Use clear signals
- Always be consistent and use the same cue every single time in every single situation.
- Use simple cues that are both easy for you to remember and also for the dog to understand. An example of this is that the owner requests a ‘sit’ from the pup. They do not say ‘will you sit down now please’. This sounds so simplistic, but you cannot believe the amount of people who do this!
- Remember that the above applies to ALL members of the family.
Why Cues don’t always work
This normally starts happening when an owner will repeat the verbal cue over and over again. We will call our dog to come here, nothing happens and then we repeat the process and more often than not our voices will get shriller and shriller. We are now starting another problem; our dogs just don’t want to come back to an angry owner! This can happen several times a day and in no time at all we will find that we have conditioned our dogs to ignore us.
Another reason cues don’t always work is due to inconsistency on the owner’s part. The importance of consistency cannot be overlooked. By giving each and every behaviour its own individual cue we are giving the pup/dog a clear indication of what we expect and opening up lines of excellent communication. We need to bear in mind that not only must the owner be consistent, but that every member of the family is as well. An example of confusing a dog is an instance that happens occasionally in my own home. My dog will be lying on the couch, my husband says ‘Brady down’ – the dog does not comply – why not? He is already lying down, which is my cue to get my dog to lie down. When my husband then remembers, and then say ‘Brady off’, the dog instantly complies to the request!
Two other aspects why cues don’t work is that the owner often forgets to get the dogs attention before giving a cue, and secondly, the owner may be training a new behaviour and omit to give a reward for same. I have had owners tell me that their dogs are disobedient but I would rather say that the owners have failed at their attempts to get their dogs to do what they do want, in other words, the training program has failed in some way – there was no communication.
Tone of Voice
This is an important part of training a pup or dog and needs to be considered. If I am leaning over, screaming “Fido come!” not only does my voice sound aggressive, my body language of bending over is also threatening to a dog.
By the same token, owners who plead with their dogs to perform a behaviour by saying ‘sit, Fido, please sit” etc, just become white noise to their dogs and they are seldom listened too.
Women have the most natural voice to use for dog training – it is often high pitched, softer, and could even be described as a falsetto. However, women tend to sometimes be a bit shrill, so, with an excited dog especially, it is better to lower the tone of the voice, but still keep it soft and happy.
Men, on the other hand have more problems with the tone and often tend to have the ‘bad dog’ tone of voice, which is great for when a reprimand is given, but not so great when calling the dog!
I find that with all dogs, we need to give our cues in a firm manner as well with the voice being slightly lower than usual. Dogs, as people, will listen to a much lower tone of voice and will be more likely to pay attention. Do you remember the teacher at school (we all had at least one!)) who would speak in a quiet, low voice and you had to almost strain to hear her? Well guess what, it worked with you and it works with your dogs as well!
Another problem I find with cues used with some owners is that they have a tendency to voice the cue as if it was a question ‘waaaaiiiiiittt?’ Rather use a firmer voice, a hand signal at the same time and say ‘wait’. It is a good idea to play around with different tones of voice and see for yourself which works well with your own dogs.
Signals or Visual Cues
Although dogs can discriminate between different words and can learn many, we have to remember that dogs are more likely to watch our body gestures and hand signals. If we think about it, the majority of communication between dogs is based on visual cues, so this is an area we can take advantage of to teach our dogs. We can then give our dogs signals without using our voices at all. This makes more advanced training much easier and can even save your dogs life in the event you can lift up your hand for the dog to wait, and even ‘down’, when in a dangerous situation without saying a word.
When you start training the pup, do try to give both vocal and visual cues every time. When training the sit cue, practice bending your hand and arm upwards (like a traffic officer indicating stop) just before they give the cue for sit. This way the dog will associate the hand signal with the spoken cue. When teaching the pup to lie down, put your hand and arm, with the palm facing downwards and moving the arm towards the floor just before giving the cue for down. When we ask the dog to wait, we are once again making use of the hand signal (arm bent upwards in the stop position).
Context Cues
We may not be aware but we also give our dog’s context clues without even realizing it. Take the example of my own dog Brady. If I put on either one of my two pairs of walking shoes he knows immediately that a walk is forthcoming without me having said a single word or picked up any piece of equipment I normally take with me. When we are dealing with a dog that suffers from separation anxiety, the context cues we give assume a greater importance and our behaviour of simply picking up our handbag and car keys can signal to the dog that we are on the way out the door. Owners will often say ‘but the dog knows when I am leaving’. Of course it does, the owner just gave it all the context cues necessary! The clothes we wear for different activities will be noticed by our dogs as well as what we do at different times of the day.
We can use these context cues to further train our pups in routine situations. A good example of this is you do not put on the lead until the pup sits. The pup quickly learns that the quicker it sits, the quicker you are to put on the lead and then the good times begin – a walk is forthcoming!
This article is copyrighted and remains the property of the author. Individuals are welcome to print or copy same for their own use in furthering their knowledge of dogs. However, no reproductions or alterations/variations are allowed without the express written consent of the author.
This normally starts happening when an owner will repeat the verbal cue over and over again. We will call our dog to come here, nothing happens and then we repeat the process and more often than not our voices will get shriller and shriller. We are now starting another problem; our dogs just don’t want to come back to an angry owner! This can happen several times a day and in no time at all we will find that we have conditioned our dogs to ignore us.
Another reason cues don’t always work is due to inconsistency on the owner’s part. The importance of consistency cannot be overlooked. By giving each and every behaviour its own individual cue we are giving the pup/dog a clear indication of what we expect and opening up lines of excellent communication. We need to bear in mind that not only must the owner be consistent, but that every member of the family is as well. An example of confusing a dog is an instance that happens occasionally in my own home. My dog will be lying on the couch, my husband says ‘Brady down’ – the dog does not comply – why not? He is already lying down, which is my cue to get my dog to lie down. When my husband then remembers, and then say ‘Brady off’, the dog instantly complies to the request!
Two other aspects why cues don’t work is that the owner often forgets to get the dogs attention before giving a cue, and secondly, the owner may be training a new behaviour and omit to give a reward for same. I have had owners tell me that their dogs are disobedient but I would rather say that the owners have failed at their attempts to get their dogs to do what they do want, in other words, the training program has failed in some way – there was no communication.
Tone of Voice
This is an important part of training a pup or dog and needs to be considered. If I am leaning over, screaming “Fido come!” not only does my voice sound aggressive, my body language of bending over is also threatening to a dog.
By the same token, owners who plead with their dogs to perform a behaviour by saying ‘sit, Fido, please sit” etc, just become white noise to their dogs and they are seldom listened too.
Women have the most natural voice to use for dog training – it is often high pitched, softer, and could even be described as a falsetto. However, women tend to sometimes be a bit shrill, so, with an excited dog especially, it is better to lower the tone of the voice, but still keep it soft and happy.
Men, on the other hand have more problems with the tone and often tend to have the ‘bad dog’ tone of voice, which is great for when a reprimand is given, but not so great when calling the dog!
I find that with all dogs, we need to give our cues in a firm manner as well with the voice being slightly lower than usual. Dogs, as people, will listen to a much lower tone of voice and will be more likely to pay attention. Do you remember the teacher at school (we all had at least one!)) who would speak in a quiet, low voice and you had to almost strain to hear her? Well guess what, it worked with you and it works with your dogs as well!
Another problem I find with cues used with some owners is that they have a tendency to voice the cue as if it was a question ‘waaaaiiiiiittt?’ Rather use a firmer voice, a hand signal at the same time and say ‘wait’. It is a good idea to play around with different tones of voice and see for yourself which works well with your own dogs.
Signals or Visual Cues
Although dogs can discriminate between different words and can learn many, we have to remember that dogs are more likely to watch our body gestures and hand signals. If we think about it, the majority of communication between dogs is based on visual cues, so this is an area we can take advantage of to teach our dogs. We can then give our dogs signals without using our voices at all. This makes more advanced training much easier and can even save your dogs life in the event you can lift up your hand for the dog to wait, and even ‘down’, when in a dangerous situation without saying a word.
When you start training the pup, do try to give both vocal and visual cues every time. When training the sit cue, practice bending your hand and arm upwards (like a traffic officer indicating stop) just before they give the cue for sit. This way the dog will associate the hand signal with the spoken cue. When teaching the pup to lie down, put your hand and arm, with the palm facing downwards and moving the arm towards the floor just before giving the cue for down. When we ask the dog to wait, we are once again making use of the hand signal (arm bent upwards in the stop position).
Context Cues
We may not be aware but we also give our dog’s context clues without even realizing it. Take the example of my own dog Brady. If I put on either one of my two pairs of walking shoes he knows immediately that a walk is forthcoming without me having said a single word or picked up any piece of equipment I normally take with me. When we are dealing with a dog that suffers from separation anxiety, the context cues we give assume a greater importance and our behaviour of simply picking up our handbag and car keys can signal to the dog that we are on the way out the door. Owners will often say ‘but the dog knows when I am leaving’. Of course it does, the owner just gave it all the context cues necessary! The clothes we wear for different activities will be noticed by our dogs as well as what we do at different times of the day.
We can use these context cues to further train our pups in routine situations. A good example of this is you do not put on the lead until the pup sits. The pup quickly learns that the quicker it sits, the quicker you are to put on the lead and then the good times begin – a walk is forthcoming!
This article is copyrighted and remains the property of the author. Individuals are welcome to print or copy same for their own use in furthering their knowledge of dogs. However, no reproductions or alterations/variations are allowed without the express written consent of the author.