Standard Obedience Cues
As you’re using the tools mentioned in the topic before, you can use these to teach cues and make your job easier. Helping to teach a dog one or two simple cues in the routine of your daily interaction with the dog will benefit both you and the dog. This is really a win-win situation for both of you. You can teach them to sit at the doors. You can teach them to wait and not rush out. You can teach them not to jump on you. You can encourage self-control. Basically, you can help to shift all of their energy when they’re really, really excited into something that’s a little more constructive.
Important cues that should be used everyday are…
- Come
- Off
- Leave it
- Wait
- Okay
Here is the Standard Obedience Cues list with description that we use at K9 Club.
Using obedience cues is one of the greatest tools that we have as a leader working with our dogs. Obedience cues really reinforce the training that most dogs already had and help establish our leadership when they visit us in the center. Get in the habit of saying the dog’s name and then giving the cue. When they respond, give them something they will like. You can just pet them or if you have a treat, give them a little treat, give them a toy, open the door. Using obedience cues does take practice and it takes time for the dog to respond when they are distracted. But if you’re consistent, such as good leaders should be, you’ll soon have dogs that are willing to follow your leadership.
In the video are some examples of obedience cues we use and how to effectively execute them.
Keeping Cues Strong
It’s important to remember to be consistent and practice throughout the day in order to keep your cues strong. As mentioned before, consistency is one of the qualities of a leader. You want to make sure that you’re being consistent with the dogs and reinforcing the behaviors that you want to see in your facility.
Another thing to remember is to use single words when you cue the dog. Just as we know that a “bee” is a flying insect, if you say “bee bee”, which is the same word said twice, we know that that’s a pellet and a little gun. Dogs can learn the same way. They can learn that “sit” means to put the rear end on the ground or they can learn that “sit, sit” or perhaps “sit, sit, sit” means the same thing. So you want to avoid repeating your cues. It’s easy to repeat words (it’s just what humans do). Just think of when you go to a foreign country. If you say something the residents of the foreign country don’t understand, the human tendency is to repeat the same things just louder. That’s rarely helpful for humans and it’s also rarely helpful with dogs.
Praise, Praise, Praise!
You also want to remember to reward every response from the dog. Don’t skimp on this. You can’t over-reward. A dog works for those who reward him, it’s just that simple. Praising reinforces good behavior. The rewards don’t have to be treats. Remember back to the tools – rewards are anything the dog likes. So it can be food, it can be toys, it can be praise, etc. Whatever the dog likes you can use that as a reward.