Does sit really mean sit?

What does the term "cue" mean?

  Cues. Have you heard dog trainers using the term "cue"? Simply put a cue is the information we give our dogs that tells them which behaviour to do in order to achieve a favourable outcome, or reward.  In traditional training the term "command" is used in place of cue.

While we are almost always aiming to have our dogs understand verbal cues such as "sit", "down", "stay", or a hand signal, our dogs actually pick up on so much more information than that. In fact, our dogs often don't pick up on the words we are saying at all.

So often our dogs look at our body language, direction, and movement to give them cues and information too.

The context and environment in which we give our cue is really important too.

If I were to stand with Bertie in front of a hurdle and then point at the hurdle and say "over", Bertie has learned to run towards the hurdle and jump over it in order to get a treat or his toy. If however, the hurdle wasn't there, and I pointed in a direction and said "over" he's not going to understand what I want him to do.  The hurdle is vital for him to understand my cue "over" means run and jump.

That might sound like a silly example, but the same happens when we teach our dogs basic things like sit or lie down. We diligently train with treats in our hand in the living room until we are sure our dogs know that the word sit, means they should sit. We then head outside and say "sit" and are surprised when our dogs look blankly back at us and don't sit! However, in the same way the hurdle is essential to Bertie understanding my verbal cue "over" means he should jump, if we only train in one location and always do the same things, such as put treats in our hands, those become part of the cue. The word sit comes to mean "sit in the living room when the human has food in their hand". If there is no living room and you have no food in your hand, your verbal cue is completely meaningless to your dog and makes as little sense as me pointing into thin air and telling Bertie "over".

So how can you teach your dog to understand your verbal cues in lots of different places.

Well first of all you need to decide which parts of the context and your behaviour you wish to be the constant cue for your dog and which parts you want to become irrelevant. For example, I taught Bertie to sit in puppy class, while I was wearing a treat bag. I only want my verbal cue "sit" and my hand signal to be the relevant cue. This means I taught him sit in lots of different locations. I taught him it with my treat bag on and my bag off. I taught him it when I had treats in my pocket and when treats were in a bowl on the table. I taught it with me facing him, and with me facing away. Sometimes I sat down, sometimes I stood up.  He learned with me wearing different clothes and with my hair in different styles. The only constant was my word "sit" or my hand signal. This way Bertie learned to discriminate which information was relevant to him doing the sitting behaviour to earn the reward.  We call this generalising.  Bertie generalised his sitting behaviour to lots of different environments and contexts.  The verbal cue and hand signal stayed constant.

​Sometimes I want the context or environment to be part of the cue.  As an example, if I am out on a walk with my dogs and I stand still I want my dogs to notice and then come towards me.  This is part of their recall cue.  The environment is out doors, the context is my dog is off lead and me standing still is the body language cue for my dogs to run towards me for a reward.  However, if I am standing still in the kitchen (cooking dinner perhaps), I don't want my dogs to come running to me, in fact it would be super inconvenient.  I have taught my dog that only in certain environments will it be favourable to them to come running to me.  This means, running to me in the park equals treats, running up to me when I am standing still to cook equals zilch rewards! 

When we think of the whole context and environment as being a relevant cue to the dog, we call this the antecedent.  

Have a think about what else might be relevant to your dog when you give them a verbal cue. Is your dog always responding to what you say, or is their other things within the environment, context or your body language that signals to your dog which behaviour they should perform to get a favourable outcome.