How to Introduce a Cue; Positive Dog Training Tip

One of the biggest mistakes people make when training a dog is talking too much — here’s how to properly introduce a cue.

If you are like most dog owners, you have probably told your dog to sit, lay down, come or leave it, over and over without success.  You tell your dog to sit, they stare at you. You repeat it, blank look. You pull out a treat and say it, nothing.

Eventually most people then start to lure the dog into the sitting position and eventually the dog sits. Eureka!

But the next time you say “sit,” you get the blank look again. This is such a common dog training mistake that we decided to create a post and video showing people how to introduce a cue easily.

How to Introduce a Cue

When training a dog, we always lure them into position first. Why? Well for two reasons. First off, the dog doesnt know what the cue means because they don’t speak English.  And seconly, when we say the word “sit,” it’s out of context.

There are 4 steps to teaching a dog a cue or command word.

1. The Cue, which is the direction; like coming, sitting or laying down
2. The Action, the dog coming, sitting or layiongh down.
3. The Marker; tells the dog they did what you wanted.
4. The Reward; a pet, treat or attention.

But when we are teaching a dog a cue, we do the first step last because they dont know what the word means by itself. They need context. That’s where the marker word comes in. It helps the dog understand what you want by putting the action into context.

Dog Training Tip – How to Introduce a Cue

Instead of saying the word over and over with no meaning, this process helps your dog understand what you want by creating clear communication.

We recommend your cue words are single words, the shorter the better. And stick with one version of the word. Come instead of come, come here, come-here, here girl, etc. We often speak to our dogs as if they speak English. But in reality, dogs only understand a limited number of words.

So make a list of all the command cue words you think your dog knows. Say the word without moving. If they do the action, they understand. If they dont, follow these steps to develop a rock solid response to your cues!