Have You Taught a Release Cue or Cue for "All Done"?
I am always amazed how much our dogs figure out what we want them to do or not do based on what I think is pretty abysmal communication on our part. Too often we’ve taught our dog friend a new cue but haven’t taken the time to “proof” the cue which means to practice, practice, and more practice in different scenarios, with different distractions, etc (see Practice Makes Perfect: Helping Ginger Learn Meaning In Our Words).
A couple of cues that I think are helpful are a release cue and an all done cue. When your dog is in the car, I think a lot of times we assume our dog intuits that they should stay in the car until we have told them it’s ok to jump out. Maybe we’ve done a body block, or said “stay” or “wait”. The issue is – have we been clear with what “stay” or “wait” means, for example, does it mean stay put until a release cue is given? Dogs are amazing observers so they may have watched our body signals to see if they should be hanging out in the car or on a mat so in a lot of instances they may have guessed correctly what behavior you are expecting. However, this ambiguity may cause frustration for both the pet parent and the dog. A dog may see something interesting and think “I’ll just get out now to check it out” while the pet parent is thinking “Fido, you should know that you’re not allowed to jump out on your own”. This is because sometimes “Stay” means stay up until the human says otherwise, but in other instances, the human is less clear and may ask for a stay which translates to hang out for a bit but if the dog gets up and moves, it seems like it’s alright. Having taught and practiced a release cue can help clear up that ambiguity. It helps to clarify that the expectation is that your dog stays in the car, in a crate, on a mat until you give a release cue and the release cue signifies that it’s time to jump out of the car, come out of the crate, or leave a mat station, etc..
Some people use “Ok” or “Free” for release cues.
The other helpful cue is “All Done” which tells our dog, Boon, for example, that our session of Find Its is over otherwise she will look expectedly that I’ll toss more Find Its and more and more and more lol. That’s cute, less cute is her barking with frustration and asking me to toss more. Some people figure that the dog will eventually stop, but I’d argue that just letting them go on and on like that is frustrating and maybe the trust account with your dog will take a hit. I’m often not in the room while Boon is having her meal foraging through recyclables especially as this can take at least 20 minutes if not longer. Boon will bark to let me know she’s finished and I think her way of asking if there is any more toilet rolls or cracker boxes coming her way. I might have something else to give her but if not I give her the hand signal (I kind of wring open hands) and verbal cue “All Done” and she understands that the session has come to an end and she doesn’t bark further. It’s important to be consistent, if I cue “All Done” then I shouldn’t change my mind and give her something else – that would be a mixed message, right? By being consistent with my communication cues, Boon understands “All Done” truly means all done and there is less frustration for her.
Our dogs don’t know a multitude of cues, but teaching ones that help our lives go more smoothly for all of us, and cause less frustration are priorities for me.
Cheers,
Tracy
