Tracy’s Top 5 Behaviors to Put on Cue
I think a lot of pet parents assume the standard cues to learn when you take your dog too class are: sit, lay down, heel, and leave it. Guess what none of these make my top 5 cues. A lot of dogs I know including ours had hip or back end issues so learning generally to sit on cue, having to sit for this or that just seemed taxing and possibly causing pain so I think about what I’m trying to accomplish and teach what I think is a more relevant cue. It’s kind of the same with heel; do I need my dog friend to be glued to my side or just want them to understand sometimes we both need to stay near each other and are there other ways to achieve those ends? Lastly I generally stopped teaching leave it as most people have an inherent tendency to yank the leash when they give this cue or howler. Again I understand we may want to avoid our dog grabbing something in the street and I think of another way to approach this that doesn’t involve a yank or a raised voice.
So what’s top on my playlist?
Touch, Find It, Capturing Engagement, a Positive Interrupter, and Go To Bed or a Station. I have other favs but that’s a good starter kit in my opinion.
Touch has just so many uses and a nose-boop to hand is just one flavor. I’ve helped teach an elephant to present their hind end for a kind hip-boop which is great to position them for a medical procedure like an injection. A nose boop to your hand can line up your pooch on to the scale at the vet, easy peasy. Do you want your dog to have something else to do than jump up when a guest comes over? It’s hard to jump up when you need to boop; you can call this substituting an incompatible behavior.
Find It is a cue that tells my dog I’m about to drop some treats on the ground for them to look for. Again sooooo many uses. Say a squirrel is dashing down a tree and I’d like to avoid engaging with it so I cue Find It and toss some yummys in the opposite direction to draw my dog’s attention away. Foraging is a great chiller, ie can help bring their energy down a notch so I love allocating some of my dog’s breakfast to find its along our morning walk.
Capturing Engagement is something that some dogs do naturally; they check in with you, see your reactions, and seem to want to collaborate. Then there are other dogs who need tons of reinforcement history to engage more with you especially when you are at the other end of the leash. Whether it’s a puppy or a newly adopted dog, I like to reinforce when my pooch checks in with me from the get go to help
Another thing I like to do is reinforce the behaviors I want my dog to do more of rather than focus on saying “no”. I use a Positive Interrupter to get my dog’s attention if they are about to grab something you don’t want them to grab (vs a leave it cue) and then redirect her to do something else.
The last cue for my top 5 list is Go To Your Bed which ideally is one of their safe spaces. I use this as a spot to “flight-to” when the UPS truck comes up the drive. I use this as “home base” to wait to get equipment on and wait while we all get situated before we head out the door. It’s a spot to wait while I get dinner prepped.
Cheers, Tracy
