Are we not often guilty of repeating certain cues, commands or words with our dogs? For example, we ask our pup for a sit and we often say: “sit, sit, sit, sit, sit” until he or she gives us a sit. While this is such a common issue, and a very hard habit to break, this behaviour can often cause confusion in dogs or pups and frustration in both dog and owner.
Often we see, as a result, that the dog won’t give the behaviour, i.e. sit, on a repeated cue, as they now has learned to ignore the cue. Always remember, dogs can often confuse with verbal cues, i.e. if your pup is in a sit, and you repeating the word “down” a number of times, the dog may think he needs to sit, not to down, as this confuse him. The cue then becomes unreliable, and you get unreliable results.
So, how do we get reliable results?
We start off, for example, we use the cue or word “sit” once his or her bum hits the ground, and built on that. Once the cue is settled in his/her mind, if the dog does not give you a sit immediately after you asked for a sit, wait a bit, and ask him or her later again, instead of repeating the word.
If your dog is already ignoring you on your repeated word, change the word. For example, if the dog is ignoring you on the cue ‘down’, change the word, and stick with it.
Remember, dogs usually understands bodily cues, i.e. showing the cue of sit, better than verbal cues. Often hand signals are more reliant than verbal cues.
Hope you enjoyed this article.