Why are cues important?

Cues are important because they are how we achieve interspecies communication. Even between members of the same species, we are always signaling and responding to signals, or cues, from one another. Even as a verbally oriented species, us humans use a great deal of body language signals to communicate to one another how we are feeling. These aren't necessarily things we were taught to do in a cerebral sense, but are learned behavioral responses that we acquired through genetics, learning history, cultural input and more. Cues are happening around us all the time, and we are responding to them, often without much thought.

Six Types of Cues

Auditory

Human Example: Alarm going off in the morning is your cue to wake up.

Dog Example 1: The words "come" can be a cue to run to their guardian

Dog Example 2: Clapping your hands, could be a cue to spin in a circle (if you wanted it to!)

Visual

Human Example: A stop sign is a visual cue to stop your car.

Dog Example 1: Gesturing your hand palm up towards the sky could be a cue to sit.

Dog Example 2: A flashing light could be a cue to a deaf dog to come to her guardian.

Scent

Human Example: The smell of burning might be a cue to return to the kitchen or call for takeout.

Dog Example 1: The smell of burning might be a cue for your dog to run out the doggy door to avoid the sound of the smoke alarm.

Dog Example 2: Many dogs are trained to "alert" to all sorts of smells ranging from drug detection, seizure alert, bed bug detection, sewer leak detection and more.

Tactile

Human Example: A tap on your shoulder is a cue to look in the direction from which you were tapped.

Dog Example 1: Poking your dog to get their attention might be a cue for them to try to avoid you (because that's annoying!)

Dog Example 2: When I sweep my hand over my dogs shoulder it is a cue for her to "orbit" around me

How to add a cue

Adding a cue to a behavior is only something we want to do when we really like how the dog responds to the behavior, meaning the cue should only be added when we consider the behavior "complete". This is because whatever the dog is doing when you add the verbal cue, is what they will do when you say it. So if your dog doesn't know how to sit yet, then saying sit is pointless.

In the beginning we only want the dog focusing on the marker word, or clicker, which communicates to them when they have done the behavior correctly. The clicker is a cue that whatever they were doing when they heard is, is the behavior they should repeat in the future.

When adding the cue

Timing of the cue is important. You want to be willing to bet $100 that the dog will volunteer the behavior before you start adding the cue.

First build a "loopy behavior" aka a "habit loop"

MIT researchers discovered a simple neurological loop at the core of every habit, a loop that consists of three parts: A cue, a routine and a reward. The purpose of this research was to help us better understand where habits come from so that we might break them, but this neurological loop is something we intentionally build and capitalize on when training dogs.

This blog by Mary Hunter does a great job breaking down what a “loopy behavior” in dog training is and how to build it. She says…

“Behaviors and training happens as a LOOP, rather than as a single instance in time. Also, although we might be thinking only of the cue we’re giving and the behavior we want to reinforce, there’s actually a lot more behavior going on! The goal in training is to create clean loops.

A clean loop will have the following features:

No unwanted behaviors in the loop
Animal performs all elements smoothly
Behaviors in the loop are performed with no hesitation

The framework of loopy training emphasizes that all elements in a loop need to be clean, both before and after the click.”

Here is how it works:

First build a simple routine into the training of the new behavior.

A simple example is creating a simple chain of events such as...

Dog sits --> Toss treat away --> Dog returns and offers sit --> So that you toss another treat.

This chain of events will quickly become habit for the dog because it ends in predictable reinforcement, but it’s important that it be a clean and smooth loop before adding the cue.

The rule of fives

Generally speaking, if the dog can perform the behavior five times in a row with ease then you can begin the process of adding a cue. This is how you would do that, starting with taking a look at building that loopy behavior sequence.

Once consistent you will then start to offer the cue when the dog is outside of the behavior loop. You can do this by requesting another known behavior to break up the chain of events, and then layer in the new cue to see if the dog still responds correctly.

Hand signal cues vs. Verbal cues

Because dogs are masters of studying and communicating with body language they will often pick up on visual, hand signal cues much more easily then verbal cues. This is especially true when using luring to teach a new behavior. When using luring it is first essential to fade the lure (treat) out of your hand as soon as possible. If the dog can follow the lure five times in a row, into the desired position, it is time to fade out the lure and turn the motion you were making into a hand signal.

Once the dog is easily following the hand signal into position, you can then begin adding a verbal cue. This is known as a cue transfer, and when we perform a cue transfer it is absolutely essential that we add the new cue first, pause and then layer in the old cue. This is essential because when we layer two cues together, one unlearned and one learned, the dog will only pay attention to the most salient, known cue (the hand signal). This is known as blocking.

The info-graphic below outlines the appropriate way to transfer a hand signal cue to a verbal cue.

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What is a cue?