"What do you want me to do?"

Something I noticed with Oliver (and I will probably explore Oliver’s learning specifically in another post because I have a lot of useless information about it) is that he started to learn cues that I didn’t even realize I was using. I tend to talk to my dogs on our walks, just because I’m a weirdo, and the main verbal cue Oliver picked up was, “This way!” I would often say it if he was sniffing something or otherwise distracted and I was doing something like changing directions. Because Oliver didn’t get a lot of regular training practice in places with distractions, his recall was terrible for a while.  To be honest, it probably still is but we don’t put him in situations where he will get in trouble anymore. “Come” didn’t mean a whole lot to him if there was something smellier and more fun. I found out on a whim, that if I yelled, “OLIVER. THIS WAY” if he was off leash, he would come running. It was a nice surprise. 

    I realized eventually that dogs genuinely want you to tell them what to do. It’s a funny concept to wrap our heads around as individualistic humans. But it’s a lot more like us trying to learn a new language and culture out of necessity. Dogs are actively trying to figure out how this world of ours works, on some level, and what the hell we’re doing.

    With Pierre, I’ve been consciously trying to associate certain phrases and words with events/actions. These are the cues that we practice passively while we’re out for walks.

Here’s a list of some of our cues and their "action translations":

•      “This way”
   
  “I’m changing directions/turning this corner”
  
  
•     “Wait”
  
  “I’m stopping now you should probably stop too or you’ll feel pressure on your neck”
  
  
• “Here we are”
  
  “We’re going in this doorway” (I just use this for home right now because it’s on a busy street and he gets distracted sometimes)



•       “Go see”
  
    “Okay you can go smell that thing I’ll give you some slack on the leash”

•        “Let’s go”
  
  
  “I’m going to start walking away now you better come with me or there will be a tug”

     These cues don't need to be associated with a treat to become solidified. As long as you're mostly consistent, the dog just picks it up on their own. These things are mostly intrinsically rewarded. Pierre, for example, wants to pee on and smell everything. "Go see" is his version of, "yes dear, you can watch another episode of your show on netflix". I sometimes use it as a way to reward him if he's been heeling well on his leash. It's a way to prove that I'm not just trying to make him avoid everything he loves, that we just need to get stuff done sometimes, and when we're done that thing (i.e., walking nicely on the leash for a block) he can for sure smell someone else's pee. He deserves it! Ha. 

    Sometimes I reward (give a treat) for, "wait", specifically, because it can be a hard thing to do when there's a dog on the other side of the street. Most of these cues trigger a reliable response in Pierre at this point, after 3 months of me annoyingly marking everything with a word. I have no doubt that I have some more unconscious, probably physical cues that he's picked up on as well but I haven't fully identified those yet.