Cue list

Everyone knows that I'm a nerd when it comes to dog training. At Michele Pouliot's prompting, I decided to make a cue list. This is an excel file that lists all of Dragon's tricks, with verbal cues, any relevant hand signals, other body cues, context/environmental cues, a description of the final behavior, and a quick note about our progress. I listed 72 cues.

Does that seem like a huge number? It includes the basics, such as reacting to his name (a cue to look  at me), cues about when we are or are not working ("Ready to work?", "go sniff," "take a break," and "run free"), and various words meant to encourage him, amp him up, or help him through interactions with other people. These are the kinds of things that people usually don't think about as cues, but we are communicating with our dogs all the time. But does what we are telling them mean the same thing to them as to us? One of the reasons the cue list is helpful is to think hard and methodically answer this very question.

The list also includes the different "positions" used in obedience and tricks (sit, down, stand, meerkat/sit pretty, playbow, etc), classic freestyle moves (spin, turn, jump to hand, weave between legs), and cues for competition obedience, agility, nosework, and just plain ol' tricks. Most of them aren't on verbal stimulus control and I don't expect them to be. I'm okay with pointing at an open door to cue Dragon to close it, pointing at one of his chewies to cue him to bring it over, and then patting my lap to get him to jump up. A lot of them are cued by the presence of specific objects (climbing into a box or stacking some bowls) or by where my arm and body are pointing (run up this tree).

Another advantage of listing all his tricks this way is to look for any similarities between verbals or hand signals that might confuse the dog. It also allows me to note where we're at with each trick and what I need to work on. I was reminded of some tricks we haven't practiced in a very long time (balancing on two legs, for example), and I'd like to bring them back into the rotation to keep his fitness level high.

At the bottom I also listed a number of neat tricks I've seen other dogs do, and which I hope to teach him someday: circling around me backwards, opening his mouth on cue, rolling up in a blanket, retrieving a hot dog or other high value edible, and blowing bubbles in water.

Challenge yourself and give it a try with your dog! A final perk of creating the cue list is that proud feeling you get when you realize just how much you and your dog have learned together.