What is a "poisoned” cue? A poisoned cue is a cue that the dog has made a negative association with a cue. A poisoned cue cuts down on reliability, is frustrating for the handlers, and can sour the dog/handler relationship.
Example A: recall poisoned with intended punishment
The handler calls the dog to you to punish the dog (many a novice dog owners make this mistake when they call a dog to them to punish a potty accident or some other minor infraction… this is for another blog post), or you only call the dog to you to end the fun it is having.
Example B: recall poisoned with unintentional punishment
The handler calls the dog to them and happily smack the dogs rear or grab the scruff of the dog’s face, all with good intentions and a lack of understanding that the dog does not enjoy this type of physical affection. This is something the dog could find unpleasant, even punishing – thus it could poison the recall cue. Be aware of your dog's likes and dislikes, this can make a world of difference in your training! I have had to tell many students not to pet their dogs in a certain way because the dog does not like it, I’ve even had to take video and show them in slow motion all the signals that the dog dislikes the interaction.
In the case of a poisoned recall, it is common that one of the following will occur: 1. You have a dog who hesitates to come when called or takes a long, long time to come to you. 2. The dog does not come at all when called. 3. The dog actively seeks to get more distance from you.
Note: a poisoned cue is different from a cue that a dog has “learned irrelevance” to.
Dog’s perspective: I go to my owner as I’ve been trained/asked to do, then something bad/something that I do not like happens… I think I am better off taking my time, pretending like I don’t hear them, or moving away from them.
It is imperative for reliability to do your best not to poison your cues. If you have poisoned a cue, take heart because with some time and effort you can get on the right track.
If you have poisoned a cue:
1. Assess the damage – is the cue now something the dog will actively avoid? Is the dog simply hesitant/reluctant? How negative of an association has the dog made with the cue?
2. Depending on the level of damage to the cue, you will have to adjust accordingly. You may have to go back to kindergarten with your dog and re-name the cue entirely and re-train the behavior that goes with it.
3. Begin training this new verbal cue and hand signal with a reward that is the equivalent of executive level pay. The goal is to have the dog make a very positive association with the new cue. Whatever happened before that poisoned the cue must not happen when you train and use the new cue – learn from your mistakes!
Example: fixing a poisoned recall cue
1. Possibly create and teach a new hand signal
2. Start in an area with no distractions and no more than 3 feet; you may work with the dog on a leash
3. Teach a new verbal cue such as “recall!”, “here!”, etc.
4. Make it extremely rewarding for the dog to perform the desired behavior – bring out Grade A rewards, your pageant smile and a whole lot of praise!
5. Throw away the poisoned cue
Of course, there are other ways a cue could be poisoned that are out of the control of the human. For example, you are working on the “touch” cue with your dog just as a firecracker goes off resulting in a terrified dog. This could poison the “touch” cue depending on how traumatic the event was for the dog.
At the end of the day, we all make mistakes when working with our dogs. The goal is to always be improving. Rome wasn’t built in a day and all good things take time.