How do you add a cue to a behavior?
Patrick Greenfelder
2025-07-15 05:13:02
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You haven’t added the cue, as we say. Here’s a unique, quick, and painless way to do that: work two opposite behaviors at once. You say sit, the dog sits, you click and treat. After three or four rounds, stop moving forward and back and just use the words. Add those cues at the rate of one or two per five-minute session. With each cue, it gets easier. Once a dog has acquired three cues for three behaviors and can respond to them confidently in new rooms and at different times, the dog will have the picture, and you’ll be able to “explain” subsequent new cues in just a few clicks. In three minutes, with twenty clicks or more and a steady stream of successes, you have two behaviors and two new cues for the price of one.
Nathaniel O'Kon
2025-07-15 03:46:20
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: 11
When you add a cue, you can choose to add the cue before the behavior, as the dog performs the behavior, or after the behavior. I choose to add the cue before the behavior. A cue, or a discriminative stimulus, is information for the dog. It tells him what behavior will be reinforced right there and then. When I only reward the behavior if the cue has been given, the cue becomes valuable to the dog. In both operant and classical conditioning, the stimulus comes before the behavior. If we add the cue at the same time, or after the dog performs the behavior, we’re not effectively pairing the cue with the behavior, and other stimuli will still be what gives the dog information about what behavior to perform. I try to make the cue mean something to the dog as soon as possible. Pairing the cue with the behavior for a long time is probably not as important, but I do that as well.
Larry Abernathy
2025-07-15 03:35:44
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To start, make sure the dog is offering the behavior consistently. We do not add a cue to a behavior until the dog knows how to perform it without lures or prompts from you. When you are willing to bet $10 that your dog is going to offer that behavior, it is time to add the cue. Just before your dog offers the behavior, quietly say the word or make a subtle hand signal. When the dog performs the behavior, click and then treat. Continue this sequence of cue-behavior-click-treat several times in a row. If you give the cue and the dog doesn’t offer the behavior, wait several seconds before cueing again. I usually count to 10 in my head before re-cueing the dog.
Katheryn Kunde
2025-07-15 01:37:15
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: 16
You can add a verbal cue by fading the lure or hand signal in small increments first and then adding your new cue before your old cue to teach the dog to respond to the new cue.
Four steps to adding a verbal cue by raising criteria in small increments:
Step 1: Fade your lure or visual cue to the smallest gesture possible so that your dog will not be dependent on your extreme body movements.
Step 2: Give the hand signal 5-10 times and click and treat for correct responses to help the dog predict what behavior you will ask for next.
Step 3: Say your new verbal cue BEFORE you move a muscle to do the visual cue.
Click and treat for your dog responding correctly.
Step 4: Put time between your new verbal cue and your old visual cue.
Wait the dog out and see if he will offer the behavior you want after you say the first cue while he is waiting for you to do the old signal.
Click or say “yes” for the dog being impatient and offering the behavior before you do the visual cue.
To add or change a cue by playing “What did you do last?” game, repeat the behavior 10 times using the old hand signal or the old verbal cue, then stop and see if the dog offers the behavior again for no cue.
Once your dog has started to offer the behavior reliably on his own when you stop and say nothing, and does so 2-3 times in a row, you can say your new cue just before your dog offers the behavior.
Ricky Reichel
2025-07-15 01:12:19
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: 8
Get the behavior, then add a cue. First, we get the animal consistently offering the behavior. With behaviors that occur frequently, we can capture and reward whenever the behavior occurs. For less frequent or novel behaviors, we can lure or shape the animal until we get the behavior. Then, there's several ways to add on a cue. A trainer with a good eye can give the cue right when the behavior is starting or right before the behavior starts. Or, if the behavior is occurring frequently, a trainer could alternate between cue and no cue. Give the cue, see the behavior, reinforce. Then let the animal do the behavior and don’t reinforce. Repeat until the animal gets the hang of it. In any case, next we have to extinguish the behavior from occurring off cue and begin to put the behavior under stimulus control.
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