We’ve all experienced that moment where we deliver a cue, and our dog just doesn’t respond. It could be in a training session at home, it could be when we are asking our dog to demonstrate their new trick to a friend, it could be in a class setting, or it could be in the middle of a competition run.
It is common to hear people say that if a dog doesn’t respond to a cue, then they “didn’t understand”, but sometimes we are sure that our dog does know what the cue means. At other times we hear people say that their dog is “blowing them off” (i.e. that their dog does know what the cue means, but their dog is actively choosing to ignore the person / cue), but is this really a common reason for a dog to “ignore” a handler’s cue?
In this webinar we discuss the myriad of reasons why our dog may not respond to our first cue when cued to perform a behavior, including; lack of understanding, enjoying an alternative behavior, lack of adequate motivation, arousal in excess of optimal levels, physical discomfort (present or anticipated), mental / emotional discomfort (present or anticipated), fatigue (physical / mental), and situations when the behavior is perceived as too “high effort”.
Obviously understanding why our dog is not rapidly and accurately responding to our first cue to perform a behavior is crucial to resolving the issue, hence in this webinar we discuss all the potential reasons in detail. We also discuss strategies for ensuring that our dog does respond to our first cue on each occasion.
Presenter: Sharon Carroll
