Say What?!
Verbal Training 101
Disclosure: This site may contain links to affiliate sites that earn me a small commission at no additional cost to you. Please know that I only recommend products and services that I personally use!
When I started in dog training, I was so impressed to see someone get their dog to sit, stay, and release in TOTAL SILENCE! I’ve since learned that its actually very easy to train your dog to respond to hand cues, and the real challenge lies in training them to respond to your words alone. Don’t believe me? Go ahead, go try it. Ask your dog to sit. Do not move a muscle. It’s ok, I’ve got time, I’ll wait….
See the thing is, dogs are a non-verbal species (I know, I know, no duh!) and what that means in practice is that they are much better at watching our bodies than listening to our mouths. So if you’d like to learn the basics of how to start training verbal commands, read on! And if you decide this is pretty cool and you’d like to know more, drop me a line. I’ve got some big plans in the works, and you just might get to be one of my Beta testers!
The Science Behind Verbal Training
I’ve already mentioned dogs are non-verbal; this means that their primary means of communication amongst one another is through body language. In fact, their body language is so complex and nuanced that even humans with years of experience in dog training often mis-understand it. That’s because we, on the other hand, are a verbal species. We’re really great at communicating through words, tone, and inflection, but not so great at reading one another’s body language (was that a smile or a grimace???). This inherently creates a communication mismatch, where any time we want our dogs to do something based on a verbal command, they are essentially working in a foreign language.
So how do we make things easier for our 4 legged friend? We meet them halfway by first training the skill based on a body signal, then adding the word.
Defining Verbals
The other key factor to keep in mind, is that because we are so great at communicating verbally we often don’t actually say what we mean. Think about how many synonyms we have for any given word. Now think about the nuances behind each of those synonyms. To make life easier for both us and our pups, we need to have totally clear definitions of exactly what behavior we expect from each verbal, then train our dogs to respond in that way.
Let’s take a test case: I’d like to train my dog to sit when I say “Sit”. But what do I really mean? How quickly do I want them to sit? Do I expect them to sit and then not move until I tell them to do something else, or is just a quick butt touch to the floor good enough? Do I expect them to sit in a certain way (tucked vs. legs splayed out)? Anytime you consider teaching a new verbal I want you to write down your definition, and make sure you consider the following:
Speed of the performance
Stationary behavior - stay and wait vs. not
Situational (only sit on that mat) or generalized (sit on a boat, with a goat)
Relational to you - when I am in this position you do x with this verbal. Otherwise do y.
Once it’s written down, it’s your job as the handler to hold to your own criteria. You may go to a class, where the instructor doesn’t expect the Sit to be a stay behavior. But that’s not your criteria, so politely tell the instructor so, and continue holding your dog to the stay. You’ll quickly find that each individual in the dog world has their own criteria for each behavior (not just verbals), and if you change criteria every time you change instructors you’re going to erode your behavior and eventually end up with a totally confused pup who has no idea what you want. Instead, politely ask your instructor their rationale for their criteria, take it into advisement, then think about whether you want to adjust your own criteria or not. I’d advise you to rethink learning from any instructor with a “My way or the highway” mentality. All teams are unique, and what works for your instructor may not work for you.
Training Verbals by Fading Body Cues
So now that you’ve defined your criteria you’re ready to go train! Let’s stick with the Sit behavior for this example, and in this case, my behavior will be a quick butt touch to the floor.
Start by asking your dog to sit with your hand cue. Mark (using a clicker or a verbal “Yes”) and reward as soon as their butt hits the floor. Repeat until the dog is reliably doing as asked on the first repetition.
Now, say your verbal “Sit”, then do your hand cue. Mark and reward as above.
The cool thing here is we are using the dog’s ability to predict to tie the word to the hand cue, and eventually, we’ll be able to fade out the hand cue all together. It’s super important that you say the word first, then do the cue. DO NOT do both at the same time. If you have twitchy hands, put your hands on your thighs, say your word, then move your hands.
Repeat step 2 3 - 5 times.
Now we’re going to fade the hand cue by slowly increasing the duration between when we say the word and when we give the cue. So say “Sit” wait 1 - 2 seconds, then give your hand cue. Mark, reward, and repeat.
If your dog continues giving you the behavior at the same, or even a faster speed than in step 1 you are on the right track! After a few reps, wait 3 - 4 secs before giving your hand cue, and so on.
If your dog starts giving you different behaviors, or stares at you confusedly, you’ve made things too hard too quickly. Go back to the last step that they were successful at and repeat a few more times. Some dogs may need multiple sessions here. DO NOT say your verbal more and more times. Eventually you will teach the dog that your cue is “SitSitSitSitSIIIIIITTTTTT” instead of “Sit”.
When your dog starts sitting before you are able to do the hand cue but AFTER you have said the verbal, you can drop the hand cue entirely.
But Do I Really Need To Use a Hand Cue for Everything?
Actually no. I trained most of my turning verbals (Left, Right, etc) by simply applying them to the situation where I wanted them. BUT you have to remember the basics from above:
The word must come before the action.
You must understand your criteria, and be 10000% positive that the dog will give the criteria in that situation.
For instance, my “Right” word means a tight turn to the dog’s right (90 degrees or tighter). I trained this with Fin by playing Frisbee. I would say “Right” then throw the frisbee a short distance (2 - 3 feet) in front of me, and to his right. This in turn would cause him to turn to the right in a tight turn. (Note: many people teach directionals using a cookie and luring the dog to turn on the flat in a similar way. I just picked frisbee because Fin loves it, we do it a lot, and I knew I could get a lot of reps quickly without him getting frustrated or demotivated). The key here is that I know I want a tight turn, so I do not say “Right”, then chuck the frisbee halfway across a field. I also am confident in my ability to throw a frisbee to the place I want it to go. If it’s a windy day and I’m not confident, then I don’t use my verbal (again, you’ll create confusion).
So there you have it! Training verbals 101. If you need any help, or are confused, don’t hesitate to reach out to me! And if you want more information, or want to be a Beta tester, feel free to shoot me a message!