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“He Just Won’t LISTEN!” – Fixing “Poisoned” Cues.
How many of you have had a client who comes to you and says “My dog is so stubborn. They ignore me and I KNOW that they hear me when I call them to come”? Or how about “I ask him to leave it and he gets all sheepish like I’ve hurt his feelings”. One often overlooked cause for these responses that should be considered is whether the cue has been poisoned.
A poisoned cue is a cue that has an unpleasant association for the dog. Trainer Eileen Anderson does a great job of describing what to look for to determine if a cue is poisoned and how to proceed if you determine that it is in her video ????here????.
What are some things you look for to evaluate if the cues for our three highlight behaviors this month (stay, come and leave it) are poisoned?
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7 Replies
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For the come I would evaluate what happens to the dog after he comes.
Is he always getting put on the leash right after he comes or put in a crate or maybe he gets his head pet and doesn’t like it.
Even just calling a dog inside when he is sniffing sometime super interesting but then nothing more rewarding happens inside.
Maybe someone sounds more angry in their voice when the dog doesn’t come right
away.
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@ktinan excellent thoughts!!
I have a sweet Shih tsu pup I’m currently working with. Derby is 9 months old and one of his owners concerns that prompted them to contact me is that he often ignores them when they call him. After some discussion and evaluation, it became apparent that they largely call him to them with a verbal “come” to pick him up (something he finds aversive) to brush him or clean his eyes (other things he finds aversive). The male owner reaching over him seems to be more concerning for him than the female owner, but he is very unsure of the interaction with either of them. We are now using a nose target for a recall, avoiding using it when the owners need to do cooperative care like brushing, etc and helping him feel more comfortable with people leaning over/reaching down for him.
Has anyone else encountered situations where you were concerned a cue might be poisoned?
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@amymc thank you! It’s interesting what all can poison a cue.
I have to add that I noticed that every time I trained my dogs stay, that they showed signs of stress because my kids would always run up to them to pet them for some reason.
This probably would have poisoned the cue or did poison the cue if I wouldn’t have told my kids that they have to stay away. I mainly use stay outside where my kids aren’t interested in running up to the dogs.
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I align with @KTinaN ‘s thoughts-that a negative association is being connected with.
My sister’s dog had a negative experience with getting in the car after the vet one visit. After that, he was fearful of the open back seat car door (poisoned cue!). He was reluctant to approach. I tried to work with him a few minutes but soon realized it was going to be too stressful for him. I first tried switching to my car (new context, right?) but realized that too was just as stressful for him. Thinking of how I can change this completely, I opened the rear hatch of her SUV. He showed some fear but, there was a little interest/curiosity. We then got an old pet ramp she had and began tossing high value treats on the lower section of the ramp. Using desensitization and counter-conditioning for the next 2 weeks, we got him up the ramp and in the back of the SUV with a sense of willingness and good body language.
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We think about poisoned cues as ones we’ve trained, but as you brought up, sometimes it’s environmental cues. @jenz excellent job adjusting your training plan on the fly once you evaluated his comfort level!
Does he continue to use the ramp to climb in the back or were you able to work with him getting comfortable jumping in to the back seat again?
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@AmyMc
She is only using the ramp as the in and out of the car. He seemingly enjoys that game now!. He is still fearful of car doors- however he does approach them with less caution. If the opportunity presents itself, i.e company comes over and they are getting out of the car while she is outside with him, she asks the guests to call him excitedly to try and encourage him to go over, in hopes to make open car doors “fun and exciting”. As you know, we work at the dogs’ pace!
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@AmyMc
So this happened today!
Back story is, my sister’s puppy, Barkley, after having some kind of negative experience either going to or leaving the vet for his neuter at approx. 6 months of age, became extremely fearful of the car, being near it, getting in etc. (possible timing of entering secondary fear stage is another thought). Changing thought processes, I decided to use a ramp and the rear hatch of my sister’s SUV as a new context. Myself and my sister had been systematically DS him to the ramp inside the house with a single step, then outside up the front porch 3 steps, then the back of the SUV. Within approx. 2 weeks Barkley overcame his fear of the ramp and getting in the rear of the SUV (still working on duration and closing the hatch). Cars and side doors still presented an obstacle for him. DS has been a slower process for these stimuli. After approx. 3.5-4 months of using DS/CC (at his pace and choice) he entered my car today! This video is of him entering to get the hot dog and cheerios inside. After the 3rd trial, I raised the criteria (no food inside), he entered- he was then marked and rewarded! He entered 2 more times on his own (marked and rewarded since the criteria was raised)! I ended it there to leave him excited about the event and will try again tomorrow to keep it going, build duration and eventually start to close the door!
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