Clean Run - August 2014 - 47

Why
Should I
Care About
This Science Stuff?

Putting Behaviors on Cue
By Lynne Stephens

Let us first make sure that we fully understand the word cue and how it diļ¬€ers from a command.
Example 1: "Go and sit in that chair," the teacher barked at the student entering the classroom. "Good."
Example 2: "Please take your seat so that we can begin," the teacher requested pleasantly.
"Thank you for being so prompt. Now we'll all be able to go home 10 minutes earlier today."

When asked to sit quickly in the chair on future occasions,
which student do you think will respond happily, quickly,
and reliably in anticipation of something good to come? I'm
sure you get my drift. The second student is going to act far
more quickly and with less resentment when given another
opportunity for reinforcement (in the form of the early home
time) than the first, who may respond by moving even more
slowly to her chair, simply to elicit a frustrated response from
her long-suffering teacher!
That's it in a nutshell! This science really is quite painless after all.
A command is issued like the order given in the first example,
"Sit down or else!" There is an implied threat for noncompliance here, too. Just imagine being a person from another
country, whose native language is not English, and you are
ordered to sit down in this manner. Or, even worse, a creature
of another species with a completely different communication system! Maybe even your dog? How quick and accurate
would your response be to such a command?

August 14

| Clean Run

A cue, on the other hand, is a request that offers an opportunity to earn reinforcement, as in the second example, "Great
job for sitting so quickly. You've won a prize!" "Drive at or under the speed limit and we'll pay you a bonus." I wish!
Imagine being this student and your teacher found a way
to explain to you that if you respond to this request when
asked, and only when asked, you will always have the opportunity to earn that prize. Just think how happy you'd be to
respond quickly, accurately, and reliably to claim your reward!
Isn't that exactly what we want from our dogs? For them to
respond to requests (cues) quickly, reliably, and predictably?
So, how do we achieve this happy state of affairs?
The answer lies in reinforcement.
In my last article, we looked at the advantages of shaping behaviors with our dogs, clicking and treating for successive approximations until we reached the goal behavior. I also talked
about teaching a variety of nonspecific behaviors before
embarking on the "real" agility/equipment related ones first.
47



Clean Run - August 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Clean Run - August 2014

Contents
Clean Run - August 2014 - 1
Clean Run - August 2014 - 2
Clean Run - August 2014 - Contents
Clean Run - August 2014 - 4
Clean Run - August 2014 - 5
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