Every dog owner has had a heart stopping moment or two where time slows down – watching as your dog just grabs a chicken bone or a live snake, the leash snaps during rush hour, or realizing that cliffside is more like 50ft than 15ft – and there goes the f**king tennis ball! For dogs, disaster preparedness can go a little beyond how well-stocked your first aid kit is.
An emergency cue is a cue for a safety-related behavior that you don’t use in your day to day life. This is a basic behavior – usually recall, leave-it, stay, drop-it, or similar – that your dog otherwise knows and generally will respond to. The difference between this and your typical cue is how we reinforce it and how we train it.
Building An Emergency Cue
Teach your behavior, then put it on cue! Do this the same as any other behavior. Then we can strengthen it so it’s an emergency cue.
- Practice infrequently, but regularly. After your dog is reliable with the behavior, don’t practice with your emergency word very often. In “maintenance mode” we refresh our emergency cues once a month or so. We want our dogs to feel like they just got an all-access pass to Disney World – a rare but extremely exciting opportunity!! If we go to Disney World every weekend, the magic is going to wear off pretty quickly.
- Practice where you need preparedness. Where possible, practice your cues where you might need them. Recalling out of an empty street, dropping practice items in the kitchen where you might drop glass, stay at the front door on the sidewalk.
- Use a cue that’s easy to remember – and not used in normal conversation or as another cue! This should be extremely recognizable for your dog – we want them to recognize it immediately and not have to wonder if you just said “Hum” or “Dumb” or “Come” or “Slum” or “Bum”.
- Oftentimes, it’s easier to choose a cue that you’re already going to say anyway. My emergency “leave-it” with my dogs is “Oh f**k!” – because that’s what I say when I drop glass and it shatters! It’s way easier to teach that to my dogs than it is to relearn a new thing to say.
- Pull out all the stops & lay it on thick. Invest good effort into making this cue as powerful as possible. Really dig into what your dog loves more than anything else. Think outside the box:
- Returning after a long trip, and know your dog is going to miss you a ton? Give their emergency recall as soon as they see you, so they associate it with sprinting toward you with joy.
- Does your dog go nuts when you get them a new toy? Get them amped about it, then have someone hold them back while you run away a short distance. Give their emergency recall right before releasing them and rewarding them with the new toy!
- Making a steak dinner for yourself? Grab a little extra at the store, and cook your dog their own steak. (Let it cool, but keep it warm – it tastes better fresh! Drop something boring and cue your emergency leave-it – then reward them with the steak!
