5 Essential Cues to Teach Your Dog for the Holidays

It's November, and the holiday season has officially begun. 

Guests coming over, dinners to make and eat, and maybe even parties with friends.

You might be ready for it (or not like me lol), but is your dog?

I thought now would be the perfect time to teach you a few new cues to teach your dog to make caring for them over the holiday events a bit easier. Each cue will have a short explanation and a short tutorial via text.

If you'd like to learn the cues with video explanations and see some examples, you'd love my free dog training course. You can join it by clicking the photo below: 

And without further ado, let's get to training!

Relax on a Mat

Relax on a mat is one of my top cues for all of my students - pet dogs, puppies, service dogs, and even sport dogs. It allows you to direct your dog when and where to relax and gives them a boundary to make the behavior more clear for their brain. It is one of my most used cues with my own dogs as well. We use it during meals, in new places to get acclimated, and when guests come over.

Teaching it is simple. I'll walk you through the first stage here.

1. Choose a mat that isn't out all the time at your house. You want to be able to place it down for your dog.
2. Set the mat down in front of you lengthwise (vertically) and toss a treat straight away from you. Your dog should eat the treat and then walk up to you, placing a few paws on the mat.
3. As soon as your dog puts a paw or two on the mat, mark "yes!" and toss a treat straight out ahead.
4. Repeat this until you have all four paws on the mat consistently. Then you can start rewarding your dog ON the mat, then toss the treat away to reset.
5. Once your dog has all four paws on, you can use a treat to lure them into a down by bringing the treat to their nose and slowly lowering it to the ground. As soon as they lay down, mark, "yes!" and reward between their front paws several times.
6. Now it's time to add in the release cue. After your dog eats a few treats in a down on the mat, say "release" or whatever cue you have chosen. Then toss the treat away. Make sure to release your dog every time you toss a treat away to get in the habit of it.
7. Once your dog is laying down on the mat, you can increase the duration they are on the mat slowly second by second over a few sessions as well as build in distractions like you moving around or noises.

Go to Bed

This cue is one I use with my border collie frequently. He LOVES his crate and chooses to nap in there most of the day with the door open. I put going inside on cue so that if we have a quick visitor, I can avoid his excitement sky rocketing. I also use this cue when the doorbell rings to keep the dogs from rushing the door. Our cue is, "In your bed!" and it means to go in the kennel and lay down. Then I close the door if I need and handle the visitor or guest. It's also a nice cue for breaks when my dogs are too excited with all the commotion.

To train go to bed, you'll first want to pick out the bed! You can use a pen, a room with a gate, a kennel, a crate, or even just a dog bed. This one can be whatever you and your dog prefer.

The steps are similar to relax on a mat: 

1. Toss a treat away from the bed and place your body so that your dog is likely to step on the bed or in the bed upon return.
2. When they put one or two paws on, mark "yes" and reward with a treat ON the bed. Then toss a treat away and repeat.
3. Work up to waiting for four paws on the bed before marking and rewarding.
4. Once four paws are on, lure the down and reward between the paws several times. 
5. Build in your release cue just like relaxing on a mat.
6. Once your dog is able to lay on the bed without a treat lure down, you can add a cue. To add a cue, you can toss a treat away, and as your dog is walking back to the bed but before they put a paw on, use your vocal cue. Wait for the down on the bed and reward on the bed several times. Then release and repeat. 
7. Then you can add distance, duration, distractions, and more!

Get a Toy

This cue is one I use daily with my border collie man. He is not a huge food kind of guy. He will eat a treat that I give him, but when he's excited, food loses his interest most of the time. "Get a Toy" means that he picks one from his toy box and brings it to the person he is excited about. It's a nice replacement behavior for his excitement jumping, and guests find it quite cute! This has also helped him with his anxiety around new people quite a bit, since their behavior is predictable (they play with him)!

I also use this cue when he is staring out the window to find things to bark at, but that is a whole separate post.

Here are the steps I used to teach it: 

1. Your dog should enjoy fetch/bringing back a toy that you throw to begin. If they don't, this cue can still be taught, but step one is to work on a clean fetch game with your dog. The other pre-requisite is a stay or wait while an object is tossed. If your dog doesn't have that, work on that first as well. Then move on to the below.
2. Play a few rounds of regular fetch, waiting for your dog to return the toy. Once it is going well, move on to step 3.
3. Now use your cue (I use "get a toy"), pause for a second, and toss the toy. Wait for the retrieve and reward with another tossed toy. 
4. Once that is clean, ask your dog to wait while you toss it. Once the toy is still, release your dog by cuing, "get your toy" or whatever cue you have chosen. Wait for the retrieve and then reward with a fetch alone.
5. Next step is to have your dog wait while you place the toy in front of them a few feet away. Return to your dog and release with "get your toy." Wait for the retrieve and reward with a fetch.
6. Final step is to stay/wait your dog and place the toy in the toy bin. Mine is just a plastic bin with no lid. Release your dog with "get your toy." wait for the retrieve and reward with fetch.
7. Now you can work on adding distance from all the rooms of the house as well as practicing the cue randomly throughout the day. Remember to reward with fetch after each success.

Leave It

Leave it is a dog training staple. I see so many families training it wrong. The first steps are usually great, but they expect too much too soon, and then the cue loses its value. Leave it is a great cue for dropped food (especially during holidays) from guests to give you time to clean up without worry. 

I teach leave it in a more "errorless" way than the traditional, so that's what I will detail below: 

1. Start by rewarding eye contact.
2. Then add in an empty hand to the side of your body (think how you'd hold a treat off to the side), reward for eye contact.
3. Add treats to your hand, but keep it closed and reward for eye contact.
4. Open your treat hand and reward for eye contact.
5. Add your vocal cue after presenting your treat hand and reward for eye contact.
6. Bring your treat hand lower and lower to the ground.
7. Add a barrier with no treat and reward for eye contact.
8. Add treats underneath, cue the leave it, and reward.
9. Then you can work into leave its in motion while you walk near the distraction under the barrier.

The video for this cue is located inside my free trial if you want to learn more and see it in action. 

Drop It

Drop it is a GREAT cue for the chewy, mouthy dogs. I use it anytime my dogs have something they shouldn't, and even when they do, I practice it with safe objects. The key to training a solid drop it is to give the object back 99% of the time AND use high value rewards for successful drop its.

The steps I use to teach drop it are super simple. Start with something like a toy that your dog has free access to.

1. While your dog is chewing their toy (don't start with something tasty, use something easy), cue the "drop it," and pause for 1 mississippi. Then place a high value treat on their nose. As soon as they release the toy, pop the treat in their mouth and walk away.
2. Practice this throughout the day several times. After several days of practice, test out the "drop it," and pause for 2 mississippi's before putting the treat on your dog's nose. This gives your dog more time to drop it without seeing the treat. Work at this level until your dog is dropping the toy before you have time to put the treat on their nose.
3. Once this is going well with the toys you have laying around at your house, it's time to up the difficulty. Remember to increase the value of the treat too - think stinky cheese or a hot dog piece. Give your dog a bland chew and repeat steps 1 & 2, practicing over several days until it's clean. Remember at this stage, the chew never goes away.
4. Work up slowly to more exciting things and remember to increase the reward value every time.
5. Once this is going well, you can add in another part of the routine to get the object away from your dog. After your dog drops the object (start with the easy toy again), use the treat to lure him a few steps away. Scatter several treats on the ground while you move to pick up the object. Once your dog is finished eating, give them the object back.
6. Repeat this until it is clean and work up slowly to the more exciting objects.
7. Remember to use objects that your dog can safely have back 99% of the time so that when your dog gets something they can't have, the fear of the object going away is not there. Remember if you do need to take the object completely to make up for it with a really big treat scatter of something tasty.

These cues are my lifelines during the holidays and are the ones most often requested by my students.

I hope that this breakdown has helped inspire you to work with your dog on a few new cues or refresh old ones to make this season one of rest and relaxation for you both!

If you liked learning about these and want more support like this, you'd love my membership, the Pack. It's a monthly program to teach you everything you need to know to train a dog who listens to every cue, joyfully, in 5 minutes of training per day. You can click here to learn more and join.