It can be puzzling to see the dog you’ve been training for months suddenly act like they have no idea what you just cued. The dog was perfect in your house and now looks completely untrained out in public! Below are some reasons why a dog may suddenly not respond to a cue and how to handle it in various situations.

Does the dog really know it?

The first thing to look at is whether your dog actually knows the cue you’re trying to use. Just because the dog was doing it successfully in the past doesn’t mean they were learning what you thought you were teaching!

Often, we have unconscious body language that the dog is picking up on as part of the cue, and without that part of the cue presence, the dog may not recognize what you’re asking. It can be helpful to videotape our sessions to see if we are giving additional cues to the dog that we aren’t aware of.

A similar occurrence can happen when we think we are teaching the dog one behavior but the dog is focusing on a completely different behavior. A common example occurs when trying to teach the dog to go to their mat. If you’re always standing directly in front of the mat, it’s easy to think that the dog is purposefully stepping on the mat in order to earn their reward, but in actuality, that dog might think the key to earning treats is to come and lie down in front of you. Try to vary your position in relation to the dog and props early on to continually test their understanding with gentle proofing of the behavior. Does the dog know how to sit when you’re sitting on the floor? What if your back is to the dog? Can they go to their mat when you are holding treats low in your hand?

If you’re not sure if the dog actually understands the cue, go back a few steps in their training. This may mean using less distance and less duration, and gradually testing their understanding as you work on your own body language help.

What does it look like when a dog really knows the behavior?

• Low latency: The dog starts the behavior within 1 second of being cued, on the first cue
• Speed: Once the behavior is started, the dog finishes it quickly
• Precision: The behavior is performed to the standards you taught
• Distance: The behavior can be done at a distance from the handler
• Duration: The behavior is continuous until a release is given (either implied or a cue from the handler)
• Distractions: The behavior is done with different handler positions and environmental distractions

Distractions

If you find that the dog is staring at everything but you when you’re trying to train, it is often as if the dog doesn’t even hear you! They may know the cue well, but if they aren’t thinking about you, then it’s not going to go well. There is likely to be no response, or the dog will simply guess what you want while continuing to stare at the world. The dog might be excited or a bit stressed, but in both situations, they are struggling.

Before asking the dog to do anything else, get their focus. You might need to gain distance from the distraction before the dog is capable of giving you attention. Or you can try doing a small body block, getting in between the distraction and the dog. If the dog is really excited, you may need to gently grab their collar to help prevent them from making mistakes.

Make sure that before progressing, the dog is able to get a reward from you for offering eye contact and is capable of immediately offering focus again before trying to progress to other behaviors. It’s okay if you have to go sit on a bench for a little while when entering a new place to give the dog time to acclimate to the environment.

Remember that the dog has to earn the right to go on a walk or an outing. If they aren’t capable of focusing in that environment, then either continue to work on stationary focus and stay in one area, or go home.

Generalization & Environmental Cues

In this scenario, the dog seems to know the cue extremely well in one environment and demonstrates their knowledge even with small proofing games. But there may still be other situations the dog is looking right at you and seems to have no clue about what you want.