Have you ever found yourself saying:
“Sit… sit… SIT!”
Or perhaps:
“Come… COME… COME!”
And your dog eventually looks at you as though they’re thinking, “Are you actually serious this time?”
This is something I see regularly in dog training, and it is usually not because the dog is stubborn, dominant, or deliberately ignoring you.
Sometimes, we have accidentally taught the dog that our verbal cue doesn’t really mean what we think it means.
This is where the term “poisoned cue” comes in.
It sounds dramatic, but it is actually a very useful concept for understanding why some verbal cues become unreliable.
What is a poisoned cue, and how does it happen?
A poisoned cue is a previously meaningful signal that has developed a poor, unclear, or negative association through repeated learning experiences.
The term is widely used within animal training, although it is worth noting that “poisoned cue” is a training-industry term rather than a formal scientific diagnosis or technical category in behaviour analysis. Research literature does, however, describe how cues or stimuli can acquire different associations depending on what repeatedly happens after them.
Let’s use “Come” as an example.
Imagine you teach your dog:
“Come” → dog comes → reward.
Excellent.
But then you start doing this:
“Come” → dog doesn’t respond → “Come! Come! COME!” → dog eventually comes → you clip the lead on → walk home.
Or:
“Come” → dog comes → you tell them off for taking so long.
Or:
“Come” → dog comes → playtime immediately ends.
Your dog is learning from the entire sequence, not just the word.
Eventually, “Come” may no longer predict something particularly rewarding or clear.
This is why repeatedly saying a cue when the dog isn’t responding can be such a problem. You are giving the dog repeated opportunities to hear the word without producing the behaviour you actually want. The cue can become less reliable and less meaningful.
And this is where frustration often enters the picture.
We think:
“But he knows this!”
Maybe he does.
Or perhaps we have accidentally taught him that the cue is negotiable.
The common mistakes that poison our cues
The good news is that most of these mistakes are completely fixable once you understand them.
Repeating the verbal cue
This is probably the biggest one.
“Sit.”
Nothing.
“Sit.”
Nothing.
“Sit, sit, sit.”
Eventually the dog sits.
What did the dog learn?
Possibly that “Sit” doesn’t really mean anything until I’ve heard it five times.
Your goal should be to give the cue once, then give your dog the opportunity to respond.
If they don’t, ask yourself why rather than simply saying it louder.
Is the environment too distracting?
Does the dog actually understand the behaviour?
Have you increased the difficulty too quickly?
Are you asking for something the dog hasn’t practised in that environment?
These questions are much more useful than simply repeating yourself.
Asking for behaviour the dog isn’t ready to perform
A dog that can Sit beautifully in your kitchen doesn’t necessarily understand that Sit means the same thing at the park.
This is where generalisation becomes important.
Dogs don’t automatically understand that a behaviour learned in one environment applies everywhere.
Build the behaviour gradually:
Easy → slightly harder → distracting → more distracting.
If the dog starts struggling, go back to the last level where they were successful.
Using the cue when you cannot reinforce the response
This is particularly important with recall.
If your dog is chasing something exciting 30 metres away and you know there is very little chance they will respond, repeatedly shouting “Come!” isn’t really training.
You’re practising the dog ignoring you.
Instead, create situations where you can control the difficulty and reinforce successful responses.
Making the cue predict something unpleasant
This is another common one.
“Come” means:
- The walk is over.
- The lead goes on.
- We leave the park.
- Bath time.
- The fun stops.
If that happens often enough, your dog may reasonably decide that coming back isn’t particularly valuable.
This is especially important with recall because you want your dog to have a strong history of good things happening after they return to you.
Getting frustrated
This one is very human.
Your dog doesn’t come.
You get frustrated.
Your voice changes.
Your body language changes.
The dog becomes less comfortable approaching you.
And then we wonder why the next recall is even worse.
Positive reinforcement isn’t about pretending you’re never frustrated. It is about understanding that your emotional response can become part of what your dog associates with the cue.
Current veterinary behaviour guidance supports reward-based training and emphasises teaching desired responses rather than relying on aversive methods.
How do we protect our verbal cues?
The simplest answer is:
Make your words mean something.
If you say “Sit”, give your dog a reasonable opportunity to Sit.
If you say “Stay”, make sure the dog has actually been taught what Stay means before asking for it in a difficult environment.
If you say “Come”, make coming back to you worthwhile.
A few simple principles can make a huge difference:
- Say the cue once.
- Give your dog time to process it.
- Reward the correct response at the right moment.
- Increase difficulty gradually.
- Don’t assume that success at home means success everywhere.
- Avoid using important cues casually throughout the day.
- Don’t punish your dog for eventually responding.
- Make sure everyone in the household uses the same cue consistently.
- If a behaviour starts falling apart, go back a step rather than simply repeating the cue louder.
And perhaps most importantly:
Don’t be afraid to retrain a cue.
If you’ve spent six months saying “Come, come, COME!” every time your dog is distracted, don’t beat yourself up about it.
It happens.
You can go back and rebuild the behaviour.
In some cases, trainers may choose to introduce a new cue and build a fresh association with it. Another option is to carefully retrain the existing cue. The appropriate approach depends on how well the original behaviour and cue have been learned.
The important thing is that you don’t simply keep repeating a word that has stopped working.
A final thought
Your dog isn’t sitting there thinking:
“I’m going to ignore my owner today.”
They’re learning from the history you have created together.
Every cue has a history.
Every repetition teaches something.
Every successful response that is appropriately reinforced makes that behaviour more valuable.
So if you find yourself repeating yourself, getting frustrated, or wondering why your dog suddenly “doesn’t listen anymore”, take a step back.
Don’t shout louder.
Go back to teaching.
Clear communication is one of the greatest gifts we can give our dogs, and protecting the meaning of our verbal cues is a big part of that.
That’s what positive reinforcement training is really about: not just getting the behaviour, but helping the dog understand what we’re asking and making it worthwhile to get it right.
