When you are first teaching a new training command, you introduce the first
association between a specific command and a specific behavior. For example, you say the word
"Sit" while luring the pup into the sitting position, planting his rear end on the floor.
What if the pup extends his nose to sniff at the food lure, without any movement in the hindquarters?
You've already said the command "Sit" once. Should you say "Sit" again, or remain silent?
In this teaching scenario, you should repeat the sequence, again commanding "Sit" while luring the pup's
nose/head up and back to tap into the power of gravity on his rear end.
So what happens then if the pup gets a royal case of the hinkies, hops straight up in the air and
then does a few rounds of butt-scootin' boogey around the livingroom furniture -- and doesn't sit?
Now you've "used up" two iterations of the command "Sit." Think you're over your limit? Nope. You regain pup's
fractious attention, and again repeat the lure and command sequence. Voila! This time pup raise his
head to follow the lure and his bottom smacks downward onto the floor.
You mark, reward, release, and verbally praise "Good sit!" Success.
In this case, you've repeated the word "Sit" four times to evoke the desired behavior. And that's
OK. You're in the process of building the association between the word "Sit," and the
behavior of sitting, and the best part of all -- teaching your pup that he'll be rewarded for
performing a desired behavior.
There are a few genius pups who will catch on to a new command behavior on the first
iteration. But the typical pup will require a few -- or many --
renditions of a training exercise, and the relevant commands, before he fully understands and
learns the associated behavior. Repeating a command until the dog forms the appropriate behavioral
association is typical of the early stages of training.
In the example above, we see that it may be acceptable to repeat a command during the early stages of teaching. This is
important -- the early stages of teaching. (Remember when you first learned the alphabet?
Consider how many times the teacher had you repeat each letter before you advanced to chanting the
Alphabet Song, and then chained the letters to form words and the words to form sentences. Repetition
assisted you in forming the necessary associations between the sound of each letter, the image of each
letter, and how each letter contributed to form a word that in time came together to form sentences that
eventually became whole paragraphs that created story narratives. Incremental learning in a nutshell.)
After some days or weeks, each time we say "Sit," the pup automatically sits. We immediately mark,
reward, release and praise "Good sit!" Then we begin to incrementally advance the duration of the
pup's sit. In relatively short order, we've developed the pup's 2-second sit, then a 5-second sit, then a 10-second sit.
As the dog progresses in training and performance, we discover that the number of times we vocalize
the command quickly decreases. The pup now fully understands that "Sit" means put your behind
on the floor, and he produces that behavior on the first command. He maintains that behavior for
an incrementally longer duration, until we specifically release him from the sit.
Now we introduce distraction. You tell your youngster to sit while you prepare his meal in the
kitchen. He sits, and you mark his behavior. Unexpectedly, the cat sashays into the kitchen.
Pup immediately spies the cat and begins to raise up out of his sit for a sporting round of
Burp the Hairball.
Do you say "Sit" again?
Yes. A new element was introduced into your training equation (distraction, and a mighty
seductive one at that!) and you are now training "anew" at an elevated level of proficiency.
You previously made the association that "Sit" means "Sit" when there are no distractions --
and now you're building the association that "Sit" still means "Sit" even in the midst of a
significant distraction.
In the neural synaptic firestorm induced by the cat, the pup will only benefit by your timely and consistently
voiced re-command to "Sit." You have already conditioned him to plant his bottom when you say
"Sit," so when you immediately reiterate the command, he maintains his sit. You immediately mark and
reward his immediate resumption of obedient behavior under distraction.
What is the downside of repeating a command for the pup in the early stages of learning? There
is no downside. You are in the process of teaching -- you are teaching the association between a
command and a behavior in increasingly more challenging environments. Your goal is setting your
dog up for success, most especially in early formative training.
Consider that if pup begins to spontaneously release himself from the sit before you explicitly release him,
he likely doesn't yet understand that "Sit means sit until I tell you otherwise." When he doesn't yet
understand that he is expected to maintain the sit until commanded otherwise, it is a teaching and
training issue. The responsible and reasonable trainer will observe and accept that the pup doesn't yet understand what
is expected of him, and the trainer will choose the training strategy that ensures the pup's success.
(Please see the related article, Setting Your Dog Up for Success.)
Of course, it's always preferable that we use care in our incremental training and avoid setting the pup up for
failure by expecting him to sit longer than is organically possible for his little pea-sized puppy brain. But if we
happen to misjudge his infantile capacity for remaining gravity-bound and motionless, then the best remedial
strategy to counteract our training error is to reiterate the "Sit" command at the moment we observe the pup
beginning to think about self-releasing from the sit (and then immediately releasing the pup as a reward for
maintaining the extended sit). This is an effective and reasonable technique to reinforce
the desired behavior by creating an opportunity to reward it.
If at this stage of formative learning and training there arises the opportunity to repeat a command to
ensure success, then by all means, do it.
On the other hand, saying nothing as he raises
himself up from the sit, or re-commanding "Sit" long after he
has completely released himself from the sit, or correcting him for getting up out of the sit, are all
equally inappropriate strategies for managing behaviors that arise from the inexperienced and untrained
dog's lack of understanding.
Now let's say you've been diligently training for a while, and now the young dog has quite a bit more training
experience under his collar. You have trained him to a proficient 2-minute sit, reliable even with
some interesting distraction. Now it's time to introduce distance. You command "Sit," he puts his
bottom on the ground, you mark, and as you initiate that first single step away from him -- you
repeat the command "Sit."
Why? Because you are teaching the behavior in a new context -- you are teaching him to Sit while you walk away
from him. When you reiterate the "Sit" command, you are putting more money into that Bank of
Success by re-affirming the same association between the known command and the desired behavior while
making a substantial change in the environmental context (walking away from the dog).
There is some disagreement in the training world about whether it's acceptable
training practice to repeat a command. I hold that it is acceptable if by selectively doing so you are
ensuring your dog's success in the context of formative learning. You will get far more mileage
out of your long term training efforts if in the early stages of teaching and training you
proactively create every opportunity for successful behaviors that can be rewarded, and avoid setting
your dog up for failure.
Fast forward to some time in the future. As a result of your incremental, reward-based training,
Junior has now mastered the 5-minute sit with distraction
and with you walking out of sight for two of those minutes. Good boy! Do you think Junior
understands what the word "Sit" means? Of course he does. You have incrementally taught and
trained him, ensured that each training experience was set up to succeed. You have motivated
him with appropriately timed command, mark, reward, and release, and he is responding splendidly
with an enthusiastic "Sit" behavior. On a scale of 0 to 10, Junior knows "Sit" at a near-masters level of 9.8.
You're walking to the pet store with Junior, and you stop in front of the store to jaw with
a good friend. You command Junior to "Sit" and just as he's complied 1,492 times before, he
immediately sits. About 20 seconds later, a customer comes out of the store with their rambunctious
young female Schnoodle in tow. As they pass, Junior extends his head forward, his sure sign that he intends
to further investigate this potential prom date. At the precise moment when Junior's thinking
transitions from internal thought bubble to external butt levitation, you have four choices:
(1) you can re-command "Sit," or
(2) you can give a correction, or
(3) you can re-command "Sit" and give a correction, or
(4) you can do nothing at all.
Which would you choose? I would opt for (3), re-commanding "Sit" and giving a correction. Here's why:
I know that Junior knows "Sit" means plant your rear end on the ground, because I carefully and
correctly trained him to do so. I know that Junior knows that he must maintain the Sit until I
command otherwise, again because I carefully and correctly trained him to do so. I also know that
Junior knows how to successfully Sit for 5 minutes -- we've accomplished that many, many times in
our training and performance. All of these facts support my decision to correct his willful misbehavior.
(Please see related article Ain't Misbehaving: When and How to Make a Correction.)
What I don't know is -- does Junior possess the experience to know that he is to maintain his
flawless sit even as a saucy young thang dances the Come-hither mere inches from his nose? No, I
can't say for sure that at his age, experience, and training status Junior knows that. So I do
everything in my power to ensure that he successfully maintains his sit despite the most outrageously
irresistible distraction known to dogkind. To ensure that he understands that I am correcting him for
breaking the sit, and not for showing a perfectly normal interest in a canine of the opposite sex,
I re-command "Sit" at the instant he is beginning to move out of the sit position and as I give an
appropriate correction.
What does Junior know now? He knows that Sit means Sit regardless of the most
extreme distraction. Junior is at an advanced level of training, he fully understands the command
and knows the behavior that is expected of him. I believe that
Junior has learned how to maintain his formal sit under prolonged duration, distance, and distraction.
Some weeks later, after even more advanced training under duration, distance, and distraction, I command
Junior to sit and he makes the faulty decision to willfully break
out of the sit of his own volition before I have given him explicit permission to do so. At the
moment that self-liberating thought makes a connection between his brain and his hind end, I apply
a preventative correction. I do not repeat the "Sit" command. I precisely correct and prevent willful disobedience.
When we are at the basic level of learning and training and we are in the process of teaching and
training new behaviors, there is no downside to repeating the associated command as and when needed
to enhance learning and bolster success.
As we advance through our beginning skills building, if we are teaching and training appropriately and
proficiently, the dog will advance in understanding and skills, and consequently we begin to extinguish
the practice of repeating a command to assist foundation learning.
As the dog advances through the proofing of duration, distance, and distraction, we may judiciously
repeat the initial obedience command to ensure that the dog remains confident and successful as it
experiences the increasingly more challenging stressors of novel environmental exposures and conditioning.
When the dog has achieved an advanced level of understanding and obedience skills through all manner
of environmental stressors including duration, distance, and distraction, and if the dog willfully
disobeys a command that it fully knows and understands and that the dog is
decidedly capable of performing in the present environment, then we may correct the misbehavior without
reiterating the original command. It is at this stage of advanced training and proofing that a
single command, such as "Sit," will and must suffice to ensure reliable compliance from start to finish.
Here's the heads up: If you have been trying to teach a behavior for an extended period of time, and you
are still repeating the command several times to achieve and maintain compliance, then
there is likely something missing from your overall training strategy. Proficient teaching, training,
and proofing to the point where the dog maintains the behavior on a single command is as important
for the companion dog performing the long sit as it is for the Police K9 outing on command. While it can be
an acceptable strategy to reiterate a command during the short-term early behavioral shaping and
learning phases, it is not acceptable to continue to reiterate over the long-term a command in an attempt to
gain and preserve compliance from a resistant dog. This nagging -- whether with
the leash or the voice -- is entirely counterproductive, constitutes excessive and ambiguous
correction, and reveals critical deficiencies in the fundamental training and handling.
Any lapse in team performance should be addressed immediately with a commitment to clear and
consistent teaching, training, and handling that incrementally raise the performance bar, and
that leave no room for doubt as to the specific behavioral requirements you have set for your
dog, and the explicit ramifications should they go unmet. (Please see related article,
The Obedient Handler).
So in answer to the question, "Should you repeat a training command?" -- the answer really is
yes and no. "Yes" when you're teaching new skills, and "No" when a reiterative
command is nothing more than a worn out band-aid overly used to cover up inadequate teaching, training, and proofing.
You'll find additional training articles in the NorthWest K9 Reading Room.
Information about private team training programs is found in our Client Training
department.
