Episode 016 - Why You Should Keep a List of Your Dog Training Cues

Season #1 September 16, 2025

Show Notes

Why You Should Keep a List of Your Dog Training Cues

In this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility podcast, Lorrie Reynolds explains why keeping a written list of your dog’s cues can make training clearer, more organized, and more effective.

Many handlers create new verbal cues as they teach behaviors, tricks, and agility skills, but over time it becomes easy to accidentally duplicate cues or choose words that sound too similar. A simple cue list can prevent confusion for both the handler and the dog.

This episode explores how maintaining a cue list can improve communication, help you plan training sessions, and give you a powerful reminder of how much your dog has already learned.

Topics Covered

dog training cues, verbal cues in dog training, agility training communication, organizing dog training behaviors, improving clarity in dog training

In This Episode You’ll Learn

• Why similar-sounding cues can create confusion for your dog
• How a cue list helps prevent duplication of verbal cues
• Why clear and distinct cues improve training communication
• How a cue list can help you plan training sessions more easily
• How reviewing your dog’s cue list can keep you motivated in training

Episode Overview

One of the most common questions beginning agility students ask is, “What verbal cue should I use for this behavior?”

While the specific cue word is often less important than consistency and clarity, choosing cues that are easy to remember and clearly distinct from each other can make training much easier.

In this episode, Lorrie shares examples from her own early training experiences when she unintentionally created several cues that started with the same sound. Words like table, tire, tunnel, and teeter all seemed logical at the time, but they could easily be confused when spoken quickly during training.

Dogs can also struggle with cues that sound similar, especially when the handler is working at a distance. Words such as “down” and “bow” may seem different to humans but can sound very similar to dogs.

Keeping a simple written list of your dog’s cues can help prevent these issues. A cue list allows you to review which words you already use, track how fluent each behavior is, and plan training sessions more effectively.

This list can also become a valuable source of motivation. Seeing the full collection of behaviors your dog has learned is a great reminder of how far you’ve come as a training team.

Key Training Concepts Mentioned

• choosing clear verbal cues in dog training
• avoiding similar-sounding cues
• tracking training progress and fluency
• organizing dog training sessions
• improving communication with your dog

Key Takeaway

Keeping a list of your dog’s cues helps prevent confusion, improves clarity in training, and makes it easier to plan future training sessions. It can also serve as a powerful reminder of your progress and accomplishments as a team.

Resources Mentioned

Maximum Fun Dog Sports
https://www.maximumfundogs.com

Free training resources and downloads
https://www.maximumfundogs.com

Explore Free Dog Training Resources

If you’d like additional tools to support your dog agility training, check out the free resources available in the Maximum Fun Dog Sports shop.

You’ll find guides and training materials designed to help agility teams improve communication, confidence, and connection.

Visit the shop here:
https://www.maximumfundogs.com

Related Episodes

Episode 013 – Is Your Dog Actually Stubborn?
Episode 014 – Your Dog Determines the Reward
Episode 015 – Why Reward Placement Matters to Your Agility Dog

Additional Resources:

Website: https://www.maximumfundogs.com
Shop: https://courses.maximumfundogs.com/shop
Email: [email protected]
Articles: https://www.maximumfundogs.com/articles
The Agility Playground: https://courses.maximumfundogs.com/2025-bb-tap1-7D

Episode Transcript

Lorrie [00:00:08]:
Welcome to the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. I'm Lorrie Reynolds, owner of Maximum Fun Dog Sports. We help your agility team build your relationship, communication, confidence, and fun in training so that you can joyfully succeed on any course. In this episode, I'll talk about the importance of keeping a list of your cues to avoid confusion, duplication, or similar sounding cues for different behaviors. One of the most frequent questions I get is about verbal cues. "What's the verbal cue?" is something that every beginning student asks. My answer is always the same. Name the behavior or obstacle with a cue that makes sense to you, that you can remember.

Lorrie [00:00:51]:
Make sure it doesn't sound similar to any other cue you use. You can even get creative with cues that will make people laugh. My 16 inch tall dog's cue for lining up between my feet was "saddle up". There are some cautions when naming behaviors though. When I first started agility training, I made the mistake of following the local conventions on verbal cues. I ended up with a whole bunch of t words, table, tire, tunnel, teeter, etcetera. Although they were perfectly descriptive and easy to remember, it was also easy to spit out the wrong cue in the heat of the moment. Thankfully, my handling system does not rely on verbal cues, and so this has become a non-issue.

Lorrie [00:01:34]:
But it's easy to see how having cues that start with the same sound could trip up someone new to the sport. I made a similar mistake on my verbal cues for tricks. "Down" and "bow" sound very similar to a dog. When you are asking your dog to perform behaviors with just a verbal cue and at a distance, it's difficult to blame her for mixing 2 tricks up that have a similar sounding cue. It's important to keep cues separate and distinct for clarity. I highly recommend keeping a written or digital master list of all the cues your dogs know. Not only will it help you ensure that you don't have 2 that sound the same, it will also help you come up with new cues that are different from the ones you currently use. I maintain a list that has 3 columns, verbal cue, behavior description, and fluency.

Lorrie [00:02:26]:
The fluency column has 3 check boxes so I can check them off if it is a cue that I have just started to train, one that I'm training but isn't fluent yet, or one that my dog knows well. Once you have a list of all of your dog's current cues, it becomes a great reference for planning your training sessions. If your dog knows a lot of tricks, for example, you may see one that you haven't worked on in a while. Seeing the cue can remind you to go through a few repetitions during your next training session so your dog doesn't lose the skill. The list can also help you quickly scan to see which cues you need more work on and which ones your dog knows fluently and might just need a quick review of. You can also take the list a step further as a planning tool. Use it to create index cards, popsicle sticks, etcetera, that each have a behavior listed on them. When you need inspiration for training, randomly pick a few cards or sticks and use them to base your session on.

Lorrie [00:03:26]:
If you'd like to go the more organized route, you can separate your index cards into groups like tricks, agility, manners, and so forth, and choose cards from the group you wanna work on, then rotate those cards to the back of the stack. It's important to recognize your accomplishments with your training. Looking at your list of cues can put your training into perspective. On days when training wasn't going so well, I looked at the list of Maxx's cues so I could remind myself of how far we had come. If you have trained even the basics to have a dog that you can live with, your list of cues is probably longer than you think and can provide you with inspiration to continue when you are feeling discouraged. Here's the recap. Keeping a list of your dog's behaviors and cues can ensure that you don't name 2 behaviors with similar names, gives you an easy reference for planning your training sessions, and serves as a reminder of how far you have come together as a team. I'd like to do something new this week and include a weekly challenge to you.

Lorrie [00:04:29]:
Take a few minutes to write down your cues. You don't have to make it as fancy as my list, but it's good to have them written down. If you've got a funny one, I'd love to hear it. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Maximum Fun Agility podcast. Check out the free resources we have available to dog owners on our website at www.maximumfundogs.com. Just click on the products tab and choose the one you want from the free resource section. See you next time.