Cues VS Commands - the importance of linguistics in animal training

I'm sure if you've been looking into animal behaviour and training you will have noticed that some of us use the term cue, while others use 'command'. I just want to share some musings on why I think it's important to consider which term we use and how each term influences our approach to training.

 So to begin with let us define what we mean by cues or commands...

 

CUE: 'A signal for someone to do something' (Cambridge dictionary). 'A hint or prompting' (The Free Dictionary)

COMMAND:  'An order... Or control over someone or something' (Cambridge Dictionary). 'To direct with authority; order, bid, demand, govern, lead' (The Free Dictionary)

I don't know about anyone else, but personally I have animals in my life because I truly love and value them. I want to give them good lives. Emergencies aside I want them to have autonomy and feel safe and relaxed when they're with me, I want to encourage behaviour and emotional states from the animal which are safe and beneficial to us both and hands up I also want them to like me! 

 

We spend a heck of a lot of time together, if they don't like me it's going to make them miserable if they have to live with me or see me on a regular basis and I'm not going to be too happy either (while I'm not too bothered about people pleasing I really want any animals I meet to like me! 🙈) So why is it that when we train our horses or dogs we look for 'obedience' from a perspective of forcing control over our animals, training them by giving 'orders'? 'Command' suggests that what we say must go, it is a literal order, if they don't do as we say then there will often be unpleasant consequences. A Command leaves little room for empowering the animal we're working with, it leaves little room for creativity in our training and learning and it certainly leaves no room for bonding between us and our horse or dog. This is why I personally (as well as the majority of other force free trainers and behaviour consultants) will use the term cue in training instead.

Cue, like a command, is a signal for the animal to do something, but there is a difference... With a cue mindset we respect the animal's experience more deeply than when commanding something from them. We ask, and they get to choose. There are no unpleasant consequences should they choose to not do whatever it is we have given a cue for, but rather, if they don't then we will simply work on that behaviour more, or find a new way to teach it. Like commands, you can teach animals cues which they learn to respond reliably to but it is a prompt rather than a demand.

So they serve the same purpose... does it really matter what we call them? Well yes, yes it does. One is an ask, the other is a tell. Going into a training session thinking of your cues as commands puts a divide in place, it places you as the authority / boss figure and your horse or dog as a subordinate. This is only going to cause problems. We really want to be going into training sessions or simply into our day to day interactions with our animals from a mindset of empathy and understanding - the whole concept of a command acts against this. With a command we may think 'How dare they  disobey me?!' whereas if we go into an interaction with our animal with a cue mindset we are more likely to say 'Well ok, that didn't work... Why was that and what can we do to get it to work in the future?'. A cue mindset allows us to accept our animals experience on a deeper level. It becomes more about the experience as a whole (e.g. Biopsychosocial) rather than just about their observable 'behaviour'. This will help us become more effective and effective teachers, it will help us bond and build more trust with our animals and it will allow us to be more compassionate towards ourselves as teachers and our animals they learn.

 

At the end of the day, training is just about inter-species communication. Surely it is better to speak to our animals with respect, kindness and clarity through thoughtful and clear signals than it is to simply demand things from them simply because we can?

Really I just want to highlight how the words we use matter. Our thoughts affect our emotions, and in turn our actions. Be it on a conscious or unconscious level. So from now on when you're working with your horse or dog, as yourself: 'Do I have a cue mindset or a command mindset? Are you training by asking or demanding? And if it's the latter, maybe consider how you could change that. 💜

Thank you for reading,

Jen x

Visit my website: www.feralhearts-horses.com 

Insta: @feralhearts_behaviour