Table = Down

Dogs really are honest souls and I have to appreciate Killy's honesty today with the table. His table behavior is to jump on and lay down, I cue "table" and he lays down. To be truthful, I never really paid attention to whether I was signaling down with a hand signal or verbally saying down. Anyway, I assumed that the cue table meant "jump on the table and lay down". Well.......today I learned table = down.

We decided today to practice a tunnel and some jumps to the table. It would be fun and fast for the dogs and we could practice our tables. There were three straight jumps to the table. My plan was to cue early (as I am usually late, but trying to get better) for the table. I am driving hard, yell "table" between jump 2 & 3, keep driving....wait! Where's my dog? He's lying down between jump 2&3...the same time when I yelled table!

Needless to say, I changed my table word to "hup" and he's fine. I use "hup" when I want him to jump up on things, so it's not a word he has to learn.

My thought is based on last post and this one, I really need to define my cues better. What I think they mean and what Killy understands them as is not always the same. That and timing of commands will be my goals this year. Clean up the timing and clean up the cues.