A cue asks.
What response is the handler requesting? Look for the action or position that follows.
Understand the sequence · Finn’s owner lesson
Cues and markers:
what is each word doing?
One word asks for an action. Another gives information about what just happened. Listening for that difference makes a training session easier to follow—and gives you a better question to bring to your own lesson.
Start with the job, then the word.
In Finn’s second owner lesson, the trainer separates commands from markers. He uses sit, down and heel as examples of words that ask for a position or action. A marker serves a different purpose: communicating something about the dog’s response.
Here we use cue for the request; the trainer says command in the recording. The useful distinction is the role the word plays in the sequence. Hearing a familiar word is only the start of understanding what the handler means by it.
A marker informs.
What information is the handler giving about the response? Look at when the word occurs and what follows it.
Listen to the explanation.
Finn In-Program Lesson #2 (Partial) is a conversation with Finn’s family while he is still in the program. Start at 22:03 and listen through the end of this partial recording, around 24:54.
Open the original explanation at 22:03 ↗ · Watch the full available recording ↗
- 22:03–22:31: listen for the distinction between communicating an idea and asking for a position.
- Around 23:24: listen to the explanation of a word consistently predicting what follows.
- Around 24:21: listen as the trainer begins explaining “okay,” including its use as a release. He also mentions a difference in the word another trainer uses.
The recording ends during the explanation of the next marker. This excerpt does not contain a complete marker vocabulary or a demonstration of the family using it. Keep that limit in mind when making notes.
A release deserves its own question.
The word that ends a position matters too. In this conversation, the trainer discusses “okay” as a release and a marker for something good. That is his explanation in this lesson; it does not tell you that every trainer uses “okay” in exactly the same way.
Ask your trainer: “Does this word mean that was right, that the position is finished, or both?” Then ask what you should do next. A list of words is more useful when you know the expected response and what each word permits.
Now compare an actual sequence.
Open Kodak’s cue-and-reward guide. Watch the linked moment, then replay it with three questions:
- What does the handler say or do before Kodak’s response?
- What response can you actually see?
- What happens immediately afterward, including the return to play?
Write those events in order. If you cannot clearly hear a word, leave it uncertain instead of assigning it a role from memory. Finn’s conversation helps you form the questions; Kodak’s footage gives you a different session to observe. The two recordings are not a before-and-after comparison.
Check your understanding.
Think through each example, then open the explanation. These are practice examples, not claims about unseen moments in either recording.
“Down” comes before a requested position. What job is it doing?
It is functioning as a cue: a request for a response. Whether the dog understands or performs it is a separate question that requires observing the sequence.
You hear “okay.” Can you assume the dog should leave the position?
Check the meaning established in that dog’s training. Finn’s trainer discusses a release use here, but the word alone does not establish every handler’s intended meaning.
A dog changes position after a word. Does that prove you have identified a marker?
No. You need the surrounding sequence and the handler’s explanation. The word could have been a cue, a release, or something else. Record what you heard and saw before interpreting it.
Bring a small vocabulary map to your lesson.
Build and download your own cue map below →
For each word you are learning, write four things: the word, its job, the response you expect, and what follows. Have your trainer check the map while you practice. Include the release word rather than leaving the end of a repetition implicit.
Earlier in Finn’s conversation, around 10:04, the trainer flags “let’s go” and “come” as two different commands that owners can mix up. Their demonstration is planned for later, beyond what this partial recording shows. The useful question to carry into your lesson is: “What does each of our words ask my dog to do?”
Hear that earlier discussion at 10:04 ↗
Use your family’s agreed vocabulary and practice plan. This guide helps you observe and ask precise questions; it does not supply the missing parts of Finn’s lesson or a complete training protocol.
Prepare for your owner lesson → · Print your practice note →
Make it useful for your household
Build your family’s cue map.
Write the words you already use and the meaning agreed with your trainer. Leave a field uncertain when you need to ask. A word can have more than one job; use “What happens next?” to explain the sequence.
These notes stay in this page. They are not sent to Angier K9 or saved automatically. Download your notes before leaving or refreshing. Keep the file so you can bring it to your lesson.
Before practicing: have your trainer confirm the meanings and the sequence for your dog. This is a conversation worksheet, not a new set of training instructions.
Give the word a destination and an ending.
In Angier K9's recorded lessons, come and let's go have different jobs. A recall brings the dog back to the person and keeps the dog with that person until the request ends. A movement cue asks the dog to move along in the chosen direction. A dog passing the handler may fit one request while missing the other.
The recall topic links King's explanation at 38:44. When you watch, continue beyond the approach: where does the dog arrive, does the dog remain, and what ends the request? The teaching corpus includes households using a sit at the end and others using a different position near the person. The destination and continuation matter; your family's agreed ending supplies the detail.
A release word has its own job. In the recorded cue system it ends the request; a compliment, a hand reaching for food or the handler changing posture is not automatically the ending. This helps explain why praising a held position and releasing it are different events. Ask your trainer to demonstrate both with your dog.
A useful clarification: “When I use this word, where should my dog finish, what happens next, and which word tells my dog the request is over?” Write the answer alongside your existing cue notes.
Use the words and sequence agreed in your own lesson. These distinctions explain the filmed system; they are not a reason to rename a cue or invent an equipment correction while reading.
Continue into the recorded teaching: Recall and coming back in Field Notes · Read the underlying teaching.
An owner’s release-word insight.
Stormi’s owner brings a question from watching the videos. At 4:28 in her first owner lesson, she asks why the trainer expects sit to continue without a separate stay word. He explains the position and its release in the following exchange.
Later, she identifies a detail in her own earlier teaching: she had used sit and down without saying a word for Stormi to get up. She responds:
“Now I know.”
This is a person connecting the meaning of the ending with the words she has been using. The trainer continues the conversation about what a person comes to a training program to learn. Follow the full source pathway to keep the earlier question, explanation and later response together.
When you use your cue map, include what the word allows next. You could ask: “When I say the ending word, what is my dog free to do?” Have your trainer connect the answer to your dog’s agreed sequence. Stormi’s example gives the question a family context; Finn’s partial recording above retains its own scope.
For the human side of learning those details, read patience for the people learning, too. For a complete coached attempt that includes the ending, follow Shadow’s family turn with the leash.
Teaching connection updated October 2, 2026. Based on the linked published Field Notes explanations and written as an editorial guide.
Keep the word and visible help in the same account.
A cue can be accompanied by a gesture, visible food, repeated words or equipment help. Record those features before deciding what prompted the response. A command list alone leaves out the sequence that your trainer may need to understand.
Watch Rocko’s room exchange and continue through the explanation. The handler later questions whether food was visible and says he does not remember. The clip preserves that uncertainty instead of treating the earlier account as an isolated test of the word.
For your own dog, bring one ordinary example and ask your trainer to clarify the request, assistance, reward and ending they want you to use. Make a downloadable practice note, then keep the agreed instruction in your lesson record.
There is no need to change a cue, remove food or repeat an uncertain attempt to complete the note. Follow the routine agreed for your dog; the recording supplies a viewing question, not a new exercise.