Dog training glossary
Poisoned Cue
Quick answer
A cue that has become associated with something unpleasant, causing hesitation, slow responses, or avoidance instead of a clean response.
Written by the TailorPup team, updated September 2026. See our editorial approach.
What it means
A cue gets "poisoned" when it's been paired, even occasionally, with something the dog wants to avoid, like being punished for a slow "come" or scolded after a "down" that led somewhere unpleasant (a bath, a nail trim). Once poisoned, the same word can trigger a mix of the original trained response and an avoidance response at the same time, showing up as hesitation, slower latency, or the dog performing the behavior with visible reluctance. The usual fix is retiring the poisoned word entirely and building a fresh cue from scratch with purely positive associations.
A real example
A dog called with "come!" and then immediately put in a crate every single time starts approaching slowly, ears back, or not at all, even though it happily comes running when there's no crate involved.
Common mistake
Continuing to use a cue that's clearly become poisoned, assuming more repetition will fix it, when repetition just reinforces the negative association further.
Related terms
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