This page is part of the Auxiliary section of the Beginner's Course of the
D.S. Dog Training Workshop - an element of the Dog Science Network
Okay as a Term of release
Okay is not a command per se, in fact, it is almost the opposite of a command.
Over time, as you work with your dog, the word okay will come to have three overlapping meanings.
- Do whatever you want to do
- Do whatever it is that you are thinking about doing
- Do the obvious thing
The dog will quickly come to know which of the three you mean, simply by the situational context.
For example, a dog who has been commanded to sit is sure to be sitting there wondering, How long is this going to last? When can I get up and walk around again?.
Thus, in that context, when you tell you dog okay, he will come to take that to mean, do whatever you want to do, and since what he wants to do is to stop sitting and get up and move around, he will take the word okay to mean, you can stop obeying that last command now.
Okay, then, serves nicely as a release cue that tells your dog that he can now disregard the command he was given previously.
In contrast, if your dog sees someone in the distance that he knows, and it is clear that he is dying to run over there and greet them, then, in that context, the word okay would carry all three meanings, because your dog wants to go greet them, and that is what he is thinking about doing, and it is also the obvious thing to do. Thus, when you tell your dog okay in that context, it will amount to permission to go.
If your dog saw a swimming pool and was clearly eager to dive in, then, okay would mean go ahead and do it.
If you and your street safety trained dog are walking down the sidewalk together, and just a few paces before you reach the street, you say okay - in that context, your dog will understand that to be permission to enter the roadway.
You see, then, that okay is not exactly a command. Rather, it amounts to giving your dog permission to either stop obeying the previous command, and/or permission to do whatever it is that he wants to do.