Enter boxer and owner on lead. They get part way inside the park and the owner asks the dog to sit and takes off the leash. Immediately she turns to talk to a pack of other dog owners totally ignoring her poor dog, who despite all sorts of dogs rushing, milling and sniffing around remains solidly in that sit - but looking more and more stressed about it as more dogs gather. Eventually the other dogs move off as this one's obviously no fun. Then enters a family with a couple of smaller dogs. They come through the gate and try to get their dogs (besides themselves on leash) past the boxer and the mill of people talking. After a comment from the man of the family the people move aside but the boxer remains sitting - now with two dogs barking right in his face - and for his trouble gets yelled at by his own owner - 'What are you still doing there you stupid dog! Why aren't you playing! What a waste of a trip if you're not even going to have a sniff!' A huff and back on the lead the boxer goes to be dragged to the car with tail low and head down.
There are a number of things I could comment on in this story - and not least amongst them is the marvelous obedience and temperament of that poor (unappreciated) boxer. But that's not the point here. The point is that he was told to sit - and did - but he was never told that he was free to end the sit and do his own thing - and then he was even blamed for that rather than thanked. Oh if only that poor boxer had a release cue then he could have played instead of having a dreadful day at the dog park : )
All of this could be fixed by using a simple release cue. A release cue is a simple cue (often a word and/or some form of hand signal) that tells your dog that whatever behaviour he has just done for you is now over. Ask sit - then tell him when the sit ends. Ask for a down and tell him when he can get up. Tell him to stay or wait and tell him when he is free to move away and do his own thing.
Some of you may have cues like 'go play' or 'go free' or 'no more' to end a session of play or training - that's another release cue. These cues make it clear to your dog that the activity has ended. I'm sure you've all seen or experienced a puppy or dog who waits as long as they think they have to then wanders away distracted, or a jack-in-the-box sit where the bum goes down and straight back up again. Is this the dog being naughty or is it because while we all focus on being clear with our requests we are not so clear about when things end. Think about adding a release cue to your dog's vocabulary and you should see reliability increase as he becomes clearer about exactly what behaviour you want and that it will end (at your behest, not his).
I personally use the word 'ok' and a sweeping outward hand signal for my boy - but ok is not necessarily the best word as it is so common in our vocabulary.
If you want more information about to teach a release cue give a yell.
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