Adopted Dog Already Trained? How to Find Out Which Commands, Hand Signals and Release Word a Rehomed Dog Already Knows

You bring home an adopted dog, put the food bowl down, and he just sits there staring at you. Or he lies down the moment you raise your hand, or freezes in a doorway as if waiting for a word you never say. A lot of rehomed dogs arrive already trained. The trouble is that nobody hands you the manual, so you have to work out which commands, hand signals and release word your dog already knows. That takes about a week of short, calm tests, and the cue tester below keeps track of them for you.

How to tell if your adopted dog is already trained (2026 guide)

Quick answer: Ask the shelter or rescue what they saw, then test in this order: silent hand signals first, then the usual English verbal cues, then the same cues in German, Spanish, French, Dutch and Czech, and last a short list of common release words (okay, free, break, release, all done). Test each cue once or twice, in a quiet room, with a treat ready. A dog that responds within a second or two on the first try almost certainly learned that cue before.

Work through the tester as you go. Mark each cue as no response, partial or clear, and it builds a cue sheet you can copy and share with everyone in the house.

One warning before you start: a dog in his first days in a new home often doesn’t respond to cues he knows perfectly well, because he’s stressed and everything is new. If your dog only arrived this week, treat a “no response” as “not yet” rather than “doesn’t know it.” The adjustment period the 3-3-3 rule for rescue dogs describes is a rough guide, not a deadline, but it’s a good reason to repeat any failed test a few weeks later.

In the short video below, trainer Sarah from the Sarah Certified channel shows what a release cue is, the situations it’s used in, and how it’s taught. It helps to see that once, because a dog trained to wait for a release looks a lot like a dog that’s simply nervous.

Why so many adopted dogs come with hidden training

Plenty of shelter and rescue dogs had a home, and often training, before they came to you. US shelters and rescues took in millions of dogs in 2025, and a large share of all intake were pets their owners gave up. Each of those dogs carries whatever its last family taught it, in their words and their hand gestures.

Those figures come from the ASPCA’s US shelter statistics page, which draws on Shelter Animals Count data. The 30% owner-surrender figure covers dogs and cats together. Nobody publishes a dog-only number, and no national data says how many surrendered dogs were trained, so treat the table as scale, not as a training statistic. If you want the wider picture, our look at why shelter return and rehoming numbers don’t line up explains how these counts are built.

What owners report is more telling. In an October 2026 r/dogs thread (over 230 upvotes, close to 100 comments), the owner of a four-year-old adopted poodle wrote that the dog sat or lay on its bed and stared at them every time food went down, and only ate later. The most upvoted replies said the same thing: he’s waiting for permission, so try “okay,” “free,” “break” or “release.” Another commenter wrote that their Texas rescue looked confused by every English command until they tried Spanish, and he “responded immediately.” Those are personal accounts, not data, but they match the two most common hidden-training situations: a release word nobody knows, and cues in another language.

Step 1: Ask before you test

The fastest information comes from people who’ve already seen the dog work. Shelters, foster carers and rescues often notice cues during handling, even when the surrender paperwork says nothing about training. Ask specific questions. “Is he trained?” gets you “seems smart.” “What does he do when you raise your hand?” gets you something you can use.

One commenter in the r/dogs thread suggested that people giving up a trained dog should send it with a cheat sheet. If the rescue has any contact with the previous home, asking for exactly that is a fair request.

Step 2: Run a silent hand-signal test first

Test hand signals before words, and keep your mouth shut while you do it. Dogs often learn the gesture more firmly than the word, so a dog that ignores “sit” may sit the moment you lift an open palm. Testing silently also stops you from accidentally pairing a word with the gesture, which would muddy the result.

The study is summarized clearly in Stanley Coren’s write-up for Psychology Today. All the dogs in it had first been trained to respond equally well to words and gestures. When the two cues pointed to different objects, most dogs went with the gesture, and dogs given both cues together responded faster. For an adopted dog, that means the gesture is a strong place to start, even if the previous owner mostly talked.

Common hand signals to try

Give each signal once, clearly, from about a meter away, and wait three seconds before you decide. Don’t repeat it five times, and don’t lean over the dog. Leaning over a nervous dog often makes him shrink down, and that’s easy to mistake for a trained “down.”

Step 3: Try verbal cues, then other languages

Next, say the common English words in a normal, friendly voice, no hand movement. If you get nothing, work through the same cues in other languages. German is the classic one: working dogs, and dogs from protection sports such as IGP (formerly Schutzhund), are often trained with German words, and imported dogs may know the cues of their home country.

You don’t need a perfect accent. Dogs learn the sound pattern, not the spelling, and a rough “zitz” for Sitz usually works if the dog knows it. Test one language per session so you can tell which one caused a response. If the dog lights up at the German or Spanish words, you’ve likely found his training language.

Step 4: Find the release word

A release word tells a dog he’s free to leave a position: get up from a sit, leave his bed, walk through the door, or start eating. A dog trained with one will often wait, sometimes for minutes, until he hears it. That’s exactly what the poodle in the Reddit thread was doing at the food bowl.

That’s in the AKC’s guide to teaching a dog to stay. To test, ask for a sit or put the food bowl down, wait two or three seconds, and say one candidate word in a cheerful voice. Watch for the instant change: the dog stands up, steps forward, or dives into the bowl. Try one word per attempt, and leave a minute or two between attempts so the dog isn’t just guessing from your tone.

• Okay / OK: the most common in American homes.
• Free or Free dog: popular with positive-reinforcement trainers.
• Break: common in sport and obedience training.
• Release, All done, Go ahead or Go eat: often used at mealtimes.
• A touch or pat on the back or shoulder: some owners release with touch rather than a word.

If none of them works, you don’t need to find the old word. Pick your own and teach it fresh, as in the video above. Until then, don’t leave a waiting dog stuck: put the bowl down, say your new word, and walk away so he can eat.

How to read the response: clear, partial or none

The difference between a dog who learned a cue years ago and one who’s just guessing usually shows in speed and smoothness. Use these signs to score each test in the tester.

Keep sessions to five minutes or less, reward every attempt that’s even close, and stop at once if the dog turns away, licks his lips, yawns repeatedly or tries to leave. Testing shouldn’t feel like an exam to him. It’s also worth testing in more than one room: some dogs only know a cue in the place they learned it, like the kitchen or the front door.

What to do with what you find

Once your cue sheet is done, decide cue by cue whether to keep the old word or teach a new one. Keeping known cues is almost always faster, even if they’re in German.

Whatever you keep, reward it. A dog who learned with corrections may respond fast but tensely, and switching to food rewards usually makes the same cue look happier and more reliable. Our comparison of positive reinforcement and aversive training methods covers what the welfare research says. If your dog knows “heel” but still pulls on normal walks, that’s a separate skill. Formal heeling and relaxed leash walking aren’t the same thing, which is part of why many loose-leash methods fail over time.

Agree the words with everyone in the house and stick the cue sheet on the fridge. If there’s a resident dog, give the newcomer his own name before each cue so the two don’t answer for each other. Our guide to what makes multi-dog households work has more on training two dogs at once.

Common mistakes when testing a rehomed dog

1. Testing on day one. Stress hides what a dog knows. Repeat any failed test after a few weeks.
2. Mixing words and gestures. You won’t know which one worked. Test them separately first.
3. Repeating the cue again and again. “Sit, sit, SIT” teaches the dog the cue is optional. Say it once, then wait.
4. Testing release words back to back. The dog starts reacting to your voice rising, not the word. Leave gaps.
5. Using a lure and calling it a trained response. If food in your hand is guiding the dog, you’re teaching, not testing.
6. Assuming a waiting dog is just shy. Freezing at food or doors can be trained manners. Try the release words before anything else.

Adopted dog training FAQ

How this guide was put together: shelter figures come from the ASPCA’s 2025 US statistics (Shelter Animals Count data). The gesture-versus-word result comes from Scandurra et al., Animal Cognition, 2017, which is still the study most often cited on the question. The release-word list comes from the American Kennel Club’s stay guide and from trainer practice, and owner experiences come from a public r/dogs discussion. The command translations are the standard cue words used in each language; regional variants exist.