MARKERS

When it comes to dog training, what is a marker?

A marker can be a sound or a gesture that we use to tell our Pups the exact moment they did something right. 

Examples of markers include a word (like “Yip!” or “Yes”), a click (using a clicker device – more on that later), or even a gesture (like using a thumbs up for a deaf dog). Regardless of your specific marker, all markers do the same thing: they tell your Pup that they did something right, and a reward is coming. 

A successful exchange with a marker might look something like this when training sit: 

1. Pup is about to sit.
2. You wait and mark by saying “Yip!” the second Pup’s hind end touches the ground.
3. AFTER you MARK, you deliver a treat. 

Now your Pup knows the exact moment in time that something earned a reward.
One of the key elements that will help you get and keep your Pup’s engagement with you is the use of markers. 

Learning new skills can be difficult for both you and your Pup during training. Marking is one of the key concepts that will speed up the learning for your dog… it may slow you down just a bit as you learn so it is optional to use them. Once you know how, you can go faster and be more precise.

If we mark, we reward. 

We often focus on the reward as the most powerful component of training our dogs, but MARKING is important if we are going to train them at a distance or with complex behaviors. 

REMEMBER - What gets rewarded gets repeated. 

What if I accidentally mark the wrong thing? 

That’s okay. There will be plenty of opportunities to help clear up what you actually want; the important thing is that you treat EVERY time you mark, even if you made a mistake. Even if there are times where you mismark as you are learning. Rewarding your dog even if you mess up, means that they will never, ever be confused about the meaning of the marker. They might be confused about the exact behavior but you can adjust this. 

Choosing a Marker

Verbal Markers: Your chosen marker word should always be the same word or sound. It needs to be a short, sharp sound, like “YIP,” “YEP,” or “YES;” not a slow, drawn-out “Yeasssss.” This helps ~~make it clear exactly what and when you are marking.~~ ~~with clarity~~ 

I recommend “YIP!” as a marker, because it is a short sharp sound that you aren’t likely to be using at other times when you AREN’T trying to mark behavior. It makes a good “secret handshake!”

Clickers: Clicker devices are typically plastic or metal with a button or surface that makes a sharp “click” sound when pressed. The sound is very precise, but also requires having extra equipment on-hand and cannot be adjusted in volume. I recommend starting with a strong verbal marker.

You can advance to a clicker if you: 

• Want to teach your dog complex tricks
• Participate in obedience competition or sport
• Have a service dog 
• Have a behavior issue that needs more support 

When and How Do I Mark? 

You want to mark at the exact moment your Pup shows a desired behavior. This can be a behavior you requested or cued, or it can even be a new behavior you see and like. In either situation, we are clearly and succinctly telling our Pup “THAT! I liked that. Here’s a reward.” 

As soon as you see what you like, mark the behavior, then deliver the treat to your Pup. That’s it! Always mark, then move your hand to deliver a treat.
Mark, THEN move.

MARKING can establish new behaviors faster, we fade the mark when fluent.

A marker is not a remote control for attention or interruption... but as usual there are exceptions to this rule, you can use a MARK as you advance to get attention under distraction (engage / disengage)

GENERALIZATION

Generalization means that your dog has learned the meaning of a cue and will perform that cue in any location and under distraction.

When we start training together, notice how I’ve asked you

To change hands to reward
To change positions, if you were sitting, I may ask you to stand
To change tone of voice
To change rooms
To change places to go

We are generalizing slow and steady.

An example of a dog that has not yet generalized a cue is when you teach a behavior in the living room but the minute your dog is out of the living room they seem to forget everything they learned. The cue has not been generalized. It’s important to take the time to train each new behavior with treats in new locations, rather than expecting the behavior to happen.

Dogs are place learners and context changes require backtracking or even starting from the beginning. When you walk in your neighborhood and there are holiday decorations, your Pup will notice a context change and many will not be able to listen as well as they did before the change. It could be as simple as a new plant in the landscape, a seemingly insignificant change to humans can make a massive difference in your dog’s behavior. Also, their nose will smell so many changes we don’t see.

A reminder that dogs don’t actually understand fluent English - we will train and build communication in a time frame that works for you and your dog.

I love this analogy is from Sally's blog, which is currently unavailable, but I've included a portion:

“If we change everything in that area from unfamiliar smells, concrete to sit on, unusual smells and the sound of traffic the dog will be confused. Even though the cue word is the same, everything else has changed.

Try to imagine it like making a cup of tea in someone else’s house. You can make a cup of tea with your eyes closed at home, yet here you don't know where the cups are kept and are poking about looking for ingredients. The act of making tea goes from a subconscious, easy, natural act because it has been learned and practiced to an awkward and stilted process. A couple of practice runs and you will have it down to a fine art.

This is why we practice shaping and adding all our cues in many different areas, before we can be sure the dog knows what they mean.”

Important Note:

As we test a cue over a time, we set the dog up to succeed by making sure we don’t ask too much too soon. A cue is a request, it’s a question not a command.

As distractions and context changes go up, so do rewards. The bigger request we make from our dogs the more motivation and reward we offer.

Once they learn a cue in many environments and are fast, we can start decreasing rewards, this will actually make the behavior stronger if we decrease with the right timing and add back in surprise rewards. And we don’t have to mark once the cue is fluent.

This builds calm confidence. A confident dog learns quickly and happily.

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Additional trainer talk for the geeks –

Classical = Association
Operant = Consequence
Stimulus Control = Do what I say…not what you want.

A conditioned stimulus becomes a discriminative stimulus (or cue) when it is followed by a specific learned behavior or reaction. The response is said to be “under stimulus control” when presentation of the particular stimulus fulfills these four conditions:

1. the behavior is always offered when that cue is presented
2. the behavior is not offered in the absence of that cue
3. the behavior is not offered in response to some other cue
4. and no other behavior occurs in response to that cue

CER - conditioned emotional response to the marker, to training , positive & productive relationship