Learning to Train Dogs with the Marker System

August 19 - 2008

This article is being re-written I have worked on it for the past 2 weeks and this will continue for another week. I am adding a tremendous amount of additional detail to the article. The free ebook and Podcast will not be updated with the new information until after this article is finished. It is changing on a daily basis right now

The Power of Training Dogs with

Markers

MARKING and SHAPING and LINKING BEHAVIORS

By Ed Frawley

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dante

Cindy from here at Leerburg playing the "Hand Touch" with the Dante
This game was trained with MARKERS and Dante loves it.

The purpose for this article is to introduce dog owners, new and old a like, to a system of dog training called "Training with Markers ". Marker training (sometimes called "clicker training") is truely a revolutionary method to train dogs.

Before I start this article I will begin by saying that it was not than many years ago (in the 1980's and 1990s) that I was pretty vocal about how I thought clicker training was stupid. Those comments were made from a position of ignorance and a lack of understanding. Simply put I was dead wrong and I made those coments without knowing how the system worked. I owe a word of thanks to people like Cindy, Michael Ellis, Ann Braue and the work by Karen Pryor for openiong my eyes to the power of this system of training dog.

Since the early 1900's dog training has been an evolving skill. We only need to look back at Col Konrad Most, William Kohler and Winefred Stricklands training books from 1910 , the 1960's and 1970's to realize this. Or look at the obedience routines I filmed of some of the national dog competitions in the 1980's and 1990's. Dogs that won those events back then very well may not even pass much less win a national competition today.

The reason for this is because the trainers who are winning today are training with the marker system.

Marker training is one of the most profound systems of training dogs that I have seen in my 50 years of owning, breeding and training working dogs. When I began to learn this system I had been training dogs for over 40 years and I felt like a kid in a candy store. The fact is I still feel like that when I see dogs work with markers.

Training with Markers is a very simple concept to understand. It only takes a few minutes to explain and but the finer points of the system takes a years to master. The journey is exciting and well worth the trip.

In it's simplest form marker training involves making the work crystal clear for the dog. It involves simplifying the training in a way that removes any possibility of the dog not understanding exactly what you expect from him. It also does this in a way that motivates a dog to want to learn. When dogs enjoy the work and want to be part of the process we have a system that only requires minimal corrections to get compliance.

I will say right off the bat that I am not a motivational purist who thinks that dogs never need corrections. In my opinion those who say this either train a specific type of dog or they lack experience with self motivating dominant dogs.

Dogs that are trained with markers become problem solvers. The system allows trainers to reinforce correct behavior with pin point accuracy from a distance. It also allows dogs to make mistakes and then learn from their mistakes. The system allows us to pin point the exact moment a dog makes a mistake without correcting the dog in the process. It allows us to communicate with the dog and tell him that "h e has not done something correctly and he needs to try it again".

Dogs trained with markers quickly adapt to new situations, especially when compared to dogs trained in old school methods where a dog is often afraid to try something new for fear of being corrected for making mistakes. We will talk about this in detail later.

Dog training is a skill that everyone can learn. When people start to train dogs they often miss the fact that the difference between a good dog trainer and a great dog trainer boils down to communication and timing. New dog owners will learn these skills through marker training.

The new version of my training DVD titled Basic Dog Obedience has a section on timing. The basics of training with markers is a small part of that 4 hour DVD but it’s one of the most important sections on the DVD.

So exactly what is MARKER TRAINING?

In technical terms marker training is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning has been around for years. It's how Dolphins are trained at sea world.

In technical terms operant conditioning forms an association between a behavior and a consequence.

I can see new dog trainers reading this and shaking their heads thinking "Dahhhh isn't that pretty obvious for dog training?"

My answer to this is YES but let e go into a little more detail.

In old school dog training the consequence of a negative behavior was a correction. In the marker training system the consequence of a negative behavior is with holding a reward and making the dog redo the exercise.

No matter what anyone ever tells you dogs do things for themselves. They don't do things to make you feel good. They do things to make themselves feel good. They do things because they are motivated towards feeling comfortable and they are motivated towards not feeling discomfort

So the key to operant conditioning is to teach a dog that when he performs a behavior that we like he gets a reward that makes him feel good - the reward gives him a level of comfort. This reward can either be in the form of a food or it can be a toy he likes to play with or palying a game with the handler he gets enjoyment out of or praise from his handler. I will say here that in all my years of dog training I have only known one dog tha would work strictly for hander praise.

In the marker training system there are only two consequences to a behavior that we are trying to train . They are a reward or no-reward. Which consequence happens depends on the behavior the dog exhibits to a stimuli. A stimuli can be a command or a cue from the handler.

For dogs to associate a behavior with a reward or with punishment the reward or punishment must come immediately after the behavior. We tell people the consequence should come withing 1/2 second of the behavior. Now in training that's not always possible so we bridge (or connect) the time frame between the behavior and the consequence that follows. This bridge allows us to extend the 1/2 second rule of consequences. That bridge is a word - we will call it a a Marker ( I like to use the word YES) many people use the sound from a clicker. The fact is you can use any word sound your comfoprtable with as long as you are consistent.

There are positive and negative markers. The word for a negative Marker is "NO o NOPE" . It's important to mention that a negative marker is not a correction. it's simply a way of communicating to the animal that he just made a mistake and if he expects to get a reward he needs to redo the exercise correctly.

Through repetition the dog learns that every time he hears the positive Marker he gets a reward. Every time he hears the negative Marker he doesn't get a reward and he has to repeat the exercise.

If you have an interest in more technical details about the scientific aspects of dog training we sell a number of excellent books. I won't go into more detail on this here. The only reason I bring this up right here is so people know that there is a scientific background this this system of dog training.

The beauty of this system is that its a perfect way to train puppies because it's motivational training at its best and there are no corrections involved until you get into the advanced stages of training.

Its' also a perfect way to retrain adult dog (even dominant dogs) because the consequences of a behavior are not conflict with the handler. So when its done correctly it's a safe way to retrain the foundation of obedience work on a dominant dog.

The 5 Magic Words of Marker Training

The basic foundation of marker training involves teaching the dog the meaning of these 5 core words. Once the dog understands how these words are used to communicate with him they can be applied to every exercise you wish to train your dog. Those words are:

1 - READY - A word that tells our dog that we are about to start a training session.

2- YES - is the word we use as a positive marker. Its the word we use to bridge the time frame between a favorable behaviors and the delivery of a reward. This word is also used as a release command. This means the dog is finished with the exercise when we say "YES"and he can now focus on getting his reward - which is either a food treat or playing with a toy.

3- GOOD - is a word that means you are doing a good job and I want you to continue to do what your doing. Good is not a release command. When we say GOOD we are telling the dog if he should continues performing an exercise he will get a reward in the future.

4- NOPE - is a word that is used as a negative marker. It means you just made a mistake and you have to do the exercise all over again

5- DONE - A word that tells the dog that our training session is finished for now. The session can be finished for the day or for 5 minutes. But it's over and the toys are going to be put away.

The rest of this article deals with the applications of these 5 core words.

Basic Dog Obedience

Dogs are masters at reading body language.

They are far more intuitive than we humans. They instinctually recognize situations and read us like a book. They know when we are happy and they know when to leave us alone. They base ALL of their life’s decisions on what reinforces their level of comfort and what satisfies their pack instincts.

New dog trainers mistakenly think their dogs listen to them all the time. They think the dog automatically knows when commands are given. The fact is that dogs may listen but they don't naturally pick up on our every word. In fact trained dogs don't understand much of what we say. But they are very intuitive about reading and recognizing specific situations or pictures (of our body language). They are so good at this that we think they know what we are saying when in fact they don't have a clue.

A perfect example of this is a dog who learns to sit in your kitchen. The dog can perform the sit exercise 200 times in the kitchen and you may think he has that concept of the SIT command down pat. Then you take him in your garage and say SIT and he looks at you like your the man in the moon talking swaheelee. He acts like you have two heads and he has never heard the word SIT before.

A better example is when the dog has always been given the SIT command when you are standing in front of him in the kitchen. Simply turning your back and saying SIt results in a blank stair, or kneeling down or sitting on the floor and saying SIT gets no results.

That's because the dog does not understand the concept of SIT. He doesn't know what you are asking him to do. Oh you may think he knows the word SIT but what he really knows is that when he sees the picture of you standing in front of him in the kitchen he should SIT.

So when you see a dog do this you need to know that your dog has not yet grasped the concept of the SIT command.

Marker training is going to teach you how to communicate with your dog so they grasp the concepts of the commands you wish to train them and its going to do this is a way the dog enjoys.

The First Step

The first step in training for system is to teach the dog that the word YES or the CLick from a clicker means:

1- I like what you just did

2- It means every time I say YES you are going to get a reward - there are no acceptions to this rule if I mistakenly say YEs you still get a reward. If I say yes at the wrong time - you still get a reward.

3- Saying Yes also means you can stop doing what you were just doing and begin to interact with me while I deliver the reward.

4- The reward may be food, it may be a game of tug, it may be you chasing a toy

4- and finally the word Yes means the exercise is over until I say we are going to do something else.

Marker training begins with these goals in mind.

We start teaching this system by showing our dog that every time we say the word “YES" or every time they hear a click from a clicker he gets a really good high value food treat. The system starts with food and not toys. These treats come from either the left or right hand and are stored in a bait pouch that we wear on our belt in the middle of our back or they are stores in our training vest.

In other words we teach the dog to assign a " comfort value" on the word YES or the the sound of a CLICKER. Remember throughout training we will be calling this the MARK or MARKER. During training if we accidentally say YES at the wrong time we still give the reward.

When properly established the MARKER will eventually become a secondary reinforce for the dog. This means the dog will eventually get satisfaction from you simply saying the word "YES". But we have to train it first.

A very important part of this program is to only say the Mark one time. When a dog does something correctly we don't say YES! YES! YES! because we are so pleased with what the dog just did. That is a mistake and the dog will find this confusing. He will not know eaxctly what behavior he was doing dutimg your string of Yes's that warranted the reward.

While we can vary the kind of food rewards and the number of rewards we pay the dog for the mark we never vary the fact that we only give or say the Mark one time.

CHARGING THE MARK:

The first training step we do in marker training is called CHARGING THE MARK. The goal here is to teach the dog that when he hears us say YES or when he hears the clicker we feed him a treat.

When we charge the mark the dog does not have to do anything to get marked. We simply say YES or click the clicker and give the dog a food treat. Trainers new to this system need to understand that the only dog training going on during CHARGE THE MARK is to make the dog realize that you saying YES means he gets a food treat.

It is important that the word yes is never said at the same instant you move your arm and reach for the food treat. For this program to work there must be short time lapse between saying the word and moving the arm for the food.

You will know your dog is getting it when you say the Mark and the dog looks at you like HEY GIVE ME MY TREAT!!! Most dogs pick up the concept of a CHARGED YES OR CLICK in about 20 minutes.

Only say "YES" one time

The reason you should only say YES one time is because dogs see life as a series of pictures or snap shots. Remember how intuitive our dogs are, they know exactly what they were doing at the exact moment good things happen to them.

So when they look into your eyes and you mark that moment by saying YES followed by a high value food treat they quickly figure out the trigger to get you to give them annouther treat is to look into your eyes.

But when trainers get excited and say YES 4 or 5 times in a row the dog gets confused. They don't know if they got rewarded for looking in your eyes or if the reward came from lowering their head to look at you hand or for something else.

So it's vitally important to understand the essence of marker training is to start with no obedience command and then only give the mark one time followed by a short pause before you give the dog a food treat.

Should you use the word "YES" or should you use a clicker?

I personally prefer using the word over the clicker. I know I will always be able to say YES. I also know there may be times I don't have a clicker with me. In addition I can say YES a lot louder than the sound a clicker makes. In more advanced training saying YES allows me mark from a greater distance from my dog than I could use a clicker.

In addition when a handler is actively training his dog he has a number of things to do with his hands besides holding a clicker. He often had a leash to hold, he has food rewards or toys to handle and he sometimes wants to pet his dog. He may have to hold a dumb bell. He doesn't need to include a clicker into this scenario.

If you choose to use the word YES, it's important to learn to say "YES" exactly the same way every time you say it. Don't add inflection or change the tone of how you pronounce the word. It must sound the same every time.

Changing the sound of the word will often change the meaning of what your dog thinks your trying to say. Let's not forget how perceptive our dogs are. They pick up on our slightest body language. They most certainly pick up on the difference in the way you say YES.

People who get easily excited and have a difficult time maintaining the exact same sound every time are people who should use clickers.

Timing the food reward:

For a reward to have the best results it must come within 1/2 second of the behavior you want to encourage. Some people say that the reward must come quicker than a second, others say the reward must come within 1 1/2 seconds.

No matter how good you are you are not going to consistently be able to get a reward a your dog in under 1/2 of a second. You may occasionally do it but you will never get it done 100% of the time. Markers allow you to instantly mark a behavior and when the dog understands that a reward follows the mark you can take several seconds to reward the mark. This results in the dog learning much faster.

People who don't train with markers don't have that luxury. The longer they delay between the behavior and the reward the less chance their dog associates the behavior with the reward. If praise is delayed by 2 or 3 seconds after a behavior there is an excellent chance that the dog will associate the reward with a behavior that is different than what the handler wanted to reward.

This is why timing the Mark is so important in dog training and why marker training is so effective.

Through repetition and experience our dog quickly realize that when he hears the mark he knows he is going to get a reward for what he just did. It may take a few seconds but he knows the reward is coming and he knows what he did to earn it. It become crystal clear to the dog.

This concept becomes even more important when we are working on exercises where our dog is some distance from us. It allows us the time we need to get to the dog and reward him and still have him understand why he is getting the reward.

Learning to Time the Mark:

New dog handlers must learn the correct timing on when they give the actual mark during training. The easiest way to understand how this works is to think like a dog. In a way your dog takes a mental picture of exactly what he is doing at the instant you mark a behavior. They relate the reward to that mental snap shot they took when they heard the word YES.

A visual method to help you learn timing is to ask a friend to use a digital camera and go out with you when you train. Have them take a photo of your dog every time you say the word YES . Tell them not to focus on what the dog is doing but only listen to your voice.

So every time you say YES they need to push the shutter button. This is an easy way to evaluate what is going through your dogs mind when he hears the mark and what he thinks he is being rewarded for. You may be surprised what the results are here.

The correct time to mark is the instant the dog meets the criteria of the particular training step or excersie.

For example, when teaching the hand touch, where the dog is expected to touch his nose to your hand when you hold your hand out - if it's the step where the dog is finally touching the hand with his nose. The point to mark is the "very instant" the dogs nose touches the hand. Not 3 or 4 seconds after the fact.

If your training the sit - the mark should come the instant the dogs but touches the ground, not 2 seconds later.

If your training the Down the time to mark the Down is the instant the dogs belly touches the ground - not 5 seconds after he has been down.

If you mark the down 5 seconds after the dogs belly has touched the ground the dog thinks he is being rewarded for staying down and not the actual movement of laying. When trainers consistently reward the Down with poor timing of the mark we see dogs that go down slower and slower because the dogs see the exercise as laying down and staying there. They know that the reward is going to come at some time in the future and not when they lay down.

Successful trainers understand that "the act of going Down" and "duration in the Down exercises" are two independent exercises that are trained separately. When dogs realize that the trigger to get the reward in the Down exercises is to get your belly on the ground you will see then drop like a stone. We will talk about extending the duration of the down later when we discuss training with the word Good.

The relationship between the Mark and the Reward:

I have already mentioned that it is critical to never move the hand or arm that delivers the reward until after we say YES. I want to to revisit that issue now so you understand why this is important.

This is a very simple concept to understand and a very difficult discipline for many many people to do. Almost everyone naturally reach for the food at the same instant that they say YES - and this is wrong. Almost everyone that starts marker training has to learn the skill of putting a pause in between the MARK and the movement of the reward hand.

Dogs are visual animals. They don't naturally listen to the words that come out of our mouth. The fact is they don't understand most of what we say. But they are always watching what we do. They will always react to physical cue over verbal animals. When trainers give the verbal cue and physical cue at the same time the dog will always follow the physical cue. This means when you mark the exercise and move the arm at the same time - the movement of the arm is the cue your dog is following and the verbal cue means almost nothing.

This concept was discovered by Pavlov a long time ago. He kept his dogs in cages and when it came time to feed a bell would ring and the food would then drop into the dogs food bowls. After this process went on for some time he noticed dogs would start to salivate when they heard the bell.

Pavlov then did some experiments. He would ring the bell after the food had dropped but while the dogs were eating. Those dogs never salivated to the sound of a bell. The bell meant nothing to to them.

So the moral of this story is DONT REWARD AT THE SAME TIME THAT YOU MARK an exercise. If you want to improve your timing video tape your training. It will show you how you are doing.

PLACEMENT OF THE REWARD

To become an effective marker trainer you must not only master the art of timing but also the art of where and how to deliver the rewards. New trainers often underestimate how important delivery and placement of the reward is to the learning process.

When a dog is in the first stage of the learning phase of an exercise we often reward at the same place every time. But as the dog become proficent in the exercise it is often important to produced the reward randomly in different locations.

The importance of reward placement in the learning phase of marker training may be best explained with an example.

In the first steps of the "hand touch" exercise we will often mark the dog when he looks at the hand we want him to touch. The correct place to reward the dog is "at that hand the dog looked at ".

In other words you don't just hand the dog a food reward. You place the reward on THE HAND that the dog just looked. If the dog actually puts his nose on the hand you mark the nose touch and place the food treat on the hand that the nose just touched.

By placing the reward in the palm of marked hand and letting the dog take the reward off the palm of that out stretched hand the dog quickly figures out that there is a relationship between the behavior and the reward.

That's called proper placement of the reward. When you reward at the correct "place" the learning process will accelerate.

Another example of proper reward placement is seen when training the place command. If you want to teach your dog to go lay on his rug - or go touch his touch pad. In the first steps of the learning phase for these exercises is when the dog looks at the rug or his touch pad you mark the look and place the reward on the rug or the touch pad.

In formal heeling. If you want the dog to focus on the side of your face while in the heel position - you mark the moment he looks up at you face. A split second after the mark you bring the reward up buy your face and the reward comes from that point.

This photo demonstrates how to offer your hand to the dog
(without a command) to initiate the hand touch.

Now let me explain the more advanced method of reward palcement and I will use the heeling exercise as an example.

The heeling exercise can be broken down into 5 or 6 or 7 differant smaller exercises or component parts. Thats called splitting the exercise which we will talk about in a minute.

The dog learns each component separatly with markers. Once the dog knows the compenent parts to heel they can be linked together for the final heeling exercise. Then when the dog is performing the linked exercises correctly we should randomly reward from differant locations. This is different entirly concept than reward placement during the learn phases of training exercises.

Here is how it works with a dog that knows and understands all of the component parts of the heeling exercise.

Your heeling with your dog and you mark the dogs performance. The instant you say YES the exercise is finished. The instant you say Yes your dog can can bounce out of the heeling position to interact with you in the delivery of the reward.

You on the other hand can deliver the reward with your left hand, your right hand, you can spit a food reward or play tug with your dog. You can even have the reward laying on the ground where the dog can see it and when you say Yes he knows its ok to break the heel and run over to bring the tug toy back for you and he to play with.

The point is at this stage of training the reward can come from anyplace because the dog already knows whats expected of him when you say Heel. The dog is no longer in the learning phase of the exercise, he should already know the compenent parts and he is in the proofing stage where he must do the exercise correctly if he is to get a reward and he will repeat all of the compenents if he makes a mistake.

This is the stage of training where the reward delvery and placement changes. It now becomes important to reward from different places and in differant motivational ways.

The reason for this is we want to eliminate the possibility of "SIGN TRACKING" (this is not a spelling erro - I dont mean side tracking) Sign tracking is a technical term that is best explained with an example.

Many old school trainers reward heeling by always having the ball tucked in their arm pit. They the dog follows them around loking up at their arm pit becuase they know there is a ball there.

Other old school trainers get into the habit of always rewarding the dog by quickly bringing the tug toy out of a pocekt and giving it to the dog right in front of their belt buckle.

Dogs quickly learn to focus on the spot where they know the reward always appears. The reward does not have to be there during the heeling process it just needs to appear there every time the dog gets his reward. When that happens the dogs learns to focus on the spot the reward will appear. Thats SIGN TRACKING.

The problem with dogs that are sign tracking is that the dog really does not understand the principles of heeling. He doesnt understand the position of heel. He just follows his owner around and stares at the spot the reward will come from.

These dogs will begin to experiment with positions on their own. They will move so they can be in a better position to get the reward when it comes out. This is why dogs begin to forge and curl around their owners front leg in formal heeling where dogs have learned to heel through sign tracking.

With the marker system the dog learns exactly what the heel position is. He learns exactly how to maintain it. He knows that if he stays in the heel position he will get a reward. The heel i s very black and white to the dog when its properly trained. The only thing the dog does not know is where and how he will be rewarded. When he doesnt know that he can't sign track. And this is why random placement of rewards is so important to proofing dogs at the end of the learning process.

Once a dog has learned to sign track - it slmost impossible to change that in a dog. It can be done on some but not all dogs.

Delivery of the Reward

Just as proper placement of the reward is important so too is how the reward is offered to the dog. Its often a mistake to hand a high food drive dog a piece of food with the tips of our fingers. At least if we dont want blood blisters and blackend fingernails anyway.

Some dogs naturally take food gently. Some dogs can be trained to take food gently. Then there are those dogs that are so driven for food that a finger getting in the way is not much of a concern for them

The correct way to offer food to a dog is on the open flat palm of the hand.

We hold a food treat in an open hand by pinching the treat between our thumb and the base of our index finger. By holding the treat in this manner its a simple process to release the treat with our thumb so it roles into the palm of our hand. The dog can then take the food off the palm. When give a dog a piece of food in this manner your not going to get bit.

TRAINING WITH MARKERS - REWARD PLACEMENT

The correct way to hold a food reward - pinched between thumb and side of finger

getting bit giving a dog food

The incorrect way to give your dog food. This is how food hound dogs bite finger tips.

Food can be stores in a bait pounch which we keep on our belt in the middle of our back or it can be kept in a pocket of a trainind vest or jacket. Or we can pre-load our hand or hands with a food reward. This means we will have food in the hand before the exercise begins.

Dogs quickly figure this out when we have food preloaded in our hands. Some dogs will try to MUG your food hand.

When that happens simply close your hand into a fist and hold it flat against the front of your leg. When the dog continues to mug the hand we say nothing and do nothing but stand there. The dog will eventually give up and look up at you. When that happens - Mark the look and reward the dog with a food treat.

This goes a long long way to teaching the dog that he holds the key to the food reward. They learn that they can get the food if they do something that you want.

protect your hands from dog bites

If your dog mugs your hand with food. Hold both hands against your legs like this until the dog stops and looks in your eyes - then mark the look and reward.

This photo demonstrated placement of the reward on the target after the mark.

Vary how you deliver the Food Reward

Food can come from the right hand, the left hand or occasionally your mouth. When you have a piece of food in your mouth you simply spit it at the dog to deliver the reward. Rewards from the mouth won't work in all circumstances and they often take a little training with the dog to teach him how to catch them. But they do offer a change for the dog every now and then.

I have already mentioned that we like to use use bait bag in the middle of our back. Some people don't care for bait bags. Those are usually people who don't understand how to use them in the marker program.

We don't recommended wearing the bait bag on the front of our body. It becomes too big of a distraction for new dogs.

When the bait bag is in the middle of your back you dont have that problem. The correct way to retrieve food from the bag is to us both hands to reach for the food at the same time. This allows the reward to come from either hands and it is important to vary the hand that rewards come from.

We don't want the dog anticipating a right or left handed handed delivery. We want value to be on the word YES and not on a specific hand movement. Thats why we do random hand deliveries.

With many exercises we try and deliver of the reward in a manner that forces the dog to move his feet to get his reward. Every dog that has prey drive gets more out of moving to catch a reward. Compare a dog that loves to case a ball vs the same dog who is simply handed a ball. The dog places a lot more value on the ball when he has to chase after it.

The same thing applies to delivering a food reward in a manner that forces the dog to move to get the food.

1- It helps teach a dog that the MARK signals the end of the exercise or the behavior.

2- When dogs have to move to snatch a reward it increases the value of the reward to the dog. Compare this to handing a dog a ball or tossing the ball so the dog has to chase it.

To accomplish this after the Mark the handler moves his delivering hand down and away from the dog, kind of like a wand. The dog knows the hand contains the reward and will follow it.

Dogs with Low Food Drive

Some dogs have very low food drive. Food drive can be increased by using very high value treats and only feeding after you train. Even a dog with good food drive will value food rewards more by not feeding the dog until after our first training session for the day.

I also believe that dogs can learn to acquire food drive. There is nothing wrong with "fasting" a dog for a day or even two days (never 3 days). I guarantee your dog will have food drive for meat treats after he has not eaten for a day or so. If you randomly fast low food drive dogs their food drive will increase.

I have also seen high prey drive dogs with low food drive develop a level of food drive by playing tug with a sock or toy that has food in it or a toy that has been saturated with the odor of the food.

Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet

Splitting

Before a training an exercise a trainer must learn the concept of splitting.

Dogs can be trained to perform very complicated tasks. To accomplish this trainers must learn to break an exercise down into its component parts. This is called Splitting the exercise. Learning to split an exercise is a factor of experience, training and skill. It's often times not as obvious as one would thing.

Training the dog to HEEL is the perfect example. In its simplest form it would seem that the HEEL only involves teaching the dog to walk on your left side. In reality it is must more complicated.

A dog looks at heeling as a many different tasks. They are:

1- It involved learning that in a stationary situation the heel position is sitting at the handlers right side with his chest at the plane of the handlers legs.

2- Heeling also involves staying in the same position when the handler is walking.

3- Heeling means staying in the heel position when the handler is running.

4- In competition heeling the dog must focus his attention on one spot - either the side of your face or your arm pit, or the area right in front of your belt buckle etc.

5- Heeling means not forging ahead and getting beyond the plane for the center of your legs

6- Heeling means not lagging back behind the handler

7- It involves no curling around in front of you as you walk

8- Heeling means the dog walks in a straight line, not canted with his rear end out away from your body when he sits in the heel position.

9- Heeling means the dog does not swing his but around behind you when he sits.

Some trainers call the split portions of an exercise "building blocks" some call them "components" some call them "pieces of the exercise " It really doesn't matter what you call them as long as you understand the concept of splitting exercises. The task that needs to be trained within each of these pieces is often called criteria.

This is how to split the heel exercise. Each component should be trained separately with markers. In fact the best trainers will assign words for many of these component parts so they can communicate exactly what they want the dog to fix while heeling.

A perfect example is to train the the dog to back up when told to back. When this is done correctly the dog understands to slow up and get his chest in line with my legs when told to back.

When the dog fully understood each component trainers can link components together into the final heeling exercise.

LUMPING

When I first started to train dogs to heel I simply put a choke chain on and told him to heel. If he got out in front I did an about turn and said HEEL. Then jerked the dog back into position. If he went to wide I said HEEL and did a quick right turn with a jerk on the lead. If he crowded me (leaned into me) I said HEEL and did a quick left turn. The dog got a good knee in the side to force him off my leg.

In other works I did not sit the exercise. I lumped them all together.

I feel sorry for all my old dogs that were trained in this OLD SCHOOL BS. Think how confused they must have been. This style of training still goes on in many local obedience classes today . It simply confuses and frustrates a dog.

LINKING

Once an exercise is split each part is trained separately. When the dog has learned the parts they are then linked together to perform the finished exercise. New trainers must learn that you can not OVER SPLIT an exercise. In fact the more you split an exercises the easier it is to train. That's because the components of the exercise are very simple for us to teach and a dog to learn.

HOW DO YOU BEGIN TRAINING A NEW EXERCISE

One of the most difficult concepts for new trainers to grasp is "HOW TO BEGIN TRAINING A NEW EXERCISE? WHERE AND HOW DO THEY START THE FIRST STEP"

We will use the example of wanting to start training the "hand touch". New trainers wonder how to begin this process? What do they do sit and wait until the dog looks at your hand? That could take hours.

The answer is simple. You begin your training session by rewarding any behavior. It doesn't matter what it is. Look at the first step of a new exercise exactly like you did when you CHARGED THE MARK.

So when the dog looks at your hand you MARK the look. If the dog turns towards you mark the turn. If he sits mark the sit. Your first goal is to engage your dog. Your first step is to "turn on his thinking cap" so he gets in the training mode.

In the hand touch we also look at our hand (the one we want the dog to touch). When we teach "touch pads" we will look at the touch pad we want the dog to go to. This is a handler help but it works. We have talked about how perceptive our dogs are. They pay attention to what you are looking at.

When we see the dog is trying to figure out what we want we then refine when we mark a behavior. In other words we SHAPE his behavior by only rewarding specific behaviors that support the component parts of how we decided to split the behavior - in this case the hand touch.

So once the dog engages us we will hold our hand by our side and wait to Mark the dog looking at our hand.

The HAND TOUCH - an easy exercise to start with:

When we are ready to start training we need to pick an exercise to start marker training with.We like to start marker the HAND TOUCH.

12 week old puppy doing "hand touch"

This is an exercise where we want to teach the dog to touch our hand with his nose. The hand touch is used to get a dogs attention when faced with distractions. We use it when we are out for a walk and someone comes up with another dog or a child. Giving the hand touch command redirects our dog back on us and away from other people or dogs.

We also use it when someone wants to pet our dog and we don't want them touching our dog. This is an important issue for people with puppies. We don't allow strangers to touch our dogs. (you can read an article I wrote on that on my web site)

Once trained we simply offer our hand at our side and give the TOUCH command with the palm facing the dog. The dog must come over and touch his nose to the palm of our hand. When he does this he gets a reward.

By training this exercise with markers we turn it into a fun game for our dog.

You only need to look at the photo at the top of this article to see that Cindy's dog loves the hand touch.

Splitting the HAND TOUCH Exercise

Here is how to SPLIT the HAND TOUCH exercise into component pieces that can be individually marked. With most dogs this can be:

1 - This is a new exercise so engage the dog - mark him for:

Looking at the hand

Laying down

Sitting

Doing ABSOLUTLEY anything

2 - Mark for looking at your hand

3- Mark for taking one step towards the hand

4 - Mark for taking two steps towards the hand

5 - Mark for smelling the hand

6 - Mark for actually touching your hand with his nose when the hand is held low

7- Mark touching the hand when the hand is held over his head

8- Mark for jumping up to touch the hand

Test your understanding of the system - Try Training a Human

When you think you are beginning to understand the concept of marker training take a bag of M&M's and try training a human with markers. Pick a task and use the concepts of marker training. It's good for laughs and it's great to teach you how to mark a behavior.

The fact is you will probably learn more if you are the dog and ask someone else to train you.

Don't underestimate the value of this little game.

Shaping vs. Luring

When we split an exercise into tiny little pieces and train those pieces we shape our dogs behavior into the exercise we want the dog to perform.

When we use a piece of food to guide a dog through the movements of an exercise this is called luring. Luring is where we show the dog the food before the exercise and then let the dog follow the food into his position. When dogs are lured in training they usually learn slower than when they are forced to think through the criteria of an exercise.

Here is an example of luring.

A dog is lured when the owner shows the dog the food treat before the exercises even begin. It's compared to bribing the dog. In the sit exercise you lure the dog by holding food up in the air and when the dog comes in to smell it or try and take it from your hand.You move the food up and back until the dog moves into a sit position. Or you lure the dog into position.

Dog is being LURED to the hand touch - see the food is on the hand

While these two concepts both work the dog that goes through shaping learns to problem solve and think about what he is doing quicker than the dog that is lured or manipulated into position. Luring also often takes longer to teach an exercises. This results in people having to give corrections to finish the luring work.

I will say that the marker purists will only shape exercise. I have to say that there are times when I find that I can lure the dog a few times to get him to focus on the training. Maybe I just lack patience. I am not saying they are wrong, I just say a combination often works for me.

Understanding Commands, Vs Luring Vs Signals

There is a difference between giving your dog a command, Vs luring your dog, Vs signaling the dog to perform a command. This next section will help explain how we think about using each.

1 - Its pretty obvious that telling your dog to down is a command. We don't add commands until a dog knows an erercise.

2- Placing food treats in your hand and lowing that hand to the floor right in front of the dog so it follows the hand into a down position is called a luring the dog. There are times in the very beginning of the learning phase of an exercise that we will lure a dog. Dogs don't learn as fast when they are lured, but we still find applications for it.

3- Moving an empty hand towards the floor to signal the dog that we want him to lay down is an acceptable training method before a command is added.

A signal is a cue that we give our dog when we want him to do something. We use signals to help them learn a command. Others use signals to suppliment a command and eventually drop the signal. And many inadvertantly use signals at the same time they give a command. This often causes problems.

There can be body signals and/or voice signals. An example of a voice signal would be telling your dog that you are going to start training today. You do this by saying "ARE YOU READY" every time you go out to train. This is not a command, its simply a voice signal that tells the dog something is going to happen.

An example of an advanced body signal during heeling is for the handler to turn his head and look in the direction he is about to turn. When dogs are trained in formal heeling they are trained to look at the side of the handlers face. They will see you turn your head and with experience will learn that every time you do this you turn in the direction you look.

I blieve in using signals or cues (if they are used with the correct timing) as an important part of my training process. With this said there are those purist trainers who absolultey don't believe in signals or cues in training. There are trainers who are willing to spend a great deal of time teaching their dogs through strict operatn conditioning. This work produces better problem solvers and will never hurt the dog.

When it comes to dog aggression I pasionatly disagree with those clicker trainers who lead people to believe that clicker training is an option to deal with every fors of aggression, espepcially handler aggression. I will say that puppy aggression can often be dealt with through marker training but aggression in 2 year old dogs should not be dealt with through makers.

People must think long and hard about intentionally adding a signal to their training. Trainers can often create problems for themselves when they use a new signal for their dog. An example of this just came up in our home. Cindy is training her young mal to STAND from a sit. This is needed for Mondio Ring training.

When her dog sat in front, she would signal the dog to STAND by stepping in closer to the dog as she put both hands under the dogs chin. It didn't take long for the dog to catch on and stand.

The problem developed when we realized the dog was reacted to the signal of the step forward. During the sit-stay when she walked back to her dog it would stand. It took work to change the dogs thinking on this.

If you are not giving commands how does your dog know what you want to train today?

Once a new trainer has worked on markers for a while and the dog knows several steps in the splitting process of an exercises - but the command has not yet been added to the training (we call this NAMING the exercise) the handler is going to come to a point where they ask themselves "If I am not telling the dog what I want him to do today, how does my dog know what exercise I want to work on when I take him out?"

If you really sit down and think about this work - that's a pretty darn good question. The answer is one of the most important concepts that new trainers need to understand if they are going to get the most benefit from marker training.

The answer is that it is the dogs job to recognize the fact that you want him to do something.This means he recognizes, from past experience, that you want him to do something. Past experience has taught him you have a HIGH VALUE FOOD REWARD which he can have if he does something you want him to do.

You know what you want him to do but he doesn't. So if he is motivated enough he will try what has worked for him in past. He will go into his little bag of tricks and do everything you have already taught him to do (IE. sit, lay down, stand, move into the heel position - etc).

Your job is to ignore the dog as he does all these things or say" NOPE KEEP TRYING" or "NOT THAT" in an encouraging tone of voice. Then when he eventually gets to what you want him to do you mark the moment and have a little party.

Stop and think about what just happened.

New trainers will think "well I just successfully trained him to do this portion of the exercise."

Experienced trainers will take a different view. The experienced trainer will realize that the dog just went through a problem solving exercise and figured out the solution to the problem. In other words this trainer just taught the dog to think for himself.

Don't ever underestimate how important this skill is. It's my opinion problem solving is the greatest achievement of marker training.

The mistake most new trainers make is they get frustrated and don't let their dogs figure things out. They get ahead of themselves and start to name exercises before their dogs understand the task. The result is their dogs don't learn to problem solve as well as other dogs that have been taken through the work correctly.

To the trainer who says "Well I take my dog out and he just sits there. He doesn't want to do anything." Well your dog is not hungry enough or your treats were not good enough. Do your training before you feed him that day or put the dog away and let the dog miss a feeding for the whole day. Then train tomorrow. Dogs can go a long time without food. They need water all the time but they can go days without food.

There is also nothing wrong with the dog getting his entire days rations during training. This works well with some dogs.

So go back and re-evaluate what training aids your using and how your approaching the work. Bottom line is when this happens the trainer has made mistakes and needs to back up their work. A good trainer is never afraid to back up a few training steps to make sure the foundation is correct.

When to add Commands to your marker training

Have you noticed that at no point during this process have I talked about giving your dog a command befre you ask them to do something? The work has all been done with signals and cues.

Ann Braue has a saying that I find fitting. You don't name an exercise until you LOVE IT. That means you don't add the "TOUCH" command to the hand touch exercise until the dog is consistently performing the exercise every time you cue the dog.

When dogs begin to approach the point where you should think about adding a command you will see the dog start to anticipate the exercise. Anticipation is a great thing. It's way for us to see the dog is actively trying to participate in the work. Anticipation tells us our dogs are thinking and trying to figure out what we want. Even if the dog anticipates with incorrect behavior it tells us he is trying to work with us and he wants to do what he thinks we want.

Old school dog trainers give corrections for aniticpation because they expected perfection all the times. They correct dogs into performing a behavior or an exercise. Think about for a second. Think about what goes through a dogs mind when he gets corrected for trying to do what you want. He is probably thinking" Hey I am trying to do this - what the heck - I don't understand what you want and your jerking me around !!! This sucks I am going to quit trying and wait until you show me what you want!"

There is a difference between how to approach anticipation during the learning phase of an exercise and how to approach anticipation after the dog knows and understands the meaning of the command. This article is not the place to talk about that though.

When we name an exercise we need to be prepared to do something if the dog either refuses or doesn't do the exercise. THis could happen because he doesn't understand what we are asking or he doesn't do it because he is not motivated enough to want to do it.

. There is a tool box full of possible options to consider when this happens:

1 - We could ignore the incorrect bahvior and just stand there until the dog does it right.

2 - We can simply say "NOPE KEEP TRYING" in an upbeat voice - not a MAD VOICE. (Click the play button below to hear a sample).

3 - We can wait for a split second after the command and add a cue to help the dog. It is critcle that there is a break in time between the command and the cue. The timing of cues is very much like timiing for marking behaviors. The cue and the command cannot happen at the same time or the dog will always work off the physical cue and not the voice command. Remember what I said about dogs being far more physical than verbal.

4- If the dog won't work off the cue then you need to re-evaluate your training plan. You may have been lumping the training steps and the dog really doesn't understand what we want. So go back to splitting.

5 - If the dog is being insubordinate you can put him in his dog crate or dog kennel (crates are better for this) for 5 minutes and then get him out and try again. Do this enough and the dog learns a time out means something. I didn't used to think this worked. I was wrong. With many dogs it becomes a motivator. It frustrates the dog and frustration builds drive.

6 - Use a "screw up cookie." I will explain this later in the article.

7 - As the LAST RESORT if we know the dog absolutely knows the command and is refusing to do it we can correct the dog.

The bottom line is whenthe dog refuses a command you need to evaluate why it happened. There is no set rule of what to do every time. It will always vary according the the circomstance.

Adding Duration to an exercises by using the word "GOOD"

Up to this point we have not expected a dog to add duration of time to an exercises. This means we don't expect a dog to perform a sit-stay or down-stay during training. As far as we are concerned - and as far as the dog is concerned - as soon as we say YES the exercise is over and the dog is released to come and get his reward.

We don't think about adding duration until a dog is consistently performing the exercises. When that time comes we simply delay the mark. We remain calm and say GOOD in a soothing tone. We can also offer multiple rewards to reward the duration.

During the period that we are offering these rewards - one right after another - we are telling the dog "goooood dog" in a very soothing voice. We have already conditioned the dog to "goood dog" by gently praising him in using these words when we are not training. We have done this to condition the dog to know that GOOD when spoken softly is a nice happy feeling for the dog.

In other words, when the dog performs the sit and we want to extend the time that he stays in the sit position we offer the food treat without giving the MARKER. In fact we continue to offer a number of food rewards (called jack potting) one right after another as you say "goood dog - goooood dog" while the dog stays sitting. Then when we are ready to release the dog we simply mark the moment (YES) and release the dog with a party.

Duration in time is extended for random periods starting in seconds and not getting to minutes for a long time. In the beginning we only extend the time by 2 or 3 seconds and then MARK - then 5 seconds and MARK and then 2 seconds and then 10 seconds etc. With puppies its not recommended going beyond 30 seconds.

The beauty of the GOOD command is that it also lets you tell your dog that he successfully completed a portion of a LINKED exercise. It tells him that he is going to get a reward if he continues to do the right thing.

An example of this is the DOWN IN MOTION. This is where the the handler is heeling his dog down the field and downs his dog out of motion. The dog is expected to hold the down until you recall him or turn and come back to him. You can mark the actual down with a GOOD and continue heeling away from him. In other words your able to communicate with the dog so that he understands exactly what you expect.

Something trainers can keep in the back of their mind for more advanced training with tug toys is this. If your dog is working for a tug reward and the exercise you are training requires duration, there is nothing wrong with reinforcing duration with a good and a food reward and then using a tug toy after the mark to finish the exercise. This is very effective with many dogs. This can be done on a random basis to make the good command more effective.

Snap-Open Bait Bag

Learning to allow your dog to Make Mistakes

One of the harder skills for new trainers to learn is that there will be times when you have to allow your dog to make a mistake. Dogs become problem solvers when you allow them to work through problems.

Many people look at confusion in the dogs as a problem. These are often people who come from old school dog training where they always want their dog to perform the exercise the correct way every time.

The natural instinct for trainers is to step in and rescue the dog when he makes mistakes or looks confused. Trainers often lure the dog into doing what they want. When in reality they should give the dog time to try to problem solve and work out the situation. That's how dogs learn to be problem solvers. It's kind of like people who are overbearing parents that do everything for this kids. They never let their kids go out and make even the smallest mistake. Then when the kid goes off to college they don't know how to deal with the trials and tribulations of living alone.

Using "NOPE" and With Holding the REWARD

An important concept new trainers should grasp is the fact that "NO MARK" is going to become a form of communication between you and your dog.

As dogs gain experience in marker training they learn that when you are not offering a mark (or a click) this means they have not accomplished what you expect of them to do. It's a way of you saying "you need to keep trying". This in and of itself can often times be a motivator for a dog.

As the dog learns the system of markers handlers can start to add the command "NOPE" or "No lets dog it again". It's important to understand that this is not a correction. It's said with a level of firmness but also with a tone that implies - "look lets do this again you can do a better job".

Handler should not sound mad when they say "NO". Sounding mad turns this into a correction and that's not what we want. It is simply a word that tells the dog that he has not done something correctly and the exercise is over. If he is to get a reward he must repeat the task again.

With repetition and experience dogs quickly figure out that when they make a mistake they are taken back to the beginning and they have to do the entire exercise over again. This becomes a motivator for a dog with high drive. These are dogs that are really working for the reward.

When they get the concept of the work this part of the system gains power when its used in linking behaviors. If the dog fails a behavior it will be taken back to the beginning; to the first linked behavior and then made to redo the entire chain. New trainers, that are results oriented straight line thinkers, have a difficult time with this concept, but it means a lot to the dog.

The beauty of using "NOPE" is that it can function exactly like a marker, only its a negative marker. In other words we use it to identify the exact instant the dog makes a mistake. And unlike a physical correction that often takes drive out of the dog this can often have the opposite effect. The dog will get a little frustrated and frustration builds drive.

There may be times during this process when a dog is in such high drive that for the moment the handler needs to take some drive out. A good way to do this is to just say NOPE and turn your back on the dog. Or if the infractions continue the handler can say NOPE and put the dog in his crate for 5 minutes and then bring him out again. During the crate time the handler needs to evaluate his training plan, maybe the problem is a handler problem and not a dog problem.

In old school dog training saying NO during training is a threat to the dog. It foreshadows getting a correction and adds stress an uncertainty to the training. That's not the case here. Using "NOPE DO IT AGAIN" adds another positive dimension to the work.

CORRECTIONS and Marker Training

There is no such thing as an all motivational system of dog training. Just as there is no such thing as an all compulsion system of dog training.

If you want to become an effective dog trainer you will have to learn how and when to employ corrections in your training. I wrote an article titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTION IN DOG TRAINING. You may want visit this ebook.

Purists will argue with me when I say there are applications for using corrections in the marker training system. Most of the time these are people who either lack experience; or only work with a very compliant non-dominant type of dog: or do not handle their dog in highly distracting environments; or are not involved with very high drive dogs in demanding dog sports.

Corrections in Marker training should not be used until after commands have been added to an exercise. We need to see the dog consistently performing exercise without handler signals. This means we are 100% sure that the dog knows and understands the command. It means you are sure that you are not giving a signals to help the dog through the exercise.

I am the first to say that this is not a black and white issue for trainers. We also need to consider the motivation level of the dog and the dogs physical ability to perform the exercise. Is the dog being disobedient or have we failed to motivate him enough? Is the dog being disobedient or are we asking him to do something he physically cant do? Maybe because of an an injury or he is not feeling well. Is the dog being disobedient or is he waiting for a signal from us to tell him what to do?

If we determine that the dog knows what we are asking and is being disobedience then he needs a correction to basically say "Look you know better and you have to pay attention and dog this". In most sport dog training, corrections are a finishing tool. They are used to proof a dog to show him that he must work with us in every location, under every distraction every time.

Corrections Vs Extinguishing a Behavior Vs Dominant dogs

There is a difference between being disobedience and wanting to EXTINGUISH A BEHAVIOR.

When a dog become handler aggressive we need to extinguish this behavior right now. This needs a correction so the dog learns that this is unacceptable.

There are some things that dogs do that are self rewarding. Like chase rabbits or squirrels. No amount of redirection or marker training is going to change my dogs from wanting to chasing squirrels. Even though they seldom if ever catch a squirrel they derive pleasure from the chase. There is no way to withhold the reward from teaching a dog not top chase a squirrel

The solution for this problem is to correct the dog for chasing. There are many ways to accomplish this but in my opinion the best solution is with a remote collar. I have done a training DVD titled REMOTE COLLAR TRAINING FOR THE PET OWNER.

The beauty of this system is that because the training is so black and white the level of correction used to get compliance is much less than what's needed in other old school methods of training. Because it is so black and white there is also less conflict with the handler.

What kinds of FOOD REWARDS to use?

Use small pieces of High Value Treats - what are they?

Steak - notice how small the pieces should be

Different dogs have different ideas of what treats they like the best. There are a couple of important points about treats.

The first is they should be very very small. You should be able to put 2 or 3 of them on a dime. The concept of using treats is not to "feed the dog" but to offer him a reward. When dogs are properly motivated this does not need to be a large treat. In fact larger treats slow down the training because the dogs have to chew them.

We want our dog to eat these treats very quickly, less than a second. The best treats are soft and they basically disappear when they go into your dogs mouth. This leaves the dog wanting more so his drive stays high. You can see the size I cut the venison steak above and below. These pieces are very very very small treats. We sell a lot of all-natural dog treats that also work well. I like the Simon and Huey's Soft Training Treats and the Zukes Mini Natural™ treats for marker training. They both come in different flavors, they are soft and they are the right size.

I need to write a training article that explains how to select the right training treat for different dogs and various exercises.

Simon and Huey treats are on the left and steak treats are on the right

Trainers should take the time to establish and prioritize a list of dog treats that your dogs really, really love. You may find that the dog becomes distracted by his drive for the highest value treat. It makes him lose focus and he can't think. If that happens you need to drop down to a lessor value treat in training.

Then when you move your training into an area where there are a lot of distractions you can go back to the highest value treat because the distractions will offset one another. This is an example of how trainers need to constantly think about what they are doing in their work and be willing to adjust to fit the circumstances.

Ask your dog what treats he likes

You can ask your dog to tell you what treats he likes more than others. Back tie the dog (tie him to a post). Let him smell a treat - hold it out close to his nose but don't let him have it. Allow him to watch you lay it on the ground just out of his reach.

Do this with two treats and then release the dog. See which one he eats first. Then repeat the exercise and reverse the position of the treats. This will tell you if the dog indeed likes one treat over the other. Try adding a third treat to the protocol. With work you will be able to assign values to respective rewards.

By knowing which treat is his favorite you can use this information in later training. Some training requires the highest level motivation than others and some things only needs the level 4 treat.

Assign values to various treats

3 levels of treats

FOOD Rewards vs Toy or Tug Rewards

Just as there are times when a food reward is the correct type of reward there are times a toy or tug is a better choise. Knowing when to employ both will make you a better trainer.

Many high prey drive dogs get over stimulated with toy rewards. They actually go into too much drive. These dog have so much drive for a toy that they shut their brain down and can't focus when the see their handler with a toy.

These type of dogs do better going through the learning phase of an exercise with food rewards. Using food results in them staying at a lower level of drive so they think more clearnly and learn quicker. Once the exercise has been learned a toy can always be used to increase drive for the exercise and then teach focus and impulse control.

New trainers mistakenly think the more drive the better. In fact they are wrong.

When we are going to use toys in marker training the dog must first go through a training process where it learns the game of tug. It learns that toys are no fun unless the handler is involved with the game. It learns to bring the toy back to the handler when they have it. It must also learn to OUT the toy on the first command every time. Once a dog knows these three things a tug becomes a powerful motivator for many dogs.

All of this work is the subject for another article.

How Long do you use Food Rewards

This is a simple issue, while it's not necessary you can use food forever. Once the dog is trained past the point of performing to voice commands man people will use random rewards.

Random rewards maintain drive. There are a couple of examples I use to convince people of this.

1 - We have cats and they constantly try and catch birds. Our cats are well fed and not the swiftest creatures on earth. I have never seen them actually catch a bird -- but they NEVER STOP TRYING.

2 - Some dogs chase squirrels. Most dogs never come close to catching a squirrel but they never tire of it.

3- I bow hunt for deer. This past fall I probably spent a total of 2 weeks sitting in trees. I shot one deer. The fact that I only had success one in 15 times has not dampened my interest in hunting.

4 - People go to the casino and play slot machines - they only win occasionally but this is enough to build their anticipation to play again.

Do you ever Stop Marker Training?

The simple answer is "Why would you want to?"

The fact is you don't really have to stop using markers unless you want to. By using them a lot you develop a line of communication between you and your dog that allows you to tell your dog that he is doing something you like or want him to do. Dogs intuitively pick up on this.

You don't always need to offer the high value food rewards with advanced marker training. A simple "YES " and a pat on the side tells the trained dog you appreciate his effort.

As your relationship gets better the VALUE of your verbal and physical praise increases. Your goal can eventually be a food reward, tossing a toy, or simply giving verbal and physical praise.

As dogs go through training they will begin to understand the CONCEPT OF TRAINING. By that I mean with experience dogs learn that you are trying to teach them something. We can speed this process along by telling a dog that you are going to start training. This is done by establishing a ritual and using the same word every time you go out to train.

Let me offer an example.

When you train in your yard you can use the same harness or the same leash and collar every time you go out. It doesn't matter of its a leather leash or a fur savor collar. It only matters that you consistently put that collar and leash on just before you start. You also use the same word or words every time you start - like "ARE YOU READ" or "READY" in an excited tone of voice. It doesn't take long for that word to be come Pavlov's bell for your training.

To make things even more clear for the dog you can tell him when the training is over by SAYING "done" at the end of every training session. Notice I said at the end of the session and not the end of the exercise. It's used when you are finished playing or finished training and are ready to put the dog away. Again with experience dogs will turn off like a light switch when you make this clear every time you finish.

Don't be afraid to scrap your training plan

The best way to approach handler mistakes is to first accept the fact that mistakes are a normal part of dog training.

Mistakes in training need to be looked at as learning experiences on the path to training your particular dog. They are not screw ups and they don't always necessarily need to be a bad thing.

The best trainers always look for points in training where they hit a wall and the dog just doesn't seem to be getting what your trying to teach him. Usually your getting ahead of yourself in training steps. You need to back up the work and split the exercise into smaller pieces.

Bad trainers on the other hand always blame the dog and say that "THE DOG KNEW BETTER."

Screw up Cookies

The beauty of MARKER work is it’s pretty hard to hurt your dog much if you make a mistake. Missing a mark is not like giving a prong collar correction at the wrong time. Give a soft dog a prong collar correction and the dog will shut down and quit trying. Miss a mark on the same soft dog and you have not hurt the dogs temperament. Oh he may be confused but you don't shut the dog down.

Earlier in this article I talked about "screw up cookies" These are also an Ann Braue invention that I love.

There may come a time when your dog simply does not want to try. This usually indicates one of the following:

1 - The dog does not have that good of a relationship with the owner.

2 - The exercise is not SPLIT enough.

3 - The reward is not a high enough value.

4 - The dog is not hungry enough.

5- You have not shown enough patience and allowed the dog time to work out the problem.

When this happens there are a number of options open to trainers. One option should be to use a "screw up cookie." Here is how it works; the dog stops working, you realize the problem is one of the above, rather than give a correction you realize " I HAVE MADE A MISTAKE!". So you ask the dog to do a really, really, really simple task (IE hand touch - after it's trained), one that the dog already knows and you then mark that behavior.

The screw up cookie gets you out of a problem and lets you put the dog away so you can think about what you have done wrong.

There is nothing wrong with taking the dog and crating it for a few minutes.

A 13 week old puppy trained to give straight "fronts' with markers

Retraining adult dogs: retraining puppies: markers and pack strucutre training

What Exercises can Markers be used for?

There is no limit to what exercises or parts of exercise that can be trained with marker training. You are limited only by your imagination.

You can use it for things as simple as giving you eye contact on voice command (a very important thing for people who compete in dog sports) to something as complicated as teaching a police service dog or a Schutzhund dog correct positioning to bark at a suspect or bark at a helper rather than bite the helper. Only in these circumstances the high value reward is the fight with the helper.

One point to keep in mind is when you use marker training to teach a moving exercise (for example the jumps) only mark the same location during the movement twice in a row. This is an important issue I learned from Ann Braue. What this means is if you mark the dog just before the take-off point only do it twice in a row. Then mark the point where it lands twice in a row, then the point where it lands and takes several steps away from the jump. Once this is done you can go back and mark the take off place twice again.

Bottom line is the use of markers is limited only by your imagination of the trainer.

Side view of the focus your dog can give with marker training - again a 13 week old pup

Equipment we use in Marker Training

There is not a lot of equipment needed for marker training. I have listed what we use in our home below.

DVD'S I recommend

If you want to learn about this training get my new Basic Dog Obedience video. It's an exciting way to train a dog. Motivational methods are ALWAYS better than force training or AVOIDANCE training. This work is fun to do and it builds a bond between the handler and his dog. It ends up with a dog that loves to go out and train and a much happier handler because the dogs want to learn. They want their MARKERS because they know the REWARDS are so good.

Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet - while this DVD has nothing to do with marker training it is probably the most important DVD that the average pet owner can purchase. 99% of all behavior problems in dogs have the roots in a lack of pack structure.

For Products related to this article,
please visit our Clicker Training Equipment Page.

Emails on motivational training (good and bad):

Ed,

Very informative web site (A level). Although I did catch a typo which you may want to address.

I have a 7 month old mini long hair male doxie. He is very submissive and is doing very well overall. I been using TRAIN YOUR DOG THE POSITIVE WAY DVD and wanted to go a little further. My main concern is off leash fun. I do take him off leash (in parks and such) and he pretty much follows me everywhere but sometimes he is slow to come to me when called or just stops and looks at me when I ask him to come. He is also average on the leash however is making strides as he would not even walk on the leash a month ago. Not a puller. He just stops walking sometimes. I have to lure him with a treat and lots of encouragement and that usually gets the ball rolling and once the ball is rolling he is very good with loose leash walking until the cycle repeats itself. Ok, that is my background aside from the fact that I am a first time dog owner.

Do you think for someone like me your basic DVD would be recommended or do you have another suggestion?

What are your thoughts.

Thank You.

-Corey

Ed's Comments on PURE MOTIVATIONAL TRAINING METHODS:

If you only found one typo I am amazed :-) I am a much better dog trainer than speller. I do have an employee working her way through the web site though.

I would recommend my Basic Dog Obedience DVD

I believe and use in motivational training - you can read or listen to my pod cast on training with markers

I have a page on pod casts that you may find interesting Listen to the one on my philosophy of dog training.

In this article you will find the mistake and foolishness of those who promote motivational training without corrections. Its just stupid.

You may also want to reads the article I wrote titled the THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRIANING.

Good luck with your dog.

Theory of Corrections

in Dog Training

BOOK

QUESTION on Switching to Marker Training:

Hi,
I just ordered the Basic dog training DVD. Our Rottweiler pup is 6 months old we have had him since 12 weeks. We just finished group obedience classes. He learned a little and does follow me around the house and obey some commands " when he wants to." However I don't feel we are developing that bond I had with our last Rott. My wife and I were my old dog's world. He never took his eyes off of us. He always knew where we were and he followed us everywhere. I want to develop that with my new pup. My question is do I stop all formal commands, sit, down, stay and just begin marker training? He already works for his meals." long sit stays" works for going out, stuff like that and is crated. Would the transition be to just stop everything we already know and begin with teaching him " Yes" + treat? . The DVD won't arrive for at least 5 more days and I want to get started. Sorry for the long email I just wanted to give a little background.

Thank you for your time and great web page
-Joe

ANSWER:

I am a little concerned about how much obedience you have put into this pup - or I should say expect from the pup. What jumps out is LONG SITS - the longest I would expect a 6 month old pup to hold a sit is 4 or 5 seconds - no longer.

To get long sits requires corrections and young pups should not be getting corrections for not sitting and staying.

I would recommend that you start marker training today. No corrections are involved here. You won't go wrong if you do this. Wait until the DVD gets there and really study it. This is not a one watch program - you made a good decision.

After watching the quality of information in this DVD you may want to consider my DVD titled BUILDING DRIVE and FOCUS.The work in this DVD when done correctly is the best I have seen for building a bond with a dog and owner.

Building Drive & Focus

Question:

I frequent your site often and own several DVD's--thank you for providing such excellent resources!

I just finished the "Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 months" and listening to the pod cast on marker training.

When teaching a new behavior, when do you suggest is best to "name" that behavior and give it a command word? For example, when teaching a "sit", are you saying sit before the dog knows the associated motion, as you guide it into position with food? Or, are you waiting until the pup anticipates the sit and starts to offer it reliably and THEN say "sit"?
Or, do you use a marker word, and if so in combination with the command word?

I know this must seem like a ridiculously simple concept, but everyone seems to have a different approach to when to introduce the command word.

Do you think it matters? If so, what's the most effective way to teach the dog to associate the behavior with the command word?

Many thanks in advance for your time!

Sincerely,
Deb

Answer:

When teaching a new behavior, I use more of a gesture at first. No command.
I do the gesture (such as lift my hand over the dog's nose for sit) when he sits, YES and reward. When he is doing this consistently, then I add the word. SIT, gesture, YES and reward. Fairly soon the dog starts to offer the behavior when I say the word and I can phase out the gesture.

If the dog gets "stuck" I can add the gesture back in to help the dog be successful.

Does this answer your question?

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