Learning to Train with Markers

MARKING and SHAPING A BEHAVIOR

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 to training dogs with markers.

Your dog is nothing more than a reflection of your skill as a dog trainer, and dog training is a skill that everyone can learn. The difference between a good dog trainer and a great dog trainer often times boils down to timing and good communication. Marker training will improve both of these skills. In addition there are not many exercises in dog training that improve the bond between the dog and handler as much as marker training.

Once dog owners learn to apply the concepts of markers to their training they open a window of communication with their dog that many never thought possible. Marker teaches the dog to ACTIVELY problem solve. Markers teach the dog to want to figure out what you want them to do.

The new version of my training video titled Basic Dog Obedience teaches how to learn to develop good timing. It's just a small part of that 4 hour DVD but it’s one of the most important sections of the DVD.

Learning timing skills is where every new dog trainer should start obedience training. The fact is without understanding and employing good timing, trainers will often flounder and confuse their dogs.

Dogs are far more intuitive than we humans. They 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.

Dogs are extremely aware of EXACTLY what they are doing at a specific point in time when good things happen to them. They also know EXACTLY what they are doing at the specific moment in time that unpleasant things happen to them.

Dogs strive to do the things that make them comfortable and with that in mind, most dogs will take the easiest route to being comfortable.

Let me offer an example of a dog that takes the path of least resistance to making himself comfortable. This is a dog that likes to sleep on the furniture.

He has learned that when he is napping on the couch and he growls at the wife and kids for waking him up, they leave him alone.

This same dog also knows that the man of the house does not want the dog on the furniture. The dog has learned that every time the husband catches him on the couch or on a chair he gets a swift boot in the rear (not a comfortable thing for the dog). So as soon as the husband comes through the front door the dog wakes up and quickly gets off the furniture on his own accord.

This dog has learned how to take the path of least resistance to making himself comfortable. He does what works for him. He growls at the wife and kids and they steer clear, as soon as the husband walks in the house he is off the couch like a shot. He doesn't like becoming a football. This is a black and white concept to the dog. There is no middle ground to this.

Basic Dog Obedience

Assigning a Value to a Word - or Charging the Clicker - The First Step

We start marker training by teaching the dog that every time we say the word “YES" or every time they hear a click from a clicker the dog gets a really good high value food treat. These treats come from either the left or right hand and are stored in a bait pouch that we have on a belt.

In other words we teach the dog to assign a "personal comfort value" on the word YES or the the sound of a CLICKER. We will define "YES" or the "CLICK" from a clicker as a marker.

In the first step of marker training we take a dog out and whenever it does something we like we simply say YES or CLICK the clicker and then offer the high value food treat. At this stage we never give a command and we never ask the dog to do anything - we only mark a random behavior. In fact commands are not added to this work for a long long time. This is very important and will be discussed later.

New trainers who think their dogs know what "SIT" or "DOWN" means often make the mistake of starting marker training by giving a SIT or DOWN command and then marking the sit. The problem is if the dog does not understand the command and and does not follow the voice command the owner ends up saying "Sit FIDO - Fido, Sit - Sit." This only confusing an already confused dog.

So it's vitally important to understand the essence of marker training is to start with no command at all.

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

I personally prefer using the word over clickers. 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.

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. To change the sound of the word will often change the meaning of what your dog things your trying to say and we don't want that. Don't forget how perceptive our dogs are. They pick up on our slightest body language. They most certainly will pick up on the different in the way you say YES.

So our only goal in the first step is for the dog to learn that when they hear you say YES or CLICK the clicker, they get a great treat. This is called LOADING or CHARGING the word - or the click.

Things you can mark in the first step of training

1 - Looking at our face

2 - Turning (without us calling him) to come to us

3 - Sitting on his own (without being told)

4 - Laying down on his own (without being told)

The order of events to do this is important and goes like this:

1 - The dog does something, anything really etc.

2 - We say YES or CLICK

3 - Wait for a split second - it's important to have a 1 second time break between the word and the reward.

5 - Then move our hand behind our back to where we keep the bait pouch (the bait pouch is always out of sight ) and take the food

6 - We offer the food treat to the dog

It is critical to never move the hand until after we say YES. To do so changes the value of the word because dogs, being as intuitive as they are, will associate the comfort value on "the movement of the hand" and not on hearing the word YES.

We also only say YES one time. We don't get excited and say "Yes, Yes, Yes that's the best you have done!!" Rather than charge the word it discharges the word. Again that only dilutes the value of the word.

When I first started to train with markers this was a very difficult thing for me. I would say Yes several times in a row because I was so pleased with what the dog was doing. It took some serious self inflicted remote collar corrections for me to get control of my mouth - but then people tell me about my mouth problems all the time so I am used to it.

What are high value treats?

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

It does not take a dog long to understand the basics of markers. This is where their acute intuitiveness comes into play. Most DOGS pick up the concept of a CHARGED YES OR CLICK in about 20 minutes.

Once a dog has learned this first step we can begin to use the MARKER in our training.

Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet

Training with Markers

Before we start, I need to remind you that dog training is a learned skill that can be developed into an art form. To become effective as a trainer you need to be nit picky with yourself and what you do during training. The most important trait of really good dog trainers are that they are all very consistent. Learning to be consistent is critically important in marker training.

When we are ready to start training we need to pick an exercise to start marker training with.

12 week old puppy doing "hand tough"

I like to start with the HAND TOUCH. This is an exercise where we offer our hand down at our side with the palm facing the dog. The dog must come over and touch his nose to the palm of our hand.

When this exercise is trained with markers it turns into a fun game for the 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. There are many applications to use the HAND TOUCH. It can be used to redirect a puppy from something we would rather he not get into or it can be used on a walk to redirect an adult dog away from a person or dog we don't want the dog focusing on. As much as anything it's a relationship building game between you and your dog.

Splitting

When dog trainers teach an exercise they learn to break the exercises into small component parts and teach the individual parts separately, then put these small parts back together to create the exercise.

A few weeks ago I attended a seminar by Ann Braue in Eau Claire, WI on training puppies for agility work. Ann is one of the top agility trainers in the country. She has been on the world team a number of times. I highly recommend her seminars to everyone.

Ann uses the term "SPLITTING" to describe how to break an exercise into its component parts for training. I love that choice of words to describe the process because people can easily grasp the concept.

When training a new exercise this exercise needs to be split into its component parts. Each part is trained separately and then all the parts are put together when we want to perform the final exercise. New trainers need to understand that you can not OVER SPLIT an exercise. The fact is the more you split the exercises the easier it is to train the individual component parts.

Some trainers call these parts "building blocks" some call them "components" some call them "pieces" 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.

We need to SPLIT the HAND TOUCH exercise into component pieces that can be marked so we can shape the behavior of the dog into the final exercise. With most dogs this can be:

1 - Looking at the hand

2 - Lay down

3 - Sit

4 - DO ABSOLUTLEY ANYTHING - it really does matter in the beginning

5 - Taking one step towards the hand

6 - Taking two steps towards the hand

7 - Smelling the hand

8 - Actually touching your hand with his nose

This photo demonstrates what is offered to the dog
(without a command) to initiate the hand touch.

Placement of Reward

The most important concept to the grasp when teaching a component is "the placement of the reward." This is HUGE!!! Let me explain.

I want to train my dog to touch my hand. He can do anything in steps 1 through 4 above and I will mark the moment by saying YES. A second after I say YES I will feed the dog its HIGH VALUE TREAT at the palm of my hand. Even if he was 10 steps away from me I feed at my hand. The dog needs to come to my hand to get his high value reward.

Another example is when I want to teach my dog to lay on his rug. If he does anything in steps 1 through 4, I mark the moment with a YES and place the food reward on the rug.

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

When a trainer learns how to place his reward in the correct spot he will find the learning process accelerates. You will find that correct placement of the reward drastically speeds up the learning curve of your dog.

When the light bulb goes off in the dog's head and you can see that he is trying to figure out what you want he will begin to experiment. He will start to do what worked for him a minute ago. This is when you can use MARKERS to SHAPE the behavior into the exercise.

This is also when you will expect him to start to move through your splitting steps before he gets his reward. With more difficult training steps you would not progress through the steps until the dog is correct 80% of the time. The answer to those who ask why not 100% of the time is - we want to keep this challenging for the dog. We don't want to bore him.

Shaping vs. Luring

There is a difference between shaping an exercise and luring a dog through an exercise. Here is an example.

You can split the SIT COMMAND into its various components and reward the dog with a mark and place the food treat over his head so he if looking up to get his reward. In shaping, the food is never out until a second after the MARK.

When trainers lure a dog they show the dog the food treat before the exercises even begin. It is compared to showing the dog a bribe and then asking him to do something. 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.

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.

The opposite of splitting is called LUMPING. This is where trainers fail to split an exercise into enough training steps. Lumping is a common mistake with new trainers and causes confusion with the dogs. The solution to lumping problems is additional splitting

If you are not giving commands how does the 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 NAME THE EXERCISE (name the command)

Have you noticed that at no point during this process have I added a command to the exercise. So far our work is all being done with hand signals by putting my hand down by my side with the palm facing the dog.

Ann Braue has a saying that I find fitting. You don't name the exercises until you LOVE IT. That means you don't add the command "TOUCH" to the hand touch exercise until the dog is doing it correctly every time all the time.

You are going to see dogs start to anticipate your exercises. Anticipation is a great thing. It is a way for us to see the dog is actively trying to participate in the work. It tells us he is 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 things out.

The thing that requires some degree of latitude is knowing how to approach anticipation in the beginning of the learning phase of an exercise and how to approach anticipation after the exercises has been named (after you have given a command).

In the beginning we mark any effort even if its wrong by PLACEMENT OF THE REWARD NEAR OUR TARGET. This means we could reward anticipation even if the behavior is not what we want - as long as we are placing the reward correctly.

When we think our dog 100% knows the exercise and we name the exercise by adding the command. We need to be prepared to do something if he either refuses or doesn't do it (because he doesn't understand what we are asking). There is a tool box full of possible options when this happens:

1 - We can ignore the false behavior.

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 back up the training because we have been lumping and the dog really doesn't understand what we want. So we need to go back to splitting.

4 - We could lure the dog (I know all the purists will disagree with me on this - but it is an option).

5 - You can put the dog in his crate 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 very LAST RESORT we can correct the dog. Not a good solution but the option is in out tool box.

The bottom line is when this happens it is not the dog that made the mistake. It was you, the handler. You got ahead of yourself or you LUMPED THE EXERCISE. This is going to happen to all of us. It's how we learn. My dad had a saying "the definition of a good carpenter is one who knows how to fix his mistakes." Well, that is the same for a GOOD DOG TRAINER.

Learning to Time the Mark:

New trainers must learn correct timing on when they give their mark. 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 their behavior to that mental photo.

A visual method to help you learn timing is to ask a friend to use a digital camera and take a photo every time you say the word YES. Tell them not to focus on what the dog is doing but only listen and focus on your voice. Every time you say YES they need to push the shutter button. This is an easy way for you to evaluate what is going through your dogs mind when he is being rewarded.

The correct time to mark is the instant the dog meets the criteria of the particular training step your working on. For example, when teaching the hand touch, if it's the step where the dog is finally touching the hand. The point to mark is the "very instant" the dogs nose touches the hand. Not 3 or 4 seconds after the fact.

From a canine learning standpoint a dog needs to have the mark within 1 second of the actual deed or they don't relate to what they are being rewarded for.

Another important concept new trainers should grasp is the fact the "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. It means they need to keep trying. Don't under estimate the value "NO MARK." Doing nothing can become a powerful motivator for some dogs.

Many people look at confusion on the dogs part as a problem. They step in to rescue the dog by luring it into doing what they want. When in reality they should give the dog time to try to problem solve and work out the situation.

Adding Duration to an Exercise

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

We don't think about adding duration until a dog is consistently performing the exercises. When that time comes we simply delay the mark - but as we do this we offer multiple rewards. During the period that we are offering these rewards - one right after another - we are telling the dog "goooood dog" in a soothing voice. We have already conditioned the dog to "goood dog" by gently praising him in using these words when we are not training. He have done this a lot so the words "gooood dog" spoken softly are 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 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 months. In the beginning we only extend the time by 2 or 3 seconds - then 5 second then 2 seconds then 10 seconds then 30 seconds. With puppies its not recommended going beyond 30 seconds.

Vary how you deliver the Food Reward

An important point to marker training is to vary how you deliver the food reward to your dog.

By this I mean you have three options. The 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 when you reward him. Rewards from the mouth won't work in all circumstances.

We wear our bait bag in the middle of our back. After the "YES" we will put put both hands behind our back at the same time this allows the reward to come from either hands.

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

Snap-Open Bait Bag

How Long do you use Food Rewards

This is a simple issue. The answer is forever. Pure and simple you can do random rewards from the moment you begin marker training to the day your dog dies.

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 - 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.

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

So those OLD SCHOOL YANK AND CRANK trainers who POO POO using food to train are missing a great motivational tool. When they complain that "at some point you have to stop using food" you can say that this simply is not true. You only go from rewarding every attempt to random rewards.

When to Stop Marker Training

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 "GOOD DOG" 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 will increase. You goal can be to eventually teach a dog that the reward may be you tossing a toy, or you 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 time and work dogs learn that you are trying to teach them something.

When this happens you will see that they recognize training scenarios. They recognize their owners are trying to communicate and teach them something. They will actively want to figure out what you are trying to teach them because it makes them feel good to succeed.

Many dogs will eventually work for praise from the handler.

Handler mistakes are a normal part of dog training

The best way to approach handler mistakes is to first accept the fact that this is normal. Mistakes in training need to be looked at as learning experiences for the trainers. They don't necessarily need to be a bad thing.

Every good trainer is prepared to look for points in training where they get ahead of themselves and have to back up the work and split the exercise into smaller pieces. While bad trainers always blame the dog and say that "THE DOG KNEW BETTER."

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 correcting a dog by giving a correction at the wrong time. Give a correction at the wrong time to a soft dog and it could shut right down. Miss a mark on the same soft dog and you have not hurt anything.

With this said handlers can make mistakes in marker training which confuse the dog. But this is not as serious as shutting the dog down.

One of the most common handler mistakes new trainers make is to reach for the reward as they say the word "YES" and not AFTER they say the word YES.

There needs to be a short break between "YES" and reaching for the reward. This pause (between the mark and the reward) can increase as training progresses. The pause builds anticipation and anticipation builds drive.

Adding the pause also allows you to fix "a moment in time" in your dogs head. This is important for those times in training when your not standing right next to your dog to reward him. You may be some distance away from the dog but want to mark the correct behavior without creating a GREY area where the dog does not understand why he is not instantly getting the reward.

Teaching the delay between the mark and the reward will become a valuable training tool.

When people make a mistake and reward at the same time as they say "YES" the actual movement of the arm becomes the mark and not the verbal "YES." This leads to dogs REACTING to hand and arm movement which causes confusion in both dog and handler.

The same problem arises for those people who move the clicker hand when they click. This teaches the dog to look for hand movement.

So, these again are examples of why timing of the reward is as critical to your training as timing of the actual MARKER.

Remember what I said at the beginning of this article. Dogs think in black and white. Our goal is to make training crystal clear and easy for them to understand for our dogs. When marker training is done properly it can do that. You mark the moment - the dog takes a mental photo of what he was doing at that moment in time - you wait for a second to move your hands and then place the reward on the target.

When this is done correctly the work is black and white for the dog to understand.

Screw up Cookies

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 patients 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 what Ann Braue calls 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 YOU 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 (I have mentioned this already).

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

What Exercises can Markers be used for?

There is no limit to what exercises or parts of exercise that can be trained with marher 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 to use for 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 Strucutre with the Family Pet - while this DVD has nothing to do with marker training it is probably the most impoirtant DVD that the average pet owner can purchase. 99% of all behavior problems in dogs have the roots in a lack of pack strucutre.

~ 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

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