Marker System

One things for sure, Chris will entertain. Enjoy this course and the accompanying workbook. In each chapter Chris will demonstrate and explain the marker, then teach you how to loaded it with a new dog, then will offer some additional insight into how the marker can be used in sport and pet training.

Markers are your communication system. They allow you to capture behavior when training. This system incorporates a series of different markers with their corresponding rewards placements. Having multiple markers allows you to reinforce positions carefully when you’re battling anticipation mistakes and forces your dog to think and remain engaged in high states of arousal.

‘Yes’ is one of the most fundamental markers in your communication system. The way I use it represents a terminal marker meaning the dog can leave the position to come to you for the reward. Even under a simplified marker system this will always be the foundation!

Watch me load the ‘yes’ marker with a dog who has never seen this before. Teaching this marker will also help with building engagement. Make sure the treat is tucked into your hand, they have access to it but you can control when it is ultimately released to them.

Here is another example loading ‘Yes’ with another puppy.

Here is an example of how you can use ‘Yes’ to build engagement in the environment. When you bring your dog new places you can show them through their own choices what behavior pays (engagement with me) vs. concern or nerve around the environment. This way you’re helping your dog acclimate to a new space while also reinforcing engagement.

When this marker and type of training has been built up in your dog, you will have a dog who hops out the car and regardless of the environment is actively pushing you to work. This can be particularly important for sport dogs.

The ‘Good’ marker is a duration marker where you pay them in place in the behavior. This marker allows you to build stability and keep the arousal state lower in training. When you teach positions (sit, down, stand) using your good marker helps teach those with an implied stay. Meaning sit means remain there until I release you.

A special facet of loading the ‘good’ marker is to also teach them the difference between a closed and open hand lure. Open = permission to push into it. Closed = back off the the hand.

For a dog that already has some basic obedience cues like a sit or down, you can use that to clarify the difference between ‘yes’ and ‘good.’ Here you’ll see 'good’ he remains and stays in place, versus ‘yes’ he can break off and come to me for the reward.

This video has a nice example of a conditioned ‘no’ marker where he recognizes off the no marker that a mistake was made and corrects himself. You can quickly turn ‘good’ into a variable reward rate where sometimes you pay sometimes you don’t

‘Get It’ is your indirect reward marker. This reward marker is great for working impulse control, engaging their brain in training, and fixing position issues that can happen from your dogs anticipation mistakes.

Watch me load ‘get it’ with my puppy. Here you’ll see me problem solve a bit switching from food to toys. As you can see sometimes you have to get pretty silly or active to get the dog engaged with the toys. Its important once you start to commit to it!

Here instead of toys I’m using the food bowl to load the ‘Get it’ marker. Some dogs have higher food drive than toy drive so you can decide for your dog what makes the most sense to train with.

The ‘go’ marker I use mostly for recall drills, reseting a training set up, and just to throw in the mix in training when I do the marker discrimination game you’ll see later.

This video show’s how I load ‘go’ while also drilling recall with a foster dog.

‘Go’ can be really good for lower drive dogs because the chase will increase arousal. Sometimes if you need to bring a little more energy to the training releasing into ‘go’ can get you there. This dog nicely starts running before the cue but when they’re learning you can mark then toss.

Here is how I use ‘go’ in place to practice the dog listening while in a higher state of drive. For really possessive dogs too it can get them more comfortable releasing toys as they start to understand that can mean another toy is available.

The ‘switch’ marker is when your dog releases the toy they have in their hand to bite another toy that I present. This can be really helpful with recall drills, or to speed up an exercise in sports such as a dumbbell retrieve. This can also be a way to teach a dog to out with minimal conflict.

Here’s a demonstration with my dog Player P. Key here for the using discernment in drive is that just because the second toy gets presented doesn’t mean he can come off the tug he has to bite - its important the dog is waiting for your verbal marker.

Watch me teach ‘switch’ for the first time with the puppy. You have to make the toy they have become boring and entice them to switch by playing with the new one.

For a dog that’s less toy motivated here is how you can use food to teach a switch game. This also reinforces the open/closed hand luring you saw during the good marker section.

This lesson is a good example of what you might encounter working a more possessive dog when teaching ‘switch.’

In the most basic communication system the ‘no’ conditioned punisher marker is incredibly important. Unlike reward markers you have to ‘load’ this through daily life and real training scenarios. Thresholds with the lease or using the crate door are great options. You can see how fairly pressure is applied here. Once the marker has been appropriately paired the dog will understand the cue and sometimes it does not need to be followed by any type of correction.

This is an example of how I use all the markers together to play with my dog. This is both exercise and mental stimulation. Often time its a way we warm up before training as well. For sport dogs this type of clarity in drive is incredibly appropriate. For pet dogs practicing control and engagement in higher states of arousal helps for your daily life situations where they might struggle around triggers or overstimulating environments.

Here’s an extra clip on how the markers get used for engagement before a workshop session. This could be how you start your sports dog at workshops or on new fields. This could be when you go on errands what you do before entering the coffee shop with your pet dog. It’s a way to connect & communicate.