Introducing A Marker
A marker is used to let our dog know that what they doing is exactly the behavior we are looking for and a reward is coming their way.
Why us a marker? It is often difficult to supply the food or toy reward at the exact moment. This can be for a number of reasons, fumbling to get the treats from your pocket, distance from the dog or position of dog in relation to you during exercise. This is where the marker becomes invaluable.
A marker can be anything, verbals are popular such as yes or good or a yip. Verbal makers are valuable because we always have them available. In recent years clickers have also become popular with Karen Pryor being at the forefront of the clicker training revolution https://www.clickertraining.com and can be good for delivering a very clear, clean marker. I use both in various situations the choice is yours. Physical markers can also be used such as a hand signal if the situation demands.
Whichever marker you choose step one is charging. This is often overlooked but ensuring our dog understands what the marker means is of paramount importance, it is the first step in communicating with your dog. To put it another way if I say to you the word “znacznik” you will probably have no idea what is going on. Now if I say “znacznik” and then pop your favourite sweet in your mouth it won’t take many repetitions before that word becomes associated with good things coming your way.
Dogs learn through experience and repeat behaviours that they find rewarding this means it won’t take them long to work out the action that gets them the marker, that gets them the reward. It is amazing when you can see the look in their eyes and you just know they are thinking, “HMM WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO GET THAT REWARD?” In training you can often see them contemplating, it really shows in the eyes. They will offer varying behaviours and then bingo, they hear the marker HAPPY DOG - they get the reward HAPPIER DOG - then they repeat and the process continues. Your timing is of paramount importance and will improve with practice.
The video below shows the process to charge the marker. Just keep repeating it in short burst about 20 treats per session. Your dog will get the hang of this pretty quickly and when you give your marker they will instantly look to you for reward and your marker is ready to go.