And good evening, everybody. This is Ryan, and
we are coming to you live on or live via recording
with Pawprint Academy. I am your host, Ryan.
And this tonight, I am here with Brianna. Hello.
And we're super excited to bring you our second
episode of Pawprint Academy. So this is what
we're excited about, right? This is a dog training
podcast recorded live in one take and with live
clients on the line. And the goal is to walk
away with opportunities to kind of assimilate
new ideas and learn in real time. Today will
be episode number two and it's entitled Marker
Words, Building a Shared Language with Your Dog.
So I'm super excited about tonight. Marker words
are incredibly important to what we do as dog
trainers, but also when we're talking about building
clear communication with our dogs, right? So
tonight, the core idea of tonight's episode revolves
around how marker words create clarity. Dogs
don't speak English. And we've said this over
and over. And I think everyone understands that
they don't speak English. But I think it's often
misunderstood because dogs do respond to a lot
of sounds and inflections. So when we we may
say, hey, get off the couch. And that dog might
get off the couch because it. uh is shocked by
your tone or towards it or you walk towards it
and you're taking its space away or it maybe
it smelled something that it actually wanted
to do or or you know experience more than they
wanted to be on the couch and we see that we
look at it and we're like that is a smart dog
he knew exactly what i was saying and so sometimes
our communication is not as clear as we think
it is and so that's kind of what we're going
to talk about tonight so when used correctly
marker words they become a bridge between human
intention and dog behavior and i think that's
really important and cannot be really understated
marker words give us the ability to start to
be more clear right to to get crystal clear in
the dog's mind rather than just, yeah, I think
he's getting it. Yeah, he responds as soon as
I pull those treats out. When we use marker words,
we can start to really understand whether the
dog is fully getting it and they're showing signs
of anticipating what's about to happen or not.
And so this... episode is going to have kind
of two tones to it one talking to or talking
as dog trainers and talking to dog trainers but
uh there's no part of me that is gonna you know
forgets that we have also our clients on the
on the line that we're talking to at in in a
way that it makes sense in the home right when
you're just working with your pet dog so we're
we're going to talk about it in kind of two different
ways here tonight. All right, so first point
is like why, so what is a marker word and why
does it work? All right, so I'll cover that and
then I'm gonna pass the mic over to Brianna and
we'll fill in some gaps. So one, what is a marker
word? A marker word is a opportunity to use a
short word A moment in time when you want the
dog to understand that what they just did, the
behavior that they just did, was either good
and you want them to repeat it, or it was bad
and you don't want them to repeat it. Right.
It's like subtitles. Like, explain. Right. If
you, if you don't have marker words and you're
like watching a film, that's not in your language.
If you didn't have subtitles, like you would
have no idea. It's just noise. Yeah. Okay. All
right. I like that. Right. Right. Key in you
in on the, on the concept of what's going on.
Okay. I love that. Okay. Why do they work? So
when you, so looking, this is the little. two
minute explanation. When we look at the science
behind dog training, we have, so there's, there's,
there are plenty of rabbit holes that we can
go down here. So I'm going to really try to steer
the conversation to the overall concepts because
What I don't want to do is get super sciencey
and then just go down one rabbit hole of one
study and not cite this other study that maybe
disagreed or there's a lot of different things
out there with dog training. There are a hundred
different ways to go and there's lots of ways
that work. But tonight we're going to talk about
the markers and so I'm going to keep the subject
on that. The science that we're using here is...
speaks about how the dog's attention works and
so when you tell your dog to do something and
then you reward them after that concept has to
happen that whole process has to happen pretty
fast and supposedly your dog has about one to
one and a half seconds between when they did
a behavior And you either rewarding it or correcting
it. So that dog has about a second that they
can either see that, hey, this was good. You
wanted me to repeat this or, oh, that was bad.
You don't want me to do that again. And so a
second is not a lot of time for you to reach
into a treat pouch and then produce some sort
of food reward. A second is not a lot of time
for you to walk across the room and pet your
dog and give them praise and like, oh, wow, you're
such a good boy. A second is not enough time
for you to even reach for a ball and throw it
all in one second. And so that's where marking
comes in. We can use a word, which the word is
not important. It could be anything. But the
way that we say it is the same and the sound
is the same to the dog. So when the dog does
something good, we mark it with. Yeah. And that's
and that is the excitement that the dog picks
up on is like, OK, that was good. I should do
this again. Or the reverse is true. Right. And
typically we use a marker like no. And it was
like, no, don't do that again. Yeah. From the
time that we mark the behavior, we have until
the dog stops paying attention to actually reinforce
that marker. So there's like three things happening.
One, dog produces a behavior. Number two, we
mark that behavior as either good or bad. And
then the third thing is we reinforce. that marker
with either a reward that could be multiple different
things could be a ball could be praise could
be a treat or we deliver a correction which could
be as simple as walking towards the dog and using
spatial pressure to to make the dog go back onto
their place yeah right all right So that is what
a marker is, and that is what the concept that
we're going to be talking about. So that is the
reason why markers work, because it makes it
very simple for the dog. So dogs learn fastest
when feedback, us telling the dog, hey, good
job, you did the right thing, or hey, that was
not a good job, you did not do the right thing.
Dogs learn fastest when the feedback is immediate
and consistent. This has been proven over and
over. And it doesn't matter what side of the
fence you're on, on positive training, on Lima
-type training, or fair and balanced training.
It doesn't matter where you end up. We pretty
much agree across the board that consistency,
fairness, and quickness with your feedback all
lead to a faster trained dog. Yeah, it's clear
communication for them. Right, absolutely. Okay,
so marker words act as a timestamp for the behavior.
So the dog sits and right as the dog's butt sits
down on the ground, it contacts the ground. That's
where we mark that behavior so that the dog is
super clear. They're like, oh, when my butt hits
the ground. That's when I did the right thing.
Yeah. Because what you don't want is a dog. Maybe
a dog lays down, but they first they go into
that like play bow and then they shake their
head and then they finally lay down. If you just
give them a treat without marking the actual
moment that they did the right thing, they technically
there's a high likelihood they could attribute.
their positive reinforcement to any one of those
behaviors. Yeah, they have no idea which one
they're getting a treat for if you don't tell
them. Right, 100%. And so that's the value in
that marker word. It allows us to, just like
using a clicker, we click at the moment the dog
has done the right thing. That way, the dog learns
faster. Super, super important. So they reduce
confusion. by separating the reward from the
action also because the dog sits and then we
start to move towards them with a reward and
we don't say anything and the dog gets super
excited because here comes the food oh my gosh
and then they get up and they're they're all
crazy what we lose out on that with that is that
the dog could have you know reinforced multiple
different variables all at all the same time
and uh what we want to do is we want to really
single out that exact motion that we did want
so that's why we use a marker um without markers
like in contrast without markers owners often
deliver rewards either late or sometimes teaching
or reinforcing the wrong behavior. Right, I've
seen that one a lot. Can you give an example
in just a second? Yeah. The last point here,
and then we'll go into questions. Consistency
in the tone also matters, right? So it's more
than the volume. It's the tone in your voice.
So it's not just that you said, yes instead of
yes but it's how you used inflection and how
you use tone in your voice that dogs pick up
on most um all right last one markers are universal
that's the other that's the other supporting
point right marker markers are universal across
environments and it really builds reliability
all right brianna i would love for you to share
what you're talking about um So with teaching
the wrong behaviors and rewarding at the wrong
time, a lot of people you'll see do this with
barking. That's a really big one is when you're
timing rewarding a dog for not barking at something,
it is one of the most like critical timings,
I feel like, because when a dog is barking and
you are putting the food in front of them, you
are rewarding them for barking. They are stopping
barking to eat that treat, but you're in the
long term, you're rewarding that barking. Whereas
when you are having a dog where you can time
it correctly to mark the quiet and reward for
that, even in those moments when you don't feel
like rewarding your dog because they're barking,
those are the most important time factors when
rewarding the dog for correcting a behavior.
Yeah, that's a really good point. Barking is
one of the more difficult ones to figure out
because there's like a whole bunch of reasons
why a dog barks. Yeah. Okay. So I had written
down three questions, right? You already answered
kind of one. But the first one was, can you share
a story where adding marker words immediately
sped up a dog's progress? And so in my mind,
one of the things that comes to mind is when,
so there was a dog that I had trained in a previous
company. And when originally we were rewarding
the dog with food for doing, you know, their
different actions. And we kept hitting a wall.
that the dog was not fully understanding the
not jumping. Not jumping up was this really big
issue. And I believed that we were kind of miscommunicating
to this dog that they were jumping up and then
they were getting down on the ground. They were
putting all four paws on the ground and then
we were rewarding the dog. really felt that we
were just not communicating clearly enough to
the dog and kind of showing the dog like yeah
you jump up and then and then as soon as you
come off of the person then I then I hand you
a treat so the dog got yeah cool when I jump
up like I get treats well as soon as we started
incorporating markers right into the moment the
dog this made that decision to get off of the
person we made a lot of progress yeah and so
that was that was what came to my mind you have
one um yeah i think i've had a few experiences
with anxious dogs where they will pace around
and the moment they lay down i mark and reward
that um and i do it in a calm manner with with
a slightly different tone because you don't want
to really incite them to come back on Um, but
that is one that's really important when you're
trying to just kind of, it's like a mixture of
like, it's like free shaping, right? So you just
wait for them to do the behavior and you're not
really like forcing them to or telling them to,
but you're just encouraging them to do that behavior.
Yeah. And then marking it as soon as you see
it. Well, so how do you explain to new clients
like the difference between praise and marker
words? Um. So praise is going to be more of like
an excitable tone for me. Praise is just, it's
telling them good boy, good girl, good job, you
know, yeah. All these things where a marker word
is just that word, the same, consistent every
time. You can change your tone with praise and
say all sorts of things and go into, you know.
all all sorts of nicknames for the dog and things
like that and that can be praised but when you're
sticking to a marker word it's it's yes free
no it's all of those all in the same in the same
fashion every time yeah so i i do kind of the
same thing like i i use a whole bunch of words
when i'm praising because i don't necessarily
want so i mark it the same word every time We
use yes and free, and we're going to talk about
that in a minute. So I might mark it with free,
and then go into, oh my goodness, you're such
a good boy. And those are two very separate events.
One is the mark, and then that praise can actually
be the reward. But it's not the marking of the
behavior. It's the reward, right? Just like we
talked about before, there's three parts, right?
You have the behavior and you have the mark that
is that moment in time that you're telling the
dog, yes, that is what I wanted you to do. And
then you have that reinforcement. And the reinforcement
is that praise. If you're not giving a food reward
and you're not giving like a freedom reward or
What's another one? My mind is blanking out.
Another way you reward dogs. Food. Praise. Toys.
Toys. There we go. That was the other one that
was in the back of my head. I just couldn't get
it out. If you're not producing one of those
things, you can always fall back on just praise.
But the praise is not the marking part. it's
the actual reinforcement yeah all right um last
question for this uh section have you seen situations
where inconsistent markers actually set a dog
back yeah i think we see that kind of all the
time to be honest with you you know it's like
people either use too many of them and they're
just like spitting them all over the place and
it's like yes yes yes yes yes the dog is like
that has no value now because you're not like,
you're not rewarding every time, right? Of course,
if you're rapid firing yeses at dogs and if you're
throwing a whole bunch of no's at them or one
thing is people use different versions of no
a lot of the time. They're like no or they're
like stop, don't do that, quit, cut it out. There's
all sorts of ways to say no and people in the
moment or even using them in more of an emotional
way than not can can always set a dog back yeah
it's just it's so much confusion because it's
inconsistent right and the dog doesn't doesn't
speak english no matter what it was like that
couch thing right off the bat that just because
your dog did what you asked them to do did not
mean that they understood those words yeah And
some dogs do. This isn't 100%. Some dogs do understand
the concept, right? But I guarantee that they're
not understanding every word in grammatical sense,
right? They're just understanding the general
concept. They're like, cool, yeah, get off the
couch. I got it. Anyway. All right. Next main
point. Three essential markers. So as we get
into this, we're going to talk about this is
what we use in. In our company, so for our clients
that are tuned in or downloading this later,
listening to it, we use three main markers. So
we use yes, we use free, and we use no. You can
use apple, carpet, bubble. It doesn't matter
what the words are. And there's, and this is
kind of universal. There's, there's a lot of
dog trainers that use a little bit different
verbiage and I'll get into why we do what we
do here. But one, I think it's really, really
important. Well, let's just knock this out right
off the bat. I think it's really important not
to lie to your dog. And so because of that, we
will eventually, we'll start with just reward
markers. Markers that get an immediate reward,
whether that is food, a toy, or praise, or freedom.
Second from that, later down the road, we'll
introduce two additional markers that mean basically
the same things, but they're not reward markers.
And we'll talk about that in a minute. Off the
bat, the three markers that we start every dog
with is yes, free, and no. Yes means the dog
is correct and should continue the behavior that
they're already doing. Free means that their
dog is released and that's the end of the exercise.
a reward either a toy food praise or freedom
yeah um and then the third marker is no which
just signals a mistake and helps the dog reset
so uh dog come a dog goes to their place and
we have them down this isn't the very first thing
that we do right but when the dog goes to their
place We tell them lay down on their place. We
give them a yes because that's a continuation.
That is, hey, good job. Here's a reward. We follow
that yes with a treat. And that yes means good
job. Here's your treat. You got a treat. That's
a great job, but I want you to keep doing it.
And they stay in that place until such time as
then you say free. At free, they're going to
break that place command and they're going to
approach you to get a treat or to get praise
or freedom or a toy. And then the last one is
no. So dog lays down in their place. You say
yes. You give them a treat. doing whatever distracting
events that you do while you're trying to work
with them. And then suddenly they break the command
and they get up. I'm going to say no, but I'm
not going to say it like no. I'm going to just
say it just like a marker, right? It's just a
moment in time where the dog has done something
that you did not want. That's it. It's not the
end of the world. It's not a big deal. It's just
no. And then I'm going to follow that with a
correction. In this case, I'm going to approach
the dog and use spatial pressure for them to
decide, oh, oops, back up. Let me lay back down
on my place. Yeah. So those are our three main
markers. Yes, free, and no. Eventually, down
the road, we incorporate two additional markers.
And we use good and we use break. Good means
the same as yes, except it does not predict a
reward. Break means the same as free, but does
not predict a reward. I think that those are
really important to have those and to expand
your vocabulary. Just two words. It's just two
extra words. But eventually every single client
asks us, well, when do I not need to carry treats
around? When do I get to fade out the treats?
And inevitably the. The answer to that, and Robert
Cabral says this, this is like a good way to
answer it, is that if you're asking that question,
you're probably not there yet. Yeah. However,
an easier answer to that is I'm never going to
fade out the treats for yes and free. I'm always,
always, always going to treat for yes and free
so that all the work that I did. Up front to
charge is this is a dog trainer word, right?
To charge those markers. I did all this work
in order to really like bolster up the meaning
behind these markers. I don't want them to lose
meaning. I don't want them to lose their edge.
So I'm going to just incorporate an additional
marker that means the same thing. but the dog's
not looking for the treat yeah and that is how
we don't lie to our dogs we bring the dog's consistency
and clear communication through every phase of
their training all right so we that i kind of
like shot through these other uh these other
points but um Owners often misuse no by pairing
it with anger instead of clarity. So that is
what I was talking about when we were like, oh,
no, don't do that. Don't get on the couch. No,
no. We need to use no as a consistent communication
device. So just no. And then that's it. And then
follow it with action. Just like yes. And then
we follow it with a reward. We have to start
using those things and that clearly communicates
to our dog. Overusing yes. You talked about this
a little bit earlier, right? And so you kind
of, you stole my thunder a little bit here. So
you talked about diluting the yes. Yeah. Now
is the time to expand on that. Right. So I think.
When it comes down to it, we just, we, we auto
go to that once we start working with our dogs.
And diluting the yes simply means that that dog
keeps hearing that word and you keep not giving
that dog a reward. That's, that's as simple as
it can get is you say it and you don't stick
behind what you're telling your dog, which means
yes, gets a reward every time. And it doesn't
have to be yes for you. And you don't even have
to follow these rules, right? Because they're
not rules. They're just suggestions in the long
term. But in order to build the clear communication
and being able to have a non -treatable marker
word is what we always fall back on. It's like
you don't have to say yes. Just say good, good,
good job, good, good girl, good boy. Yes. Good
heavens. Like you can say whatever you want.
Just don't say yes in that moment unless you're
willing to back it up with something. And that
doesn't mean you have to have something on your
person. It's like you're out back. You walk inside
immediately, grab a ball, you know, give them
a treat. We have a because you have until you.
OK, good. Hit that real quick. Right. We keep
a bowl a little. Tupperware thing of dog food
on the counter at all times, because no matter
what, like you can go from any room in the house
to the kitchen really quick, grab a piece of
food and, and give it if you accidentally said
yes for something. So that's where I was going
with this, right? Was that everybody makes mistakes
and sometimes instead of, and I didn't use the
right one, but you know what? I demonstrate fairness
to that dog by walking. myself across the room
because i said yes over in the laundry room or
putting him in a crate or whatever it was i said
yes and i'm like oh that was the wrong word yeah
i meant good dang it so it doesn't take that
much effort though to follow it with praise a
toy freedom or a food reward yeah That breeds
consistency. And that is where you make a really
good progress with your dog because they're looking
for those things. And if you think they're not,
you are kidding yourself. Okay. So then the other,
the last one, right, is that dogs thrive. You
talked about the rules. So dogs thrive when the
rules for each marker are always the same. We're
talking about this stuff like we're some sort
of, you know, immovable on these rules it's really
not that there are hundreds of different ways
that you can train your dog you don't have to
use markers at all our point is that by using
markers you will train your dog quicker and more
efficiently yeah that is the concept People have
trained their dogs way before anybody started
using markers. People have trained dogs for thousands
and thousands of years. You can just say sit.
You cannot even do the things that like all dog
trainers are like, okay, cool. We need to first
pattern the command or pattern the behavior.
Then we need to name it at the beginning of the
behavior. Then we need to name it through the
behavior. I'm sorry. mess that up we need to
name it right at the execution of the command
or the of the behavior then we slowly increase
the timing so that we're naming it slightly before
the sit let me clarify because i'm sure that
that was confusing once again this is what happens
when you have a podcast that you do in one take
and you don't do any outs um so i tell the dog
to sit and the dog doesn't know how to sit that
does me no good so in the dog training world
we pattern the sit by luring the dog with food
we lure the dog into position and then as they
sit we mark it and then we reward we do that
completely separately from the actual command
of sit s -i -t once the dog does that multiple
times then we start naming the command We name
the command at the moment that their butt hits
the ground. We say sit and then we mark it and
we reward it. Then slowly we increase the timing
on that so that as the dog goes to sit and we're
very, very sure that they're about to actually
sit, we name it sit. And then we step it forward
even more to where we're eventually saying sit
and then getting the dog to do the whole movement
into the sit. Yeah. But we're always marking
and rewarding at the moment that the actual set
happens. Yeah. So hopefully I didn't confuse
anyone. All of that is to say that there are
not hard, fast rules that like if you don't do
this, you will never train your dog. We are not
saying that. There are hundreds of ways that
you can train your dog very successfully by just
saying the sit. right off the bat never even
giving the dog an opportunity to learn the pattern
and then when they eventually do sit just shove
food in their mouth and they're like okay i guess
that was good they will learn the sit but if
we statistically we take two dogs and we do it
by the way that we just i just described versus
the i shove food in their face every time they
sit we will inevitably train that first dog faster
and more efficiently. All right. What's the biggest
mistake that you see owners make? So specifically
with no is where we're going with this, but with
markers, right? You already kind of alluded to
the yes, like overusing yes and the markers,
right? We just blast yes out there. Yes, yes,
yes, yes, yes. And it loses value. Well, I think
that no is incredibly important that if we really
attach value to no, you don't have to do anything
but say no. And your dog is like, what? Oh, I
messed up. What do I do? Go ahead. So I'm going
to start with free because people think that
there's like really no mistakes that you can
make with free. If you want your dog to come
into an environment in a calm manner and you
give them free out of the gate, that's a charged
marker word, right? That's a rewardable marker
word. Food is a stimulant. Don't expect your
dog to like walk into a library if you just gave
them free out of a kennel that they've been in
for two, three, four hours. So that's the first
one. I like that analogy. With no, it's... It's
kind of the same as yes with not sticking behind
your yes with a treat. No is not sticking behind
what you mean and making them do what you asked.
So we always tell the clients when you pull out
no, one, don't bring any emotion to it because
you do have some clients that out of frustration
will start bringing emotions into it and the
dog. doesn't even know that you're upset really
and is like, I don't know what you're upset about.
The second one is just not backing it up again
because at some point when we get into corrections
and things like that with a dog that's like actually
in a program, we always say it's no correction
command. And we say that because we want to phase
out that correction as quickly as possible. So
we communicate with them the word first so that
they're learning that. Then that predicts that
a correction is coming next. And what you see
is a dog go, oh, I'm not going to do that because
I'm about to get a correction. And then you can
phase out those corrections and you're no longer
having to actually correct your dog. You're just
verbally going, nope. And I snap my fingers usually
when I do it. But you'll see, you know. puppies
get up off place and and step two paws off front
and they'll look at you and it's like nope and
they're like thinking about it they're like she's
gonna come over here in a minute if i've come
over there every time i'm gonna come over there
this time right so that's accountability in action
right i'm gonna go back onto the place yep all
right so do you do you like introduce all three
markers at once or do you do it in stages So
I always do the positive markers first. So we
always introduce, we usually do free and then
we do yes and then we do no. No kind of starts
to blend in as you see understanding of the yes.
Why do you do free first? Because it builds excitement
in the dog for the exercise that you're doing.
So if you're working on downs or place, the dog
already is like, oh, all right, I got to go into
a down. get into that down you give them that
free and give them that reward the less likely
they are to be like well i don't want to do that
because i had to sit there for you know three
four five minutes you just want the dog to get
into the position to learn the position and immediately
reward them so they're like oh well i just got
right back up so that's totally fine you see
a dog that gets into the position faster and
learns it quicker nice i think the other thing
with that is that And eventually, and it's not
the first step, but eventually free or a terminal
marker builds speed in the dog. It builds desire
in the dog because what the dog sees is the faster
that I do this, the faster that I perform this
behavior, whatever it is, the faster he releases
me and I get to go and do what I want. Right.
And you have to teach them the yes and free first
because you can't just correct. a dog that doesn't
know the rules so you can ask for a sit but if
they don't know how to sit and you haven't taught
them what it all means verbally leash pressure
food lure wise you can't just correct a dog and
expect them to know what it means still they're
they're not going to all right so how do you
how do you keep owners from turning yes into
like that concentrated chatter I mean, I think
it goes a lot back to just owner education and
explaining that the constant chatter is not good.
I always tell people, use as many words as you
want as long as you don't mess with that one
word. And most people don't have a hard time
leaning too far against that, right? It's one
word that you can't just ramble into it. Because
you're going to see your dog lose focus. So we
use yes in the reactivity world a lot where you'll
have a dog staring at another dog in the distance
and it's not reacting and you mark and reward
while the dog is looking at that other dog, but
they're not reacting to it. So you say yes, that
dog turns back to look at you and you reward.
So at that point, you're teaching that dog to
look at it without reacting and then disengage
and look back at you and that's when you're marking
it. A lot of times people don't understand how
that works, but you have to be able to just really
focus it on the yes, if nothing else, to understand
that that dog needs to know that it's constant.
Yeah, for sure. All right, so major point number
three, marker words in daily life. So marker
words, it shouldn't, when we incorporate them
into daily life, markers should not. They only
live in training sessions. We talked about this
last week. It's like, hey, I'm going to take
the kids in the back and work with them for a
few minutes. That sounds weird. But we hear that
all the time. It's like, well, I tried to work
with the dog in the backyard, but this happened
or that happened. Well, what about just working
with them throughout the day, right? Like marker
words don't just belong in training. They also
belong in everyday routines. So using yes and
free around thresholds, meals, greetings, all
of those things, it increases the structure and
it strengthens the dog's understanding of those
marker words because you're using them throughout
the day. So the more consistent the communication
that you use, the faster you build respect and
the faster you obtain that level of obedience
that you're looking for. So dogs pick up leadership
when humans communicate clearly outside of drills.
Like an example, when my dogs go in and out of
their crates, I use yes and free. A dog goes
into their crate and maybe they go into the crate
and I mark yes. And then I throw a little food
reward in there. And then I close the door. It's
a continuation marker. It means don't come out.
It means good job. You did the right thing, but
keep doing it. Yeah. Because I said kennel. And
then when eventually I do open the door, they
don't dash out because I haven't released them
yet. So I open the door and then I sit there
for a minute. And then I can reward or then I
can release them with free and then toss them
a little reward. Or. What I do is the follow
on to that is I use break because break means
the same as free. It's that release, but it's
not treatable. It's not a reward marker. So at
the point where I say break, the dog knows, cool,
I'm released. I can be a dog. I'm on my own program.
And then they run out of the kennel. Yeah. And
they're like, whoo. And they're happy. They're
excited. Right. It is. kind of a reward in and
of itself but it doesn't predict the dog never
comes to me when i say break and it's like where's
my food right whereas if i said free they're
for sure coming to me and they're like sweet
i got a treat love that but we need to have the
ability to not lie to our dog so i don't want
to say free and then the dog comes over there
and i'm like hey you did so good buddy and they're
like well that was a jip yeah It was like, wah.
And now the dog is rethinking their excitement
for that word. So I want to avoid that, right?
Even casual moments, right, where you're just
moving around your house, doing normal things.
Rewarding calm in the house is huge and is a
huge opportunity that a lot of times we miss.
Use those markers. Use the markers and use the
markers that don't mean you're going to get a
treat, right? We use a lot of good. Yeah. A lot
of good. I see good as a bridge word between
yes and free. So maybe I reward them up front
with yes, good job. And I kind of put them together
there, but yes. So you're on your place. I just
gave you a little food reward. Now I'm expecting
you to stay there and I'm good. Good. Good boy.
Good job. Good. That's all bridging. Yep. I can
say good as many times as I want. It means good
job. Keep doing it. Good job. Keep doing it.
But it doesn't mean you're getting a treat. Yeah.
And then I can release them with free if I'm
using a treat or break if I'm not. Yep. All right.
So what's a simple. Daily routine that we can
give clients here where you use markers outside
of training sessions. Definitely going to be
meal times with food. Nice. So that's one of
the listener projects. So I love that. Go ahead.
Oh. And then. Is it also the listener project?
Is it thresholds? No. Oh. No, not thresholds.
I've got place on there, but thresholds is a
really good one too. Thresholds for sure. So
how do they use them? Just explain it briefly.
Mealtimes, you're going to ask for a sit or down
or go in their kennel. Any behavior, place, mark
it with yes. You can put that food down, right?
And without your dog breaking it, you should
be able to put that food bowl down. walk away
from it a few steps and once you're ready you
can then give a free um i keep like panicking
as i'm saying them too that i'm not spelling
them and i'm like oh there's a dog around hearing
me right so usually when we're teaching we try
to spell a lot of those markers out so that we
don't lessen they don't hear them and then like
we don't lessen the uh the value of them yeah
Um, and then for thresholds, it's going to be
pretty much, we use it for a lot for door dashers
and, and things like that, where the dog just
likes to bolt out the door. It's a door dasher.
Okay, cool. Yeah. Bolts out the door. I'm super
excited to go outside. Always excited to run
and, and leave from the front yard. Um, so with
that, we ask for a sit before we open the door.
We always make sure that we can get the door
all the way open and kind of start to get out
the door before. But when the dog goes into a
sit, we mark it with yes. That tells them to
keep sitting. We can open the door, get out the
door a little bit ourselves. And then usually
we don't use a reward marker with thresholds.
If you have a treat, you can use free and treat
them as they're coming out. But typically we
just use break to let them know that they can
come through the door with us. Love that. All
right. How do you show clients that structure
with markers actually reduces the stress at home?
Because I feel like that it kind of like puts
it all together. The concept is like, cool, you
can use markers and you can reduce your stress
and increase your peace at home. Yeah. Okay,
cool. Well, that's nice to know. But how do I
do that? Like as a client. Right. Just incorporating
them into your everyday lives. So when you build
those in with any of the exercises, like anytime
the dog is doing a behavior that you want, start
building those into your day. Right. Charge them.
Right. And that's dog trainers called charging.
The markers is where we're like leaning into
using those markers. We are establishing value
with those markers. So yeah, use them throughout
the day. That's super, super important. If you're
already asking, you're talking to your dog all
throughout the day, you're asking them to do
different things, whether it's get off the couch,
get on the couch, get on the bed, get off the
bed, go outside, get in your crate, lay down
on place, sit down, come with me, let's go. Whatever
it is, mark it. Yeah, I think it's super useful
for people that have dogs that bark. If your
dog's not barking and he's just relaxed and laying
there, start marking that. We will do like the
noise desensitizing with dogs inside where it's
like you play noises super, super quiet. And
start marking when they're not barking back or
responding to those noises. Also like the thresholds
when people all the time are stressed because
their dogs run out the door ahead of them. you
know they live in apartments is a big one around
here and the dog goes out the door first and
then it's like startled by all these dogs um
start asking for a sit before they go through
that door it's not it doesn't take a long amount
of time most dogs know how to sit it's one they
almost come pre -loaded with right Right. Sit
is like the number one thing that everyone's.
Oh, my dog. He knows how to sit. Yeah. That's
because they get tired of standing. Right. Every
dog sits eventually. Mark it when they do. Right.
Yeah. I love that. All right. So let's do listener
projects. I've got two projects for anybody listening.
Whether you're. Listening as a client or listening
as a downloader of the podcast. Project number
one. Yes and free with place. So put your dog
on a place bed. Say yes when the dog calmly stays
on the place bed. And then reward with food.
So that's how we charge the yes marker. After
two or three reps, usually I use a rule of threes.
I never do more than three. So I'll do yes about
three times and then say free, release the dog
off the bed, give them that treat, and then repeat
that whole process several times in short sessions
to build the dog's understanding. Listener project
number two, meal routine with markers. So we
talked about meal routine last week. Let's do
it with markers. Ask your dog for a sit where
you've got the dog's food in a bowl, right? You're
going to ask your dog to sit. You're going to
slowly lower the bowl. Go ahead and take a couple
of pieces or a little handful, a little bit of
food out of the bowl, right? So you've got it.
And then when your dog holds the sit, mark it
with yes, and then feed them that little bit
that you've got in your hand. That's the continuation
part. As the dog continues to sit there, continue
lowering the bowl to the ground. Once it's on
the ground and the dog is calm, go ahead and
release the dog with free. And you don't have
to give the dog anything because when you reward
with free and the dog is then going to eat, that
is the reward. So it's a real good opportunity
for you to charge the marker, as we've said like
three or four times now, with free and you don't
even have to do any extra work. You're setting
the bowl down. I still to this day do that with
all my dogs as I put them in kennels. All of
my dogs eat in kennels. And they go in the kennel.
I bring the food bowl down. I ask them for a
sit or a down. I place the food bowl down. I
don't even mark that interim anymore because
they know the process. But I give them free at
the point where they can go ahead and eat. And
then the food is their reward. Real easy. If
the dog breaks early, just calmly reset them.
You don't have to scold them. You can just say,
nope, and then raise the food bowl back up. And
then start all over. Super easy, super simple
to charge those. All right. So that is all of
the information that we had to cover tonight.
At this point, we'll open it up. If we've got
any questions from any clients that are dialed
in live, go ahead and unmute and throw those
questions out now. Give them just a minute if
they're working with their mics. And sometimes
we don't have questions, and that's fine too.
We need to figure out how to get the Jeopardy
music on here. Right. I could just do it for
you. You're going to do it? You start singing
for me? I love that. All right. If we don't have
any questions, we're going to start wrapping
it up. So for tonight, we talked about marker
words and how important those markers were. I
think that it is extremely, extremely useful
to efficiently training your dog. It builds clear
communication and it builds a lot of foundational
leadership in the home. Thank you for tuning
in tonight to episode two of Pawprint Academy.
Once again, I'm your host, Ryan, and we were
here with Brianna tonight. We are in the process
of collecting guests and other people to be involved.
But for tonight, we're going to close it out.
All right. Good night. Good night. Thank you
very much. Have a great night.