Part Two: Teaching Markers and Reinforcement Systems to Help Your Dog Learn Fast
Now let's get into how to teach markers, how to use them, and some common mistakes.
Last week, in part one of this series, we broke down what markers and reinforcement systems are, why they are so powerful, and how they can help your dog learn fast. Now we are going to get into how to teach them, how to use them, and some common mistakes
Where To Begin
Pick a marker and what it means for your dog. For the sake of this post, let’s use “yes” and have it cue your dog to stand in front of you and watch your hands to see where the treat will be delivered. If you want to simplify things to start, you can always deliver the treat in the same way initially like lowering your hand with the treat in it below their chin (aka have them eat it from your hand) and add other delivery methods (like tossing, for example) later.
As a quick note, we are focusing on one example of one marker and what it might mean here. If you use multiple markers or the same marker to cue different behaviors in different contexts, that's fine! The key is just to teach your dogs what to do and when. Okay, back to what we were talking about.
Here are some things to consider in a progression from introducing the reinforcement system to using it out on a walk to turn a distraction into a cue to come to you:
