Your Dog Isn’t Thick-You Might Just Need A Better Understanding Of Markers
A lot of people will talk like the clicker is magic. It’s not. And this is coming from someone that loves the clicker. All the clicker does is link your dog’s behavior to a reward. And that’s the thing that is magic. It’s not that it’s a clicker, per se, it’s what you do with it. You can use a clicker very ineffectively, too.
Understanding what a marker is, how to use it, and what exactly your sequence should be will improve your results with your dog immensely. You can potentially cut your reps by 75%. Now admittedly, I’m just pulling that number out of a hat, but that is almost certainly accurate in some cases because folks don’t understand how their dog ties things together.
This isn’t only true for rewarding good behavior or correct obedience behaviors, it is also true for corrections when punishing unwanted or bad behavior. If your execution of markers is poor, you will potentially have to torture yourself with correcting your dog many more times.
The best strategy when it comes to training your dog is always to get the message across as clearly and quickly as possible, but what a lot of folks don’t realize is that relies on how well you implement the correct use of markers. Can you teach your dog without that? Yep. But it will take much longer. And in some case it may never even really come together.. no good.
A marker is something that predicts something else. The example I use to explain this is the doorbell. Your dog likely knows that when the doorbell rings, you will go open the door and someone will be there. But if you opened the door and someone was there and then the doorbell rang, that association proabably wouldn’t occur. The guest at the door would predict the doorbell instead of the other way around.
Also, sometimes it takes you a minute to get to the door. Does that make your dog forget that somebody is there? NOPE! Why? Because once an established marker occurs, a delay in the outcome won’t automatically disconnect the events. That would be silly.
If you can understand this concept you can improve your communication, training, and results by an order of magnitude!
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Minute-by-Minute Breakdown
- 00:00 – Kati Peppe opens the show and asks listeners to subscribe.
- 01:00 – She invites listeners to email topics or send fan mail; details are in the show notes.
- 02:00 – Clicker isn’t magic; many use it poorly, so training simply takes longer.
- 03:00 – Markers convey information to your dog and make training more effective and efficient.
- 04:00 – A marker predicts something else; dogs likely already recognize hundreds of natural markers.
- 05:00 – Markers bridge delays when you can’t immediately reward or punish a behavior.
- 06:00 – Doorbell analogy: the bell predicts someone arriving through the door.
- 07:00 – Use a select few consistent markers to speed and clarify training results.
- 08:00 – A ‘no reward’ marker signals no reward and can frustrate the puppy.
- 09:00 – Training categories overlap; technical jargon isn’t necessary for practical marker use.
- 10:00 – Trainers often skip markers with adult dogs when introducing e-collar work due to complexity.
- 11:00 – A video demonstration will be provided to visually show marker usage during training.
- 12:00 – Use ‘yes’ or a click for food rewards and the word ‘no’ as punishment marker.
- 13:00 – You must condition your dog to markers; doing it during training is slower.
- 14:00 – Always follow a reward marker with something the dog truly values, like food.
- 15:00 – Affection can reward some dogs, but food is generally the most reliable reinforcer.
- 16:00 – If a dog dislikes affection, using it may function as punishment instead of a reward.
- 17:00 – If the door opens before the bell, the association reverses and the bell stops predicting arrival.
- 18:00 – Reaching for food before you mark teaches the dog to predict the food, not the marker.
- 19:00 – Marker must precede the predicted outcome; never reach for the reward prior to marking.
- 20:00 – The dog understands; handlers shouldn’t move until after they’ve delivered the marker.
- 21:00 – Mark during the exact behavior you want, e.g., click the instant the butt hits the ground.
- 22:00 – She announces a new premium subscription offering exclusive, subscriber-only training content.
- 23:00 – Immediate marking is maximally effective; delays of seconds make the behavior less clear.