Marker Motivation Guide
By this point in your training, your dog should be reliably eating from your hand, outside, for every meal. Until now, the ‘challenge’ of obtaining food has been relatively easy. In this next section, we will discuss how to build and charge one of your four essential markers: the Green Light or reinforcement marker. In fact, this marker is the most important marker in your training. But first, what is a marker? A marker is a salient sound, made from your mouth or a device, that communicates either success, error, duration, or adjustment. Markers are the backbone of dog training, and their importance cannot be understated. As the name suggests, markers serve to mark or pinpoint a moment in time, providing a clear, black-and-white understanding for your dog. It is the foundation of your communication and training. Think of a marker as a shutter button on a camera, used to capture the picture your dog in the act. The marker marks the moment something is done, allowing us to follow up with a consequence.
The first marker we will discuss is your reinforcement marker. This is used when your dog does something you like, increasing the reliability of the behavior. Think of this marker as your Green Light Marker, and like a traffic light, green means go. In training, this green-light marker signifies success and indicates that your dog can come collect a reward. There are some rules to this marker that you must follow:
The Contract: After using your reinforcement marker (green light marker), you must pay your dog with your primary form of reinforcement: food. Consider this a contract and mutual understanding between you and your dog. If you use this marker, you will always follow through.
Non-negotiable: This marker requires your dog to come to you to collect payment as you slowly move away. You will never go to your dog to deliver payment with this marker.
Steps: This marker will be used in the following sequence: Mark, pause, move, get reward, and pay.
Terminal: This marker is classified as a ‘terminal marker’, meaning it ends whatever behavior your dog is doing. Whether it’s a single command or a chain of commands, this means they are only required to come to you to get a reward.
To elaborate further, this contract between you and your dog creates predictability. We will be building a drive towards the food reward, and your dog must know it will always occur. We will also require the dog to come to you, as this activates their prey drive. Finally, the sequence ensures clear communication and prevents your dog from being cued by your body language.
Selecting Your Sound
The sound you use for your green light marker is ideally novel and not commonly heard. It’s crucial to understand that changes in tone when delivering your marker diminishes its value. If you choose to use a word as a maker, find a comfortable tone, with proper volume, and stick with it. It does not matter what word you go with, as long as it is consistent and preferably novel.
Green Light Marker Examples:
‘Yes’
‘Yep’
‘Chip’
‘Kchhh’
*Tongue click*
*Click* from a clicker device
Charging Your Marker
Now that we have chosen a marker, we must add value to it. At this point, it is just a sound that has no meaning to your dog. Over the next week or so, you will assign this word a value through a few exercises. Think of it like a dog getting excited when their owner says ‘Do you want to go on a walk?’ This is a conditioned response from the dog. To charge your marker essentially means to give it value. However, like a battery, the more a marker is used, the less of a charge, or potency, it will have.
Reward Event
As we’ve discussed, there is a proper sequence for rewarding with your food. First, you’ll need a way to carry your food. A good choice is a bait bag, a small hip bag for storing your dog’s food. Position your bait bag against your back pocket, right pocket. To use your reinforcement marker, you’ll move through the sequence of mark, pause, move, get reward, and pay. It’s important to note the separation of each item in this sequence. A mistake many owners make is marking while, or after, putting their hand into their bait bag. Dogs have a signal hierarchy in their mind that, by default, values visual cues from you over verbal cues. This means that grabbing for food before or during your marking will start to cue your dog instead of your marker, which can lead to several negative consequences.
Remember: your green light marker is non-negotiable, which means that when you mark, your dog must come to you. To ensure this, attach their leash to their flat collar. After marking, you will briefly pause to allow them to commit to coming to you. In the beginning stages, this pause can be about 2 seconds. After this pause, if your dog has not committed, use your leash to apply pressure to bring them to you. Again, you must pay after you use this marker
Now, to put this sequence into action, you will use your marker followed by a brief pause. This pause separates your marker sound from the following actions, giving your dog a moment to respond. Now you will start slowly backing up a couple of steps, using your leash if necessary to ensure that your dog comes to you. Next, you will reach into your bait bag, grab a single piece of food, and present it at your side with an open palm, facing your dog. Your movement, combined with your open palm, creates a target for them to reach. Once they reach your open hand, allow them to push into your palm to receive payment. The pushier they are, the greater the drive they have, which results in higher motivation to perform behaviors.
Jackpotting: The value of a reward event is determined by the reward's value and the event's length. Giving your dog multiple pieces of food one by one is more effective than giving them all at once, because of the duration of the event. During your training, you will randomly jackpot your dog by paying out a high amount of food, one at a time, in quick succession. This creates a gambling effect in your dog’s brain. Like humans gambling, they do not know what caused the jackpot, but the fact that it happened makes them excited for it to happen again. Randomness is key with jackpotting, but you can introduce it at a rate of about twenty percent, or one in every five reward events.
To jackpot, follow the same sequence as before, except you will grab a handful of food and pay the entire sum, one at a time. You can quickly split the handful into both hands and alternate between hands for every piece of food. How much is a jackpot? Well, how long is a piece of string? There really is no answer to this. Maybe anywhere from twenty to thirty pieces? The more food there is, the longer the event, and thus the more powerful the reward. A jackpot must be clearly different in the amount that you feed - do not hold back.
Newton’s Cradle Game
The Newton’s Cradle game is how you will introduce the concept of this marker to your dog. This game bends the previously mentioned rules but exists only as a short-term protocol. Newton’s Cradles are those little decorative desk pieces with about five metal balls strung side by side. Lifting a ball or two out from one side and letting it go creates this back-and-forth movement, demonstrating the transfer of kinetic energy.
To play this game, get your dog’s essential food and go to a flat area with minimal to no distractions. Use a leash if necessary. Start by saying your green-light marker, then toss a piece of food to your left. As your dog’s prey drive activates, they should chase after it. Once they get the piece of food, wait for their head to pop up and swivel toward you before saying your green-light marker again, and then toss a piece of food to your right. Again, you will wait for your dog to get the food and orient towards you before repeating your marker. This time, you are going to allow your dog to come to you as you pay out several pieces of food, one by one, while slowly backing up.
This game should be played for about 3 days, which equates to 6 meals. This can, of course, be increased if needed.
Catch & Release Game
By this point, your marker is developing a ‘charge’ and what we would call a ‘classically conditioned’ response. We are now going to change to a game of Catch & Release. Start by putting your dog’s meal into your bait bag. Move through your reward event protocol and introduce randomized jackpots. To increase the difficulty of this game, play in different environments with increasing distractions. Always use a leash to ensure they come back to you. If you find yourself using your marker, and your dog is still focused on a distraction, increase the distance between the distraction.
Once this game is understood, move to the outside of your residence. Start walking along a path, then stop without notice, slowly walk backwards, and add a tap-tap-tap motion with your leash. When your dog commits to turning to you, reward. When applying physical pressure, your tapping intensity does not need to increase; however, as you move backwards, it will naturally intensify with each step. Once you’ve committed to applying pressure, you must follow through. Pressure is only stopped once your dog turns and commits.