Dog Training: Marker Words

When you think of marker words, most people just think of telling their dog “yes” when they get something right.

When teaching more complex behaviours, tricks and behaviour combos, it is important to have more than this to give your dog the clarity that they need to understand exactly what you want from them - 'yes' by itself is just not enough. Similarly, clicker training your dog is not enough just by itself, as it is usually used as another way to say 'yes'.

In my dogs' trick, obedience and agility training, I use lots of marker words to communicate with my dogs. There are trainers out there who use many more marker words than I do with much more specific meanings - find what works for you and your dog, and create a list of words you know you'll use!

Here are some of my most commonly used marker words...

"READY"

'Ready' is my anticipatory marker word. In simple terms, it gets my dog ready to do whatever they're about to do by increasing their excitement and concentration.

In this picture, I am saying 'Ready' whilst holding my dog's dumbbell, which he knows he will be asked to hold. When I say 'Ready' he will not try to hold, but he starts to look at the item intensely and waits for the next cue.

"GOOD"

'Good' is our continuation marker word. In simple terms, it means 'keep doing that'. In this picture, for example, I have asked for a hold behaviour and am saying 'good' to let my dog know that he is doing the right thing and he should carry on. If I said 'yes' or 'good boy' here he would drop the item. This is important because it allows us to praise the dog without them stopping the behaviour.

"TRY AGAIN"

"Try Again" is a non-reward marker that lets my dog know they were close to getting a reward. This is so important in reducing their frustration.

In this picture, my dog is stacking rings - and if a ring drops to the floor rather than on the stack after he has tried his best, I tell him 'Try Again'. If I were to tell him 'No' with nothing more specific, he'd likely become frustrated and give up, whereas this tells him 'you were close, please have another go'.

"YES"

'Yes' is our terminal marker. It means 'you've done that right, it's a complete action'. I use this when he has correctly stacked a ring, for example, and in the picture he is coming forward to take his treat from me.

People often train a terminal marker without realising! If you ask your dog to sit and tell them 'Good boy' when their bum hits the ground, allowing them to stand up immediately, you've got a terminal marker!

"TREAT"

'Treat' is our location specific reward marker. Sounds complicated? It just means 'that is right, stay where you are and I will deliver the treat to you, don't break position to take it'.

This one took a lot of training but is so worth it - it can really help build duration of tricks.

In the picture, I am asking for a chin target, the dog is keeping his chin in position so I am rewarding him in place, building value there. You can see him sticking out his tongue ready!

"OK"

'Ok' is our release marker, meaning go to take your reward. This is similar to 'yes' but I tend to use 'Ok' when the reward is already present i.e the dog can see the treat on the floor, rather than it coming from my treat pouch.

'Ok' means you can break position to go to take your reward.

Want to see these in action? Take a look at the video: