Although dog’s brains are very similar to ours in many ways, they don’t learn in exactly the same way we do. We learn well by reading, listening or observing. Dogs associate events and learn from experiences.
Learning is a process that results in the dog recognizing relationships between events, and then changing its behavior based on the consequences – the better the consequence the more likely the behavior is to occur again and again. To put it more simply… dogs do what works!
A marker is a very important part of dog training. It gives the dog an instant signal that they have done something right. The marker acts as a” bridge” between the time the desired behavior occurs and when we deliver the reward. If we just gave a food reward without using a marker, it would be very confusing for the dog to pinpoint exactly what he was doing to earn that reward. The mark serves to tell the dog the exact behavior he is doing to earn the reward. Using a marker to establish new behaviors turns gray areas into black and white for your dog. In this book, we use a clicker as a marker!
Think of the marker as the shutter button on a camera. The moment your dog offers a behavior you want, you use the marker to take a picture.
How do you do it?
1. Get the behavior you want (through luring, shaping, or capturing).
2. Mark the behavior with a click or a “Yes!”
3. Immediately follow the marker with a treat
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