Verbal Marker Training
Dogs don't understand English, but they can seem to when a word reliably predicts a reward or a consequence. Every other service builds on this foundation.
Verbal markers are the foundation of everything I teach, so every training plan starts here. Depending on you and your dog, this takes one or two sessions. You’ll need some equipment before we start. For more background, see What are verbal markers?
Part 1: Classical conditioning and reward markers
This part is all about classical conditioning. In 1904, Ivan Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for his work on digestion in dogs. Along the way, he discovered that a neutral stimulus can take on the properties of a reward when the two are closely paired in time and space.
For us, the neutral stimulus is a verbal marker like yes or no. Through pairing, these words take on the meaning of what follows them, which gives them the power to create an involuntary response in your dog.
We start with reward markers and impulse control markers. Every use strengthens the association, and with it the emotion the marker brings out. Later, we pair these markers with operant conditioning to reinforce behaviors.
This part is entirely force free: no aversives.
Part 2: Operant conditioning and correction markers through leash pressure
Training with aversives is a hard sell, mostly because people misunderstand how they’re used and how intense they need to be. I don’t use hitting, alpha rolls, yelling, or social pressure. Those punishers are unclear, too intense, and give the dog no way to escape or avoid them. I consider all of them inhumane, yelling included. But the world is full of aversives, and using them properly is usually the fastest way to solve the problem you came to me with. It can also save your dog’s life.
We’ll cover the four quadrants of operant conditioning and why leash pressure matters. This is Traditional training, also called escape and avoidance training: the dog learns to start or stop a behavior to escape light pressure, and eventually to avoid the pressure entirely. See training styles for how Traditional compares to force free and balanced training.
Doing this well early means less of it later. These lessons work faster and last longer than force-free methods alone. The caveat: too much pressure, or pressure the dog can’t escape, can create a fearful dog. We prevent that by starting below the level that changes behavior and raising it only until we see results. It’s easier than it sounds, and I’ll demonstrate with my own dogs.
You’ll notice the pressure I use on my dogs is extremely light. That’s because my correction markers are already conditioned. Like reward markers, correction markers get stronger with use, so a calm no can work far better than a screamed “F*$# STOP, FIDO!”
Continuation markers
A continuation marker tells your dog “keep doing that.” Commands become continuation markers too: if your dog holds a down, they either earn an occasional reward or stay in it to avoid pressure. We build on this in Verbal Commands.