Elsa as a puppy. Just back from our trip to Connecticut, she was a very enthusiastic student.

I love k9 behavior. I love to watch dogs exhibiting their natural behavior dogs being dogs. And, I love to teach dogs new behaviors. Each and everytime you teach a new behavior to your dog, it makes it easier to teach the next behavior. Having trained many dogs over the years; I have run into a few that really didn’t understand the whole idea of learning; and only because they’d never learned to learn.

Learning - the act or process of acquiring knowledge or skill.

Learning is accomplished the easiest by the use of a behavior marker. A simple word like “yes, key, top” or a particular sound that you make can be used as a marker. Timing is everything and when you are just starting out with a behavior marker it can be difficult to get the timing down correctly.

A behavior marker is a link between a desired

behavior and a treat reward.

The behavior marker must be primed. This means that you need to teach your puppy or dog that the marker has great power. The powerful pairing is “marker” = reward. It is not to coax your dog to do a behavior but a marker to pinpoint the exact behavior that you are looking for.

The behavior marker is used to teach new behaviors.

Choose your word or sound and let the family know.
Only use it if you intend to reward after.
If you accidentally use your marker word, still reward. By rewarding after the word or sound, it keeps its power.
The marker word or sound is very powerful.
Once your dog has a reliable understanding of a behavior you can replace the behavior marker with praise.
Markers are only used to teach behaviors; once it is taught, you stop using the marker.

When you start trying to teach a dog a behavior that has never been taught a behavior before, you start very small. A very simple behavior like “touch” can be a good place to start out.

I will do a demonstration with Riggs and post it on my instagram page.

If you have any questions, let me know.