I’ve covered a lot in this series – from resilience, to errorless learning, to Pavlovian interference. To wrap things up, I want to talk about something deceptively simple:
Your markers.
That little “yes,” “click,” or verbal tag might seem small – but when used with precision, it can help protect behaviors from emotional fallout.
Let’s say a dog is asked to sit, and that sit is immediately followed by a high-arousal reward; a thrown ball, a lead-out into a full-speed agility course. That moment of “sit” starts to get emotionally tangled with the excitement that follows. And the result? Slow sits. Shaky focus. Inconsistency.
But a clear, timely marker can act as a behavioral boundary. It draws a line between what the dog just did and what’s about to happen.
✅ It creates an emotional bookmark: “This is what earned the reward.”
✅ It separates behavior from the chaos that follows.
✅ It provides clarity in environments full of anticipation.
But markers aren’t just about timing. They’re also about meaning.
In my training, markers tell my dogs:
- What behavior was correct
- That reinforcement is coming
- Where to get it
- What kind of reinforcement to expect
Here’s my marker system:
- “Yes” = you got it right; come to my hand for food (terminal marker)
- “Search” = you got it right; find food on the ground (terminal marker)
- “Get it” = you got it right; grab the toy off the ground (terminal marker)
- “Strike” = you got it right; take the toy from my hand (terminal marker)
- “Good” = you’re doing well; keep going (non-terminal marker)
- Clicker = same as “good”; continue doing what you’re doing
This structure gives my dogs more than feedback—it gives them information. They know not just that they’re right, but how to prepare their bodies for what’s next.
That kind of clarity doesn’t just keep behaviors cleaner. It also supports better verbal discrimination.
How? If a dog can distinguish between “get it” (grab toy off the ground) and “strike” (grab toy from my hand)—both equally exciting—it becomes easier to distinguish “jump” vs “tunnel” or “left” vs “right.”
Those distinctions only hold up under pressure if the dog has practice parsing cues in moments that matter.
And markers are where that practice starts.
So if your dog’s behaviors crumble under pressure, or get sloppy when they’re excited—look at your markers. Are they consistent? Clear? Predictive? Supportive?
That tiny moment between the behavior and the reward is where so much learning happens. And when you get it right, the results ripple outward.
More soon,
—Daisy
P.S. This is part of an ongoing series on lessons I took away from the Kynology workshop. You can share, revisit, or read earlier posts here at the blog!
For those who aren’t Agility Challenge members already, but are curious about the training I offer, check out the free training available at The Agility Challenge Website!