Improving Clarity for Your Dog with Better Use of Cues and Reinforcers

It is easy to forget that dogs can’t understand our language. To them, most of what we tell them just sounds like gibberish. That is why it is important to have clear and concise communication with your pet. The two main areas of communication that can bring clarity to your training and relationship with your pet are cues (requests for the pet to do something) and praise or reinforcement.

Humans are sloppy when communicating with our pets – we are even sloppy and unclear during communication with each other even when we are speaking the same language!

 Many times dogs are “disobeying” because they truly don’t understand what we want. They become stressed and confused, and sometimes aggressive. This latter reaction often happens because we threaten or punish them when they don’t respond to us. So the dog yells (growls), “Stop threatening me! I don’t know what you want!”

 Imagine the chaos if a traffic light was shining green and red at the same time! When we are sloppy with cues such as telling a dog to “sit down”, then we create stress and chaos. Is the dog supposed to sit or lie down? If I say “come on! Sit!” Is the dog supposed to come closer to me or to sit?? Does “down” mean lie down or get off the counter?

 For every behavior you want your pet to do, pick a clear verbal cue or hand signal for that behavior and use it consistently. Don’t change them or mix them up. Give ONE CUE at a time. Let the pet respond and then give the next cue. Your pet can learn multiple cues for ONE behavior, but it is confusing if you have one cue for multiple behaviors. Make sure all family members agree on the same cues for clarity for the pet especially if your pet just starting training or is a novice learner.

The second major category of confusion for our pets is during praise and reinforcement. In animal training, reinforcement is what makes the world go round. Cues tell the animal WHAT we want them to do, but the reinforcement determines if the pet will actually do it. So you can scream “sit” or “come” at your dog all day long, but the dog is not going to respond unless you somehow pay the dog for doing it.

 The timing of your “pay” (praise, treat, toy, etc) is also critical. The pet will tie the reinforcement to whatever behavior the pet is doing at the time they actually physical access the reinforcer. So if you take your puppy outside and it urinates in the right place, and then you come inside the house and give it a treat, you are not reinforcing urinating outside. You are just reinforcing the puppy for coming back inside the house. Over time, the puppy may want to get back inside the house so fast that the puppy just decides not to go outside at all!

 One great way to improve reinforcement timing during training is to use marker (e.g. clicker) training.

 Many people have heard of clicker training or seen someone use a clicker, but how does clicker training work? A clicker is a type of marker; a marker is a short and unique noise that “marks” the exact moment the animal does the desired behavior. ** For example, you ask your dog to “sit”. The exact moment when your dog’s butt touches the ground is when you would “click”. That way you can communicate to the animal the exact moment they did the behavior that you wanted.

 You now might be thinking, how does the animal know what the marker means? Well, at first, they don’t. We first teach them what it means by “loading” or “charging” the marker. You do this by clicking and then immediately giving the pet a treat. After several trials, your pet will learn to associate the marker with a treat – the marker predicts the delivery of the treat. (Other reinforcers can be paired with markers but we discuss food today just for simplicity.)

 While in theory any sound can be used as a marker, the power of your marker is dependent on its ability to predict access to a reinforcer. This means every time the pet hears the marker sound WITHOUT getting a treat, it weakens the power of your marker as a training tool. This is why we generally encourage people to use markers other than “yes” and “good”. These words are ubiquitous in everyday language and may make it harder for some pets to learn at their most efficient speed.

 Instead, consider other short words such as: Zip, dot, yip, click, boop, etc. Mechanical markers include clickers, beeps, whistles, etc. Pets can learn multiple markers so our clients often use mechanical clickers but then also teach a marker word or use a tongue click.

 **Markers can any sensory modality especially visual or tactile. These types are often use for hearing impaired pets. Auditory markers are most common in pets with normal sensory perception.

 Check back for future posts where we discuss more advanced training using location markers and reinforcer specific markers.