How to get more FOCUS from your dog. Episode 9

one of the first things you want to do with any dog that you're working with it doesn't matter if you're working with basic obedience pet training or you're doing competitive obedience search-and-rescue protection dog training you always want to start with engagement the way that we teach this is we say the marker then we deliver the reward and when I'm starting out I'm gonna hold my hand next to my face I want to get my dog or my puppy used to looking up at me and in the very beginning they're gonna be looking at our hand because they know that our hand is holding the treats so we're gonna start off simply by holding our hand by our face getting our dog or a puppy to look up at us and when they look up at us all we're asking for is that engagement I want the dog to be looking at me when the dog looks at me I'm gonna make my marker sound then I'm going to deliver the reward and then when the puppy eats it and looks at me again I'm gonna use my other marker the terminal marker and I'm gonna move back encouraging my dog to come to me to get the reward now the two that I like to use is yes for my continuation marker and I like to use free for my terminal marker now don't get confused by the words these are markers they let the dog know that something's going to happen I'm using the word free because I don't use it in normal conversation a lot of people will use the word okay but we use okay too frequently in normal conversations and you might accidentally release your dog from a stay position without realizing it so I use the word free and every dog that I work with when I say free that dog knows they did the behavior correctly and they're going to get a reward so I'm gonna be demonstrating with Derby here Derby is a Golden Retriever puppy and this is gonna be the first step I'm gonna start with my hands by my face making it fun and trying to stay really engaged with Derby okay so here we go Derby come on buddy all right so I'm gonna give them a treat let them know I have some food good job and whatever you need to do to get your dog's attention and get them looking up at you a lot of times people will just stand the dog is distracted by everything else going on and they don't know why the dogs not looking if I need to I'll let the dog know I have some food then I will bring my hands up to my face yes then I'm gonna reward he looks at me again free then I'm gonna move back good jongup I'm gonna bring him back over to me yes reward making sure I say the marker son when he's looking at me free and then movement good boy very nice everybody good man good boy again show my have the food yes then reward notice there's a pause between free and the movement this is very important pause between yes and the movement free movement another detail is I'm changing my hands when we work with a dog we want to change yes our delivery hand because we don't want our dog to focus free on one single hand a lot of dogs that they learn that the food always comes from the right hand they're gonna focus on the right hand come here buddy yes reward free movement very nice now when we're doing this exercise we want to continue doing this exercise until our dog becomes conditioned to the sound meaning they know that when they hear you say yes so they hear you say free or whatever sound it is you decide to use that your dog becomes excited simply because they know that a reward is coming good boy and when I'm working on getting them conditioned yes the food comes immediately after I say the marker but when I'm testing to see if the dog is conditioned yes and I'll wait to see a change of behavior now he's not conditioned yet so he actually just coughed yes see no change of behavior that shows me he's not conditioned yet when a dog is conditioned we will see a change of behavior okay so this is gonna be our first step for engagement training remember we hold our hand by our face we make sure we say the sound when the dog is looking at us and then we move after we say the sound the sound must completely be out of our mouth before we deliver the reward same with the free or the terminal marker when we make that sound remember we're moving back encouraging our dog or a puppy to come get the reward from us this is going to teach the dog yes means I'm bringing it to you free means you come and get the reward yes good girl free good very nice excellent come let's be peace yes reward make sure you're switching hands free movement so I'm gonna use the right hand come on baby and then go back to the left yes reward remember to make sure there's always that pause don't pair your physical with your verbal so don't do this yes even though it looks very similar free right there I paired it so that's the incorrect way you want to make sure the word completely leaves your mouth yes before you deliver the reward and before you move free and then good girl excellent yes reward good girl free very nice good must be yes reward good girl free yes good boy free very nice yes I'll get it buddy free good yes free yes free yes so he does the paws he moves the paws and that shows me that he understands that yes means he's going to get a reward and he's getting excited because he's anticipating the tree same thing with his terminal marker free so you can see a change of behavior when I give him that marker sound and that shows me that he's conditioned yes good boy excellent oops dropped it everybody free good very nice so he's conditioned to it and I'm gonna bring out Ari next again yes reward free yes reward free good girl come on yes reward free so now I want you to get close-up of Charlie or not Charlie Ari rather and you can see her change of behavior she's also conditioned to the markers but hers is a little bit more subtle than Charlie's yes so you see she does a little bit of a movement free and what free she jumps up because she's ready to get the reward and I often reward her free well I'll have her jump up so it's however you condition your dog but we want to make sure before we move on to the next step yes that our dog is conditioned to the sound you can see on that when she kind of closed her mouth a little bit yes she's so cute free excellent yes reward good boy free come on and I messed up there cuz he wasn't looking at me when I said it yes good free yes free excellent job buddy they're big a hero yes free and that's him offering of behaviors yes free very good buddy yeah yes free yes free if you want to take your markers to the next level you want to start teaching your dog to look directly at your face and not your hands in the beginning we keep our hands by our face because we know our dogs are looking at the food that's in our hands but we want them to understand it's looking up at our face the way that we're gonna do that is we're gonna hold the food by our face and we're gonna slowly move one hand away from our face and if our dog follows the hand we're not gonna reward them but you can see she's still looking at my face yes I'm mark and then I reward and I'm gonna do the other the same thing with my other hand I bring it outwards she looked at it for a second but she's still looking at my face yes and then reward and lastly we're gonna bring both hands out yes again wanting or trying to get them to continue looking up now what a lot of your dogs will do is they will follow one of the hands yes she's already been thought on this behavior so she knows it but we can add more we can start moving our hands around shaking them by their face and we want them to continue looking up at our face making eye contact yes yes good girl and the final picture for this is being able to walk backwards with your dog in front of you come looking up at you so you can see she's walking in front of me and she's looking up at my face and that's gonna be the final picture that I want with this exercise for more of our advanced obedience free good girl so again we have our hands by our face move it away you see he's following it but he looked back in my face yes yes that time you saw how I waited for him to look back at my face yes and that's probably what most of you will see yes good boy yes you just have to make sure you time it correctly so you're not saying yes when he's looking at your hand yes good very nice buddy he's a very high-energy very excited pup yes good nice job buddy all right and that's going to be our marker training all right are we ready to start training and working with our pups we're gonna start developing the markers we're gonna do what's called engagement training or it's also known as loading the markers again different dog trainers and different groups of dog trainers will use different types of terminology but both of these really mean the same thing engagement training loading the marker remember the marker is the conditioned reinforcer it's the word or sound that predicts the reward some people also call this a bridge but the reason why a lot of people call it a marker I like to call it a marker is because it is signifying that we are marking a moment in time when our dog is right or wrong verbally or with our clicker and that's going to mark those behaviors and that means the dog is going to want to repeat the behavior so if somebody ever tells you did you mark that behavior what they mean is did you use your marker or your bridge or your condition reinforce so again all three those are the same thing so let's say we're using the word yes the moment your dog's butt hits the ground yes I just marked that behavior now the dog knows that that's a behavior I want them to repeat I can reach in to my best and I can give the dog a piece of food for doing that behavior and even though the food came several seconds after the dog did the sit behavior I was asking for they know whatever they were doing when they heard that sound is what they're being rewarded for and the reason why I like to call this exercise engagement training is during the step I'm not asking the dog to perform a sit or down or come I'm not asking any that all I want my dog to do is look at me so when my dog looks up at me I'm going to use my sound yes and then I'm going to deliver a piece of food and the way that I like to do it is I'm going to be teaching both markers I'm gonna be teaching my continuation marker as well as my terminal marker I'm gonna do these together and I'm gonna demonstrate with a couple different dogs so you can see how it looks how do we know the dog is conditioned well the way that I like to test this out if I say yes and then I give the dog a piece of food and I've been doing this for a little while and I feel like my dog is conditioned to the sound now meaning the dog knows that when they hear me say yes they're going to get a reward I'm gonna test out to see if they're conditioned the way that I do that is I hold the food I get the dog to look at me once the dog looks at me I say yes and I don't move I don't reward the dog and I watch my dog to see if there's a change of behavior right easy way to do this is imagine you're saying yes and you're giving someone a dollar yes and you give them a dollar they're gonna reach out they're gonna take the dollar you say yes they're gonna reach out they're gonna take the dollar you say yes they're gonna reach out they're gonna take the dollar you say yes you don't give them the dollar they're still gonna reach their hand out they're gonna say where's the dollar every single time you say yes you give me a dollar and that right there will show you that they're conditioned to the sound I mean they know that when you say yes you're gonna give them a dollar it's the same with our dogs when our dog is looking up at us and we say yes the four most common behaviors that I will see from a dog when they're conditioned to the sound one they open their mouths so you say yes and they open their mouths anticipating the food they start to salivate they move their paws or they lick their lips those are the four most common some of you may have a dog that barks or jumps up a little bit but the key point that you want to take away from this is that you see a change of behavior and that's gonna let you know that your dog is now conditioned to the sound what is the difference between a continuation marker and a terminal marker well both of them are pinpointing a moment in time when your dog is correct so your dog does a sit you have the continuation marker or your dog does a sit and you use the terminal marker well the continuation marker is letting our dog know you're correct but I'm gonna bring the reward to you this is when we're working on our stays this is what when we're working on stability or this is also when we're working on duration in a position the terminal marker lets a dog know you are correct you are done with the exercise some people also call this a release marker and you can come and get your reward if I have my dog 10 feet away from me and I tell my dog to sit and my dog's butt hits the ground and I use my continuation marker my dog is gonna get excited because my dog knows that they did the behavior correctly and now I have to walk over to my dog and give my dog a piece of food in that position because they are continuing the exercise they are continuing sit then we have the terminal marker if I had my dog 10 feet away 20 feet away 30 feet away I tell my dog to sit the moment my dog's butt hits the ground I used the terminal marker my dog is gonna jump up come running over to me and say where is my reward so it is terminating the sit and the dog is coming to get access to their reward and it's important to develop both of these it's because it's going to speed up the training and it's going to make the communication way more clear to your dog instead of saying the word stay when we put a dog in a position the stay is implied and I'm gonna teach you how to do this so if I tell my dog down and my dog lays down my dog is in a down stay I don't have to walk away from my dog saying stay stay as you see a lot of people do or you may have done it yourself we put the dog in a position and they have to stay there but when do we know when we can use the continuation marker and when do we know when we should use the terminal marker there's a couple ways that I like to use this in the very beginning when I'm working with my dog I will use the terminal marker more often than not but it does depend on the dog if I have a really really amped up excited crazy dog I might use the continuation marker a little bit more just to mellow him down a slight bit but if I'm trying to make the training really fun really engaging and more exciting I'm gonna be using my terminal marker a little bit more in the beginning and there's a couple reasons why one if my dog learns the faster I get into my position the faster I get to jump up and get my reward they're gonna do the behavior more quickly and speed is based on motivation the more motivated our dog is the faster they're gonna perform the behavior think about playing fetch with your dog you throw the ball your dog is really excited and motivated to play fetch so they run after the ball very quickly they're not walking because they're excited and they're motivated so more motivation increases the speed and it works on the other side too if a dog is really afraid so let's say you're really heavy-handed trainer and I've seen trainers like this they're so heavy-handed with their dog I'm not recommending that you do this but the dog is moving very quickly because they're afraid of the handler so they can move very fast based on how motivated they are whether they're really motivated to get something they want or really motivated to prevent something they don't want and we're gonna try to get them motivated to access something that they want so we're speeding them up based on that motivation that positive reinforcement so the dog learns a faster I get in the position the faster I get to jump up and get my reward well there's another reason why I like to use my terminal marker in the beginning because I don't want to reinforce the stay just yet if I'm not ready to reinforce the stay if I'm not ready to teach this day and I'm just teaching behaviors then using the terminal marker is a really great way to do this so those are gonna be the two things that really separate the continuation marker and the terminal marker just remember continuation you have to bring the reward to your dog terminal marker your dog can come and get the reward and this is only if you are giving your dog a command so if I give my dog the verbal command sit my dog sits and I say yes I have to bring it to them but if my dog sits just because my dog wants to sit or maybe I lifted my hand up but I did not say the sit command and I say yes the dog is not in a sit stay I only reinforce the stay command when I give the dog a verbal command if my dog goes to their bed and I say yes they went to the bed on their own they're not on a bed stay but if I told my dog to go to the bed and I said yes now they're on a bed stay so that's something to keep in mind it's only when we give our dog the verbal command that they are in a stay if we use our continuation marker and the terminal marker always releases them and they're able to get that reward [Music]

Channel: Nate Schoemer

Views: 225,050

Keywords: how to get more focus from your dog, how to get your dog to listen to you, how do I get my dog to pay attention to me, how can I get my dog to listen better, how do I get my puppy to listen to me, how do I get more focus from my puppy, how do I get my puppy more engaged with me, how do I get my dog to like training, how to teach my dog a sit, how to teach my dog to come, how do teach my dog to listen, why won't my dog listen to me, why won't my puppy listen to me

Id: UkZ7ucpK9sc

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 27 2019