위치 지정 보상 마커가 개 훈련을 향상시키는 방법! #151

look back. And his toy was there on the ground and I would tell him, get it. You know, he couldn't just spin around and say, no, you said break. I'm not going to take the jump. I'm going to take the toy. That word, look back. It told him what you're doing right now, holding position without paddling your feet is correct. Behavior is correct. It also told him, you are now going to get reinforced. It also told him where to look for the reinforcement. So, I could have said, now I didn't do it back then, but today if I wanted to release him forward, I would just say the word of the obstacle. And that would have still been a location-specific reinforcer marker because I would not give the name of the obstacle if what he was doing wasn't correct. So, when I say jump or tunnel, whatever the first obstacle on a course is, I'm telling my dog what you're doing and how you're doing it is correct. I'm thrilled with it. Which is why I caution people to be really, really present when they're releasing dogs at a start line because you're giving them a massive reinforcement. So, I'm telling them what you're doing is correct. I'm telling them what the name of the reinforcement is, and obviously they're staring right at it. So, where it is. Now, by giving markers like this, what you're doing is you're creating clarity with your dog, but the marker word creates this unbelievable transfer of value. We all know that our dogs have preferences to reinforcement, correct? Like there'll be dogs that you have that they love their food. And if you said tug, they would go, yeah, I really don't want to do that. But you can, now this is providing that the dogs will tug. You can ask your dog to tug. And when they get really, really good tugging, you could then say cookie and reward the tugging with a cookie because it's telling the dog what you're doing right now. You can stop. It is good. And this is the reward you will get for it. Okay. It's far, far more information than continuing to say what typically people say, okay. Okay means this and okay means that. It's a break from what you're doing. Okay. Let's go do something else. Okay. A cookie's coming. Okay. I'm going to throw the toy. It's far more specific. So, I started with Swagger. I actually introduced even more specificity to this in that I started using the word search, which meant you will look for reinforcement on the floor. And what I found for that, especially a dog like Swagger, he would then know immediately that to leave the position, and often I was doing something I wanted him to reload like a perch skill. You could

leave the position, grab the cookie, come back to work. All right. What you're doing right now is correct. You are going to get reinforced and here's where you look for your reinforcement. So, when I raise my dogs, I make sure I build in massive value for swimming. Now, some dogs, it's easy. Other dogs, it takes a little bit more work, but all of my dogs end up being possessed by the water. They just vibrate at the thought of swimming. Now, this is a massive reinforcement. And so, here's another big bonus win within this podcast. Don't just let your dog steal that. It's huge. It could be the biggest reinforcement for many dogs. So, when you're using that as a location-specific reinforcement, it brings amazing value to the behavior that you're reinforcing. Right? So, I will use it for building drive for my agility behaviors. If I'm working obedience outside, I may use it as a, you've done really great heel work. So, instead of saying, good boy, I will then, I'll mark with swimming, boom, they're off. There's nothing, there's nothing more powerful than that. Now, my young dog, this, she loves to chase her mother. And so, I started by, if you give me great positional work by my side, and I've built it, so maybe I'll ask for a spin at my side, maybe I'll ask for a sit or a down. Then I will do, I'm going to make that a little bit louder because she can hear me. You might not be able to. That means you can now chase dogs. Means chase dogs. So, if I wanted her to tug, for example, you've come in, you've walked by my side, I would then go, get it. Here's my toy, get it. And she would have to tug. And in the midst of tugging, I could then go. So, what I've done now is I've transferred that amazing value to run into the toy. So, here are some of the location-specific reinforcements that I use. I've told you, search means you can leave position and look for a food on the ground. Now, it could be more than one food, but it will be a piece of food that I have thrown most of the time. My dogs have seen that. The exception would be if I've thrown a handful of food in the grass. And in that case, I may continue to say the word search to get them continuing to look. So, it's something that they've seen me throw. If it is a piece of food I'm bringing into them, and it's your choice is always in play for my dogs. So, as I'm bringing a cookie in, they can't leave position to get that cookie. I'll bring it in. And as I bring it close to their face, I'll say, get it. And they can eat the cookie. Now, I will also

put cookies in a bowl. Cookies in a bowl, you could just use the word bowl. I don't use cookies in the bowl that often. So, I too will use the word, get it. Now, I could put, throw cookies on the ground and cookie in the bowl. If I say, get it, you can't get the cookie on the ground. You have to go for the cookie in the bowl. If I have a cookie coming to your face and I say, get it, you don't get this one and then grab the one on the floor because I didn't say search. Super, super important. Things I'm delivering right to my dog, I tend to say, get it. So, if I'm bringing a toy right into their face, I tend to say, get it. Couple exceptions to that one. And I will share those with you. If I want my dog to retrieve a dead retrieve, I will say, bring me. That means fly out, grab it, fly back. Bring me. Here's a location specific marker that can save your dog's life. Normally at a door, I'll say break. Break means go out and find your own reinforcement. Now, if I'm saying break from a crate and I'm standing still, that reinforcement should be with me. But if I'm saying break and you can go outside in the backyard and do your business and do whatever you want, you find your own reinforcement on the word break. If I'm releasing my dogs in the building and there's a chance that there's cars in the parking lot, I won't say break. I will say wit wit. And that means come into my side. So, yes, you are correct for holding position. Yes, you can earn reinforcement. And here's where you're going to get your reinforcement. Wit wit, come into my side. Often while they're there, I will give them a cookie for walking with me at my side. I don't want them to just take off and run. All right. So, here's an agility where I've grown this. And I've heard that Shade Weitzel in protection work has really taken off with this. And I think she's got like 20 different location specific markers. In agility with my youngest dog, what I've done is my cues that mean turn to the right and turn to the right. So, it would be like rye rye or rrrrr. Those are chuk chuk. Those are three cues that mean turn to the right. And so, what I did is when I reinforced her for turning right, I always use her frizzer. So, she loves her frizzer. And so, I put the word frizza, frizza, which sounds, it's low, low tempo, frizza. It means you're always going to get reinforcement to the right is always with a frizza. Reinforcement to the left, another favorite toy is cow tug. Now, I have recently started to go chichi. So, chichi, cow tug, because my cues to the left are chichi and li li li li. So, those are two of

my cues that mean turn to the left. And so, she knows it was an easy understanding for this to learn turns to the right because frizza were always the reinforcement for anything to the right. And GT or CT, cow tug, or cow tug is always to the left or CT, CT, CT is always for your reinforcement to the left. So, this is the first time I've done specific toys for specific activities in agility. Most important thing about these specific markers is I strongly recommend you guys have a tone that sounds different than the other ones. So, break should sound different than search, should sound different than, should sound different than, wait, wait. So, they should have unique sounds that in a high arousal state, the dog will know immediately what you want. There's no confusion, right? So, let's just introduce a couple of these. Here's what I'd like you to do. Let's introduce search. Put a cookie in your hand and put it out in front of your dog. Say the word search, drop the cookie on the ground. Do that a few times. And then if you haven't played It's Your Choice, you need to start playing It's Your Choice. We'll put a link in the show notes. Pick up a cookie, start to bring it towards your dog's face. And if they try to steal it, of course, they're savvy with It's Your Choice. They shouldn't try and steal it. If they do, just cover your hand around it and wait. When they stop trying to steal it, bring it back. And when they hold position, tell them get it or whatever cues you want. So, search and get it. Search and get it. Now, what we're going to do is we're going to put that cookie in a bowl, bring the bowl close to your dog and say, get it. Now get it means they can leave position now and get the cookie out of the bowl, right? You want to then build up so that, and you can do this with a toy if you want guys, pick your own location specific cues. So, maybe you want your dogs to come flying into position on your right or your left, and you want to use a ball, a tennis ball or frizzah, whatever it is you want to use. Be very specific and very consistent. And I strongly encourage you to have different tones. So, in preparation for what we're going to do next, if your dog loves toys, then start to name one toy on the ground. It's going to be called this. So, if I say frizzah, then this will always pick up the frizzah off the floor. I normally don't say frizzah unless I throw it. But if I say frizzah, she'll look for the frizzah. All right. So, we want your dogs to understand what search means, what get it from a bowl. Just use bowl. If I was going to

grow that behavior, I would use something like bucket. It means get it from the bowl, make up your own. So, we're going to have search bucket. And if your dog loves toys, then the name of one toy. That will help you for when we get to our next podcast episode, which is going to be talking about distance work. Okay. So, don't be overwhelmed. If you're new to dog training, location-specific cues, the most important thing is you are consistent. You never release a dog from position unless you love what they're doing. And if you're going to use a word, please don't have it be a word that you use throughout your day. Like, okay, okay, okay, okay. Build value, grow understanding, use different words. A cue a dog knows. So, if my dog's in a sit and I say down, that is a location-specific reinforcement. What you're doing is correct right now. Here's where you're going to earn reinforcement is by changing position. Does that mean I run in and reward the down right away? No. It could mean, yes. It could also mean you're in the middle of a behavior chain and we will give you reinforcement later. But that's what we want. Names that the dog knows in agility, obstacle names are releases and location-specific telling the dog, here's your reinforcement. You get to do a tunnel now or whatever. Okay. So, just start adding one or two. And all I wanted everyone to hear this podcast for is to recognize the power of harnessing what your dog finds most valuable and put it into a known word. And by having it as a known release, it is permission to partake in that activity, which is bringing that unbelievable value all the way through you. Super, super important. Have a go. Come on over to YouTube. Leave me a comment. Let me know how it goes for you and your dog. I'll see you next time right here on Shaped by Dog.