First Things First

Many new clients ask me, “What’s the first thing I should teach my dog?”

My answer seems like a cop-out, “It depends!”

Do they have a brand-new baby puppy? Potty training is going to be pretty close to the top!

Do they instead have a suspicious, reactive adult who might go for my face if I make a wrong move?  Let’s focus on relaxation protocols. 

But before we can begin teaching these relatively simple (but not necessarily easy) skills, there is something else that we have to teach.  For the most part, my clients and I share a common culture and language, at least enough so that we can communicate.  We are even the same species.  But we don’t have that same luxury with our dogs. 

We must cross that cultural divide using a bridge.  In behavior jargon, a bridging stimulus is a word, click, or whistle signaling to the animal that it has performed the correct behavior and that reward is on the way, bridging the gap between response and reinforcer. 

If you felt like your eyes were glazing over just then, please don’t worry about overthinking it.  The whole point of training is communicating, after all. 

Have you ever asked your dog to sit, and then when he sat like a good boy, you said “yes!” and tossed him a treat?  Congratulations, you’ve used a bridge.  Your excited “yes!” as soon as his fuzzy butt hit the ground communicated to your dog that he had successfully completed the task you had set before him, and that his Milkbone was en route. 

I like using “yes!” as a bridge (or a marker, as it’s also sometimes called).  It’s quick and intuitive, and easy for me to sound cheerful as I’m talking to my dog.  Unlike a clicker or a whistle, I’m not going to forget my voice in my jacket pocket or drop it at just the right wrong moment.  But I am also a big fan of clickers, because I am human and sometimes after the fifteenth “yes!” I am no longer quite as enthusiastic.  The clicker doesn’t care.  The clicker clicks on.  It does require more than a little coordination, juggling leash and treats and clicker and toy and phone.  Not to mention, actually using the clicker requires keen observation and precise hand-eye coordination, of which I was born with neither.  I am a work in progress.  Never stop learning. 

Okay, so.

If I am going to work with my client to house train their pup or get Cujo to chill, we must first introduce a bridge (or marker) to the dog, so that once the real training begins, the dog understands that they are doing the right thing – that is, doing the thing that is going to get them a reward. 

How do we do that?

Easy!  We use our bridge (click or “yes!”) and then give the dog something that they want, usually food. 

But what does the dog have to do to get the reward?

Anything, I don’t care.

Anything!?

Well, I prefer Cujo doesn’t eat my face, but yeah, anything else is fair game. 

This step is called “Priming the Clicker,” like priming a pump.  During this process, the dog needs to be paying attention, so avoid distracting environments and have yummy treats on hand.  Otherwise, the dog doesn’t have to do anything in particular except let the gears turn in their brain as they figure out the rules of this new game.  We are going to click the clicker, then reach into our bag or bowl of treats and give one to the dog, then return our hands to a neutral position.  Then we are going to click, reach, give, and return again.  And again.  And again.  We are going to be very careful to not move our hands before we click, or leave one hand in the treat bag, or even fidget and wiggle a lot.  Dogs are masters of body language, and we don’t want to accidentally teach them to watch our thumbs when we are trying to teach them to listen to our clicker.  This is harder than it seems!  For the sake of the dog and the human, we will keep this session very short – five to ten treats, and once we are out, we are done.  We can repeat this session a few times over the course of a day or two in order to be sure that the dog has the concept, but it won’t take long to catch on. 

Simple, if not exactly easy.  Want to make it more complex?

Of course we do. 

Let’s say, as a completely hypothetical example with no basis in reality, that my dog is really excited to see me when I get home – so excited, in fact, that he is dancing around like a fool, leaping up to kiss my nose and ducking down to weave between my legs.  For one single, blessed second, he stands perfectly still to catch his breath.  Like any good dog trainer, I am prepared.  I click my clicker.  I deliver his reward, but because I would like to be able to take at least one step into the house without getting bowled over, I want to deliver the reward away from my body in order to make the dog move, too.  The easiest way to do that is to throw the treat.  But wait a second.  My dog is used to taking food from my hand after I click, when I try to throw it, he’s going to try to grab it. 

Ouch!

This in not hypothetical.  It has happened plenty of times and I have the scars to prove it. 

The solution is to teach the dog two separate bridges, one meaning “take the food from my hand” and one meaning “take the food I am about to throw.”  Or maybe I wasn’t actually coming home but had planned a training session to act out that scenario to practice, and I had set up a bowl of treats some distance away from the door so I could send my dog there to reinforce him.  Then I would need a bridge to mean “take the food from the bowl.”  Or suppose my dog was already across the room, and I wanted him to freeze in place and wait for me to bring the reward to him. 

Are your eyes glazing over again? 

I haven’t even started talking about toys yet! 

Many dogs find toys just as reinforcing as food, if not moreso.  They are fantastic tools to use in your training, but they will need marker cues (bridges) just like food rewards.  You will most likely want a clear way to say “take the toy in my hand” versus “take the toy on the ground” versus “take the toy that is moving.” Some trainers teach their dogs the names of the toys themselves, so “ball” and “tug” and so on.  Just as important, you will also need a way to ask your dog to give the toy back to you! 

Don’t worry, I made a chart. 

 

Food Cue	Response	Toy Cue	Response
Yes	Take from hand	Strike	Take from hand
Get It	Take from floor / thrown	Get It	Take from floor / dead
Scatter	Multiple from floor	Catch	Take moving / thrown
Good	Keep doing that; from hand	Out	Let go of toy
Bowl	Take from bowl	Switch	Let go of one and grab other

 

Before you decide to give up and just be couch potatoes with your dog for the rest of your lives, be aware that I may not need to teach every cue to every dog.  I start with “yes” and “get it” and make sure that the dog understands the difference.  If the dog likes toys, I teach “strike” or “catch” depending on their play style, and then “out” so that the dog will let go of the toys and we can keep playing.  “Good” is very handy for encouraging dogs and letting them know that they are on the right track, whether I want the dog to keep moving (like if I call a dog and they are running towards me) or to be still (if I have asked the dog to lay down on a mat and stay there for a while).  After that, it is very situational.  Does the dog really need “switch” if they already know “out” and “strike”?  Maybe.  Some seem to appreciate the clarity of knowing that they will get the opportunity to bite another toy before they release their first prize, and some don’t seem to care.  Some trainers like seeing how many words they can teach their dogs, and some just end up confusing themselves! 

And that’s the crux of it.  Training is always about communication, and communication always goes both ways.  It is a cooperative effort between dogs and humans, bridging the gap between species.  In order to make progress, we have to decide on our shared vocabulary. 

So what is the first, most important thing to teach?  The love of learning – first in yourself, then in your dog. 

 

For further reading:

Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs by Karen Pryor

Drinking From the Toilet #57 Specific Reinforcement Cues (podcast) by Hannah Branigan

The Value of “Markers” in Training by Michael Ellis