Back hand fit adaptor style which with that option Feb73 training but if they 't know how to apply it and set up a structured training program based on markers they not get the most out of the system. is expert at teaching people how to do exactly this. He coaches top competitors the sport of Schutzhund, Mondio Ring and French Ring. 2009, and two people from his club won the Mondio Ring One, Mondio Ring 2 and Mondio Ring 3 American Championships I have been producing dog training videos since 1982. These two DVDs are the best dog training DVD I have done. If you have trained dogs for years and think you're pretty good at it but you 't work with the marker system, I suggest you take a few days and study this article and these two DVDs You find a whole new world of K9 communication. If you are passionate about dog training you re-ignite a fire your belly. On the other hand if you do what I first did, which was tell everyone how stupid you think it is then 10 years from now you probably wake up one morning and admit that you missed the boat. technical terms marker training is operant conditioning. Operant conditioning has been around for years. It is how Dolphins are trained at sea world. Operant conditioning forms association between a behavior and a consequence. I can new dog trainers reading this and shaking their heads thinking Dahhhh isn't that pretty obvious and what all dog training is about? answer to that is YES but let's go into a little more detail. When a dog exhibits a behavior we like the consequence is a high value reward. marker training that reward is either a high value food treat or a high value toy that the dog really loves. If a dog does not perform a behavior the consequence is No Reward. This is called a negative reinforcer. When a dog gets a negative reinforcer it must then repeat the exercises if it wants to get the high value reward. old school dog training the consequence of a negative behavior was a correction. No matter what anyone ever tells you dogs do things for themselves. Dogs 't do things to make you feel good. They do things to make themselves feel good. They do things because they are motivated towards feeling comfortable addition to doing things that eliminate feeling discomfort. This is a pretty profound concept and one that pet owners often Pet owners or new dog trainers are often lead to believe that dogs eventually do things to make their owner feel good. The reality is that this is seldom if ever the case. the key to operant conditioning is to teach a dog that when he performs a behavior that we like he gets a reward that makes him feel good the reward gives him a level of comfort. This reward can either be the form of a food or it can be a toy he likes to play with or playing a game with the handler that he gets enjoyment out of or he gets praise from his handler. all years of dog training I have only known one dog that would work strictly for handler praise. the marker training system there are only two consequences to a behavior that we are trying to train. They are a reward or no-reward. Which consequence happens depends on the behavior the dog exhibits to a stimulus. A stimulus can be a command or a cue from the handler. For dogs to associate a behavior with a reward or with punishment the reward or punishment must come immediately after the behavior. We tell people the consequence should come within a 1 second of the behavior. If a reward comes 5 seconds after a behavior the dog has no idea why he is getting a reward. If a new dog owner comes home and finds a pile