09/06/2026
Limiting factor here is how many words can we remember! 🤦🏼♀️The dogs will certainly remember as many as we can teach them. 
If You’re Using “YES” as Your Marker Word, You Might Be Failing Your Dog
Yep. I said it.
If your entire reinforcement system revolves around one generic “YES”, you may be giving your dog far less information than you think you are.
And before anyone comes for me — I did exactly the same thing for years.
Let me explain.
Imagine trying to paint a masterpiece with a permanent marker…
Imagine I sit you down in front of a blank canvas and ask you to paint a beautiful coastal scene.
The sun is shining. The sea is moving. There are shadows, reflections and tiny details in the landscape.
But I give you one tool.
A big, fat, black permanent marker.
So you start drawing.
You make a mistake. You can’t erase it, so you scribble over it.
You try to create some delicate detail — another big black line.
You want to show the sunlight dancing across the water — black marker.
Movement in the sea? Black marker.
Depth? Black marker.
Eventually you stand back and look at your masterpiece.
Technically, there’s a picture there.
But does it capture the scene?
Can you feel the warmth of the sun? Can you see the movement in the water? Does it create the emotion you wanted?
Probably not.
Now imagine I give you an entire palette of colours.
Suddenly you can create light and shade. You can change the mood. You can create texture, depth and movement. You can make the sun feel warm and the sea look alive.
That’s how I think about reward-specific markers.
For years, I was effectively trying to paint my dog training with one big black permanent marker.
Now I have a full palette.
And the difference in clarity is enormous.
The problem with “YES”
Scroll through dog-training content on social media and you’ll hear it constantly:
“YES!”
Dog does something correctly.
“YES!”
Dog gets reinforced.
But what does YES actually mean?
Does it mean:
Food is coming?
A toy is coming?
Chase me?
I’m throwing the toy?
Come and take food from my hand?
Stay exactly where you are and I’ll bring reinforcement to you?
Break position and come to me?
And there’s another problem.
Imagine you’re sitting at home and somebody asks:
“Do you want a cup of tea?”
You reply, “Yes.”
Your dog happens to be lying beside you.
How does your dog know that yes wasn’t for them?
Do you therefore need to say your training “YES” with a particular tone? A particular inflection? Do you change your posture or body language?
If so, your marker itself isn’t necessarily providing all the information.
The rest of you is.
That’s where things can start getting grey.
The rabbit hole that changed my training
My journey into reward-specific markers started around 15 years ago, when I was doing what dog trainers do exceptionally well — trawling the internet looking for ideas.
I came across two trainers who really started the ball rolling for me.
The first was Swedish agility trainer F***y Gott, who was writing about reward-specific markers.
The second was Shade Whitesel, who was talking about using different markers to distinguish between different reinforcement outcomes — including food versus toys and different ways reinforcement would be delivered.
At the time, this felt pretty revolutionary.
And I’ll admit it.
I was cynical.
Why did I need all these different words?
Surely I could simply tell my dog they were correct and then deliver reinforcement?
It had worked perfectly well so far…
Hadn’t it?
So I did something that I think every trainer should regularly do.
I stopped defending what I was doing and started analysing it.
And I found grey areas everywhere.
What happens AFTER the marker?
Imagine my dog is sitting.
I give my generic marker.
What happens next?
Does the dog remain sitting?
Do they leap up and come towards me?
Do they become more aroused?
Does their arousal remain stable?
Does it decrease?
Do they become edgy and anticipatory because they’re trying to predict what happens next?
I realised that although my dogs were being reinforced, I wasn’t necessarily controlling or influencing the process around that reinforcement.
Their behaviour after the marker was often simply a by-product of what had happened during previous training sessions.
And suddenly that felt like a pretty significant flaw in the clarity I was trying to create.
Take heelwork.
If my dog is beautifully positioned at my leg and I mark them, I don’t necessarily want them swinging out in front of me to collect reinforcement.
I may want them to understand:
You’re correct. Stay exactly there. The reinforcement is coming to you.
Or perhaps I’m working on speed towards me.
Wouldn’t it be useful if I could tell the dog, before anything physically happened:
You’re correct — and your toy is about to fly.
That information can change the dog’s expectation.
Expectation can change behaviour.
And behaviour changes performance.
My black marker became a palette of colour
Once I started implementing reward-specific markers — and later location-specific markers — the difference was night and day.
Today, my markers don’t simply tell my dogs:
“Correct.”
They can give them information about what reinforcement is coming, where it’s coming from, how it’s going to be delivered and, critically, what they should do next.
That means I can use reinforcement not simply as payment for behaviour, but as another layer of communication.
And that can influence so much:
Clarity. Arousal. Speed. Focus. Stillness. Movement. Anticipation. Frustration. Position. Confidence. Predictability.
The marker itself becomes information.
Instead of one big black permanent marker, I’ve got an entire palette of colours to paint with.
And once you’ve experienced that level of clarity with your dog, it’s very difficult to go back.
“But that sounds complicated…”
This is probably the biggest objection I hear.
And I understand it.
When people see the number of reward-specific and location-specific markers I now use, they can feel overwhelmed.
But remember — I’ve been developing and using this system for around 15 years.
You don’t need to start where I am now.
Think of it like learning a language.
You wouldn’t walk into your first French lesson and expect to stand up and recite an entire speech in fluent French.
You’d learn how to say hello.
You’d learn your name.
Yes. No. Please. Thank you.
Simple phrases.
Then, as those words become automatic, your vocabulary expands.
Reward-specific markers are exactly the same.
Start small.
Get fluent.
Then add vocabulary.
Five Tips for Getting Started
1. Start with TWO markers.
Forget everything else initially. Have one marker that predicts food and another that predicts a toy. Get comfortable using those consistently before adding anything else.
2. Choose unique words.
Try to avoid words you use constantly in everyday conversation. Your marker should stand out and have a very specific meaning to your dog. Clarity matters.
3. Marker. PAUSE. Then move.
This one is huge. I frequently see handlers say their marker while simultaneously reaching for food, moving their hand or producing the toy. The dog can very easily learn that your movement predicts reinforcement rather than the marker. Say the word. Pause. Then deliver the reinforcement. Make sure the word has meaning.
4. Video yourself.
You will be amazed at what you’re actually doing compared with what you think you’re doing. Are you consistent? Are you moving before the marker? Are you changing your body language? Video doesn’t lie. Use it to hold yourself accountable.
5. Pick words that mean something to YOU.
Have fun with them. Your marker system should feel natural coming out of your mouth. One of my toy markers is “WIN!” I love that word because it creates an emotional response in me too. I’m a trainer. I’m a competitor. “WIN” has energy and meaning for me — and that becomes part of the reinforcement experience.
Clarity changes everything
Reward-specific markers aren’t about having a collection of clever words.
They’re about removing grey areas.
They’re about giving the dog information before the reinforcement happens rather than expecting them to constantly predict what’s coming next.
And they’re about recognising that reinforcement can do far more than tell a dog:
“You got it right.”
It can influence what happens next.
It can create stillness or movement.
It can increase intensity or help regulate arousal.
It can create speed, precision, confidence and predictability.
For me, learning to use reward-specific and location-specific markers fundamentally changed the way I communicate with my dogs.
I spent years trying to paint detailed pictures with a big black permanent marker.
These days?
I’ve got the whole bloody paintbox.
And below, I’m going to share the reward-specific and location-specific markers I currently use with my own dogs — what each one means, how I use it and why.
