Grey Matter Dog Training

05/09/2026

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05/09/2026

💙 "Our dogs are doing the best they can, with the education we've given them, in the environment we've put them in." -Susan Garrett

05/09/2026

05/08/2026

Have you ever been in a situation where your dog has done something good but you weren't able to get a reward to them in time? Perhaps you struggled to get a treat out, and by the time you had one available, they had stopped doing what you wanted to reward! Oh no! 😫

The fact is, in training, timing is crucial! If we reward a little too late we could be rewarding a dog for breaking the sit rather than staying, or for barking, rather than being quiet.

One way to combat this issue is by using a 'marker'. A marker is a classically conditioned cue that predicts an oncoming reward. This makes the marker a 'bridge' from the moment the dog does the behaviour, to them getting the reward, and in essence says “This is the moment you did the right thing, hold tight, your reward is on its way”. 🧀🥩

This allows you to really pinpoint correct behaviour and gives you leeway when you don't have a reward instantly available!

Do you train by using a marker? What situations have you found using a marker most helpful?

05/08/2026

Keep advocating until you find the cause! Don’t feel ashamed to change providers if necessary!!

05/08/2026

05/08/2026

The language of dog training can be quite murky. Sometimes dog trainers who use aversive methods use euphemisms to describe them, or claim that something "doesn't hurt" when that's exactly how it works. When writing about the risks of aversive methods for Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, I wanted to be clear about exactly what counts as an aversive method and what is reward-based. This table makes for difficult reading for a lot of people, but it gives examples of what we mean when we talk about aversives. It's far better to use reward-based training methods because they work and they don't have the risks of aversives.

05/08/2026