Field Guide · Glossary
Anti-marker
Learning scienceA word used to tell a dog that the response they just gave was not the one being asked for.
How it works
The word itself is arbitrary. No, uh-uh and nope all do the same job, and the one a household already uses is usually the one built on instead of a new one. What gives the word meaning is whatever consistently follows it, and in a training context that is most often a reset: the repetition ends, the dog is released from what they were doing, and the same thing is asked again within a few seconds. A word that is said and then followed by nothing in particular carries no information, so the dog has no way to use it.
What it looks like
A handler asks for a sit and the dog lies down instead. The anti-marker is said at the moment the dog goes down, the handler releases them from the position, and the sit is asked for again a few seconds later. Nothing is taken away and nothing unpleasant happens. The repetition simply ends and starts over, and the dog gets another attempt immediately.
Commonly confused with
- Marker word
- A marker word identifies the response that earned something, and payment follows it every time. An anti-marker identifies a response that did not, and what follows it varies: often nothing more than another attempt at the same repetition.
- Positive punishment
- Positive punishment adds something the dog wants to avoid, in order to make a behavior less likely. An anti-marker is a word, and what it amounts to depends entirely on what is attached to it, which may be an immediate second attempt.
Related terms
Where this comes up