Learn Your Lingo
This term is used in modern dog training circles as an alternative to the word "command".
What is a "cue"?
This group of canine body language behaviours are meant to display that the dog is not a threat, and to decrease the likelihood of conflict.
What are "appeasement behaviours" OR "calming signals"?
This quadrant is at play when a behaviour increases in frequency in response to an added stimulus.
What is "positive reinforcement"?
This term is used to refer to a specific stimulus (often a click sound or word) that communicates to the learner that a consequence is incoming.
What is a "marker signal", "event marker", or "bridging stimulus".
This theory concept is often used to explain why children might eat their broccoli in order to get chocolate cake for dessert.
What is the "Premack Principle"?
This term is used to describe a dog who is in a state of distress or over-arousal, ie "triggered".
What is "over-threshold"?
When a dog perceives a threat, their nervous system will turn to one of these "4-F" survival responses.
What are "fight, flight, freeze, and fawn"?
When a dog is subject to a stimulus and the behaviour decreases over time, this quadrant is at play.
What is "positive punishment"?
This preschool-era acronym refers to a series of events observable before, during, and after any presented behaviour. For bonus points, include each full word from which the acronym is derived.
What are the "ABCs"? (Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence)
This training process is used frequently in service dog training, especially in alert-type task behaviours, to modify the cue for a behaviour.
What is a "cue transfer"?
This term refers to the process wherein the learner becomes able to perform a behaviour fluently in various contexts and environments.
What is "generalization"?
This humorous acronym is used to describe behaviour most people call "zoomies".
What are "FRAPs"?
Often referred to as the "relief quadrant", it describes a situation where behaviour increases over time when a (often irritating or aversive) stimulus is removed.
What is "negative reinforcement"?
Best to avoid but unfortunately common (especially with recall training), you could say that this type of cue leaves a "bad taste" in your learner's mouth.
What is a "poisoned cue"?
This training process is commonly used to teach complex series of behaviours, such as an item retrieve, and involves linking behaviours by starting from the desired final behaviour.
What is "back-chaining"?
This term refers to the bad side effects associated with aversive training.
What is "fallout"?
This acronym can be used to express surprise (impolitely), or to pose a question about observed behaviour.
What is "WTF" (What's The Function?)
This quadrant is often used with nipping puppies, and involves the removal of a desired stimulus.
What is "negative punishment"?
This term is most commonly used to describe a repetition in a training context that flows smoothly from cue, to behaviour, to reinforcement, to following cue.
What is a "clean loop" or "loopy training"?
Marker signals, cues, and other conditioned stimuli may be considered _________ reinforcers.
What are "secondary" reinforcers?
This term refers to the process (occasionally done on purpose) where the dog is forced into a situation where they have to endure the fearful stimulus without being allowed to fight or flee.
What is "flooding"?
These behaviours are often seen in under-enriched captive animals, may be self-harming and challenging to address, and seem to defy the statement "all behaviours have a function".
What are "stereotypies"?
This process is the only way to determine which quadrant is at play in a certain scenario, given the definitions of "reinforcement" and "punishment".
What is "observation of behaviour over time"?
This crucial element of marker-based training is all too often forgotten, and can degrade your marker signal, even though it requires you to do absolutely nothing.
What is "the pause after the marker"?
The _________ stimulus precedes a behaviour, but only when reinforcement will occur. It does not cause the behaviour, but provides a hint to the learner that reinforcement is available.
What is the "discriminative" stimulus?