Consider teaching a dog to down on command. The handler puts some food in his hand and puts his closed hand on the ground in front of the dog. When the dog lies down, the handler says "free" and opens his hand rewarding the dog. Once the dog has this concept the handler puts a command with the behavior. The handler says "down", waits a beat, then puts his closed hand on the floor. If after a bit the dog does not lie down, the handler says "uh-uh" waits for the dog to offer the correct behavior. When the dog does lie down, the handler says "free" and rewards the dog. Later the handler will want to prolong the down before rewarding the dog. The handler says "down" and the dog lies down. Then the handler says "good", encouraging the dog to continue the behavior. After a moment the handler says "free" and rewards the dog. Suppose the handler says "down" and the dog jumps up on the handler and starts biting at the treat bag. The handler says "no" and punishes the dog in an appropriate manner. Frequently use of the word "no" is sufficient punishment. Note that the reward marker and punishment marker end the behavior. Once the handler gives either of those messages, the dog is no longer expected to perform the requested behavior.
These messages do not have to be communicated with words. Other signals can be used. In particular, clickers are frequently used for the reward marker. It is critical that the signals or words used for these messages are used with absolute consistency. If the handler sometimes says "good" as a reward marker and sometimes as a bridge, it is difficult for the dog to know when he has earned a reward. The handler must always reward the dog in some manner after using the reward marker, treat, play, praise, etc. Failure to reward after the reward marker diminishes the value of the reward marker and makes training more difficult.
Dogs are not born understanding these messages. They must be taught. The reward marker is easily taught by sitting down with a bag of treats and pairing the signal, "free", with giving the dog a treat. Free, treat, free, treat, free, treat, ... Do this for two or three minutes several times a day for a week and the dog will understand the reward marker. The bridge is easily taught while training a simple behavior like down. Simply saying "good ... free" and gradually increasing the time between "good" and "free" will quickly introduce the bridge. The no reward marker and the punishment marker are also taught as part of training a simple command. The no reward marker seems to be a subtle thing for many dogs and handlers to understand. It is not a harsh punishment. It should communicate to the dog "Thank you for offering that behavior, but it is not what I want. Please do something else. If you do the right thing I will reward you." Once a dog understands these four messages it is much easier to train the dog, to teach the dog to perform a wide variety of different behaviors on command.
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