🏷️ Day 2 · Marker Word

Day 2 with your dog

⏱ 5 minutes 🎯 Goal: reliable reflex at 3-foot distance 📈 Building on Day 1

Yesterday you worked on…

Loading the marker word. You said "yes" (or your chosen word) and immediately delivered a treat — 20 repetitions across two sets — with no behavior required. That's classical conditioning: the word begins to predict the reward before your dog has done anything to earn it.

Today you test whether that reflex started forming and add the first real variable: distance.

What you need

Your Day 2 protocol

1
Warm-up: 5 close reps
Refresh the reflex from yesterday
Start with your dog close — 1 foot away. Say your marker word once, deliver a treat. Do this 5 times in 30 seconds. You're re-activating the association that loaded yesterday. If your dog snaps to you immediately on the first rep, the reflex held overnight. That's the goal.
2
Distance test: 10 reps at 3 feet
Step back. Say the word. Watch what happens.
Put a treat on the floor and let your dog eat it, then step back 3 feet. When your dog is not looking at you, say your marker word once. If your dog orients to you immediately: move in and deliver a jackpot (3–4 treats). If your dog looks confused or doesn't respond: wait 3 seconds, then lure with a treat. The reflex may need another 5–10 loading reps before it generalizes to distance. Run 10 reps this way.
3
Mild distraction test
Say the word while your dog is sniffing something
Toss a piece of kibble on the floor. When your dog sniffs it, say your marker word once. A reliable reflex should pull their attention away from the kibble and toward you. Mark the orientation (with your word — don't double-mark) and deliver a high-value treat. You're testing whether "yes" outcompetes a floor distraction. If it doesn't yet, that's normal Day 2 — keep loading.
4
End of session
Note the response latency
The key metric: how fast does your dog orient after the word? Day 1–2 response is usually 0.5–2 seconds. By Day 5–7 you want under 0.3 seconds — a snap, not a considered choice. You're training speed of response, not just the response. Keep reps fast to reinforce quick orientation, not slow deliberation.

If the reflex didn't hold from yesterday — your dog shows no response at all — run 10 more loading reps at 1 foot before doing the distance work. Some dogs need 4–5 sessions to fully load the reflex. That's normal. Trying to advance to distance before the close reflex is solid just sets both of you up for frustration.

Why distance is the Day 2 variable

Behaviors trained at 1 foot don't automatically generalize to 10 feet. The stimulus (your voice, your body language, your proximity) changes as distance increases, and your dog's nervous system treats these as meaningfully different situations. You have to proof across distance explicitly — which is why Day 2 introduces 3 feet, not 30.

Jason noticed Baelor's marker reflex was flawless at arm's length but barely worked across the room after Day 1. Three sessions of systematic distance work fixed it. The reflex now fires from across the apartment. That's the difference between a conditioned reflex and a party trick that only works when you're holding the treat up.

Ready? Go train with your dog.

5–10 minutes. Pick up where yesterday left off.

✅ Day 2 logged.

Two days in a row. That's the whole game — repetition without gap. The behavior is starting to stick.

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Come back tomorrow for Day 3

Two sessions builds pattern. Three builds habit. Check your skill dashboard to see your streak and explore what else is in Week 1.