Glossary
Quick reference for terms used across the site. Each term links to the page where it's first introduced in context.
- Arousal
- Your dog's overall level of physiological and emotional activation. High arousal can come from excitement, fear, or frustration. Dogs over their arousal threshold can't learn new things.
- First used: Arousal
- Classical conditioning
- The process where your dog's brain automatically links two things that happen together. Your dog didn't decide to get excited about the leash — the brain made that connection after enough repetitions of jingle-then-walk.
- First used: Look at Me
- Competing reinforcement
- When the environment offers rewards that compete with what you're offering. The reason your dog ignores commands at the park isn't stubbornness — it's that the park pays better.
- First used: Come
- Counter-conditioning
- Building a new emotional association to replace an existing one. If your dog fears other dogs, you pair the presence of other dogs with the best rewards available, gradually building a new association: other dogs predict good things.
- First used: Won't Take Rewards Near Triggers
- Currency
- What your dog will work for. Not all dogs work for food. Your dog's currency might be tug, play, sniff access, or social interaction. The Find Your Dog's Currency exercise on the Start Here page helps you identify it.
- First used: Start Here
- Generalization
- The process of a dog learning that a command applies in all contexts, not just where it was first learned. A dog that sits perfectly in the kitchen but not in the park hasn't generalized "sit" yet.
- First used: Sit
- Marker
- A precise signal — a clicker or a short word like "yes" — that tells your dog the exact moment they did the right thing. The marker bridges the gap between the behavior and the reward delivery.
- First used: Markers
- Operant conditioning
- Learning through consequences. Behaviors that produce good outcomes get repeated. Behaviors that produce nothing fade. Every training protocol is an application of this mechanism.
- First used: How Dogs Learn
- Premack principle
- A high-probability behavior can reinforce a low-probability behavior. In practice: whatever your dog wants to do right now (sniff that bush, greet that dog) can be used as the reward for the behavior you want (sit, come, look at me).
- First used: Start Here
- Proofing
- Testing and reinforcing a behavior in progressively more challenging environments. The process of going from "sits in the kitchen" to "sits at the park with other dogs around."
- First used: Proofing
- Reward
- Anything your dog will work for. Not just treats — tug, play, sniff access, praise, environmental access. The word "reward" on this site means whatever you identified in the Find Your Dog's Currency exercise.
- First used: Start Here
- Threshold
- The point at which your dog's arousal becomes too high for learning. Below threshold, your dog can take food and respond to cues. Over threshold, your dog can't — their brain has shifted to survival mode.
- First used: Won't Take Rewards Near Triggers