Behaviour chains are set up when a number of behaviours occur in sequence. And there is an up side and a down side to this.
Marker training sets up desirable ‘behaviour chains’ by marking and rewarding behaviours and therefore reinforcing them in your dogs mind.
However, many undesirable behaviours that your dog displays will have been inadvertently set as ‘behaviour chains’. Without knowing, we have established cues and continued to reinforce them. These sequences of behaviour need to be undone / counter conditioned.
When the your dogs various behaviours become a sequence connected by ‘cues’, your labrador will identify, learn these cues and reliability follow them.
The key to understanding a behaviour chain and why it establishes repetitive behaviour is to identify the cue that the dog is following. This cue is called a ‘conditioned reinforcer’. The cue is the "green light" for a behaviour that leads to some kind of reward for your dog. However, It is often the case that the cue has also inadvertently reinforced some other behaviour that happened at that time.
Your Labrador may exhibit many behaviour chains through the course of the day. Many incidental behaviours and sequences of routine have become behaviour chains.
The routine of releasing your dog from their crate in the morning, standing still to have their leash put on, waiting quietly at the door are incidental behaviours that should have been taught, marked and rewarded individually at first. And when they are linked as a sequence they become a behaviour chain. If you mark & reward each behaviour, it acts as a cue reinforcing the previous behaviour and anticipating the next. For example, if your dog is waiting quietly at the door, by saying ‘let’s go’, you have given your dog the cue to go through the door. The freedom to go through the door reinforces the waiting. The ensuing walk is the ‘positive reinforcer’ of the whole ‘behaviour chain’.
With ‘reward based marker training’, you can mark (yes) a behaviour and reinforce (reward) it. This will also serve as the cue for the next unit as part of a behaviour chain. The whole sequence of behaviours that constitute a walk have formed a behaviour chain.
In both the positive and negative sense, the individual units of behaviour within the behaviour chain act cues and therefore reinforcers. Your dog with always conduct itself within a behaviour chain.
There are many opportunities throughout the course of a day to establish or break behaviour chains. Every situation that you and your labrador engage is an opportunity to reinforce behaviours. As you use verbal cues like ‘Wait, Sit, Drop, Stay, Let's go’,...Mark and Reward them individually and your dog will identify and follow a behaviour chain.
While your dog is learning new cues, reward every desirable behaviour with a high value treats.
Be sure that you do not ’break’ the desires behaviour chain, perhaps by putting the leash on your dog then getting distracted and doing something out of routine