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Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Training Tuesday - Using Shaping to Teach a Novel Skill

I love teaching my dogs how to do new things, even if the things that I'm teaching are not particularly useful. The ability to communicate with them to "explain" what I want them to do is what excites me.

The most fun and most effective way to do that is with a clicker. I've trained both of my dogs to understand that a "click" from the clicker means that they are doing something right. The click happens exactly when they do the correct thing, and a treat always follows.

I taught both dogs to "take a bow" using clicker training.

There's a technique with a clicker called "shaping". Basically, you have your dog stand in front of you, and you use a click to tell them that they are "getting warmer", meaning that they are getting closer to doing what you want them to do. If they try something and I don't click, it means that they're "getting colder". It's really a lot like the child's game of warmer and colder.

I do this with both dogs. I've done it less with R than with Shyla so he tries every little step on the way to a task. That makes him a great first example for this technique. Please notice that there is absolutely no punishment or negativity to this technique. You reward when the dog does something good, and you are silent when he goes astray.

In this example, you'll notice an antenna with a red bulb on top of it on the floor. My goal is to get R to touch the red bulb with his nose. I don't want him to have to make any great leaps of logic so I start by clicking when he even vaguely looks toward it or goes near it. Later, after he is getting the idea, I start by clicking just one step directly toward it. Eventually, he is reliably touching it with his nose - after 1 minute and 22 seconds of shaping (I didn't edit the video at all!). Here's the Youtube link, if it doesn't work here.


Note that when I wrote "missed it" on the screen, it was a moment when I should have clicked but wasn't fast enough.

Obviously, this task was not even vaguely an important behavior everyday life. I love practicing the "shaping" technique with unimportant tasks because I have no emotional stake in whether they get it right or not. If I mess up the training process, there are no long term consequences in terms of their behavior.

With this technique in my arsenal, I can teach them all sorts of important things. An example is that I've trained Shyla to pick up things that I drop and put them in my outstretched hand. This helps me immensely when my spine is hurting a lot.

I love positive training of dogs - it's fun for me and for the dogs because there's no negativity involved!

20 comments:

  1. Hari OM
    ...not to mention a good physical workout for the dog without overtaxing the human! YAM xx

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  2. You two are so good at that and we love seeing you R!

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  3. It's amazing how you can almost see the light go off in his head when he finally realizes that the red bulb is his target!

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    1. You are SO right! And he simply loves the game of figuring it out.

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  4. I've never done clicker training with Torrey, but I am pretty sure she would do great. She is so good with just verbal clues though.

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  5. R OMCs you are spot on with that and we think you should consider taking up ping pong....
    We really enjoyed the video.
    Hugs madi and mom

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  6. AMAZING!!!!!! good dog R... you are soooooo smart!!!!! so is mama....

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  7. This is a great introduction to clicker training and to shaping. Beautiful! It's such a fun way to train because the results seem almost magical. But learning how to break the desired behavior down into itty bitty little chunks is a challenge.

    A fabulous course on shaping from Sue Ailsby through the Fenzi Online School really helped with that part. Have you taken any courses from her yet?

    Cheers,
    Chris from Boise

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    1. Hi Chris - I took one course with Sue on Rally. I enjoyed it immensely. I learned most of my shaping though through courses with Donna Hill. Before I took courses on it, I didn't realize how tiny the chunks need to be. I'd wait for big steps forward before clicking, and I'd end up with a very frustrated dog. It's surprising that clicking for things as tiny as a glance toward the place where the final behavior will happen is enough - but it is! I'll watch for Sue's shaping course. I think that shaping is my favorite part of dog training. I agree that it looks and feels like magic.

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  8. Also, what I love best about shaping is that - done right - the dog has such a good time figuring out the game. Look at that wagging tail throughout!

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  9. You are one smart boy, R! It didn't take you long to learn that trick!

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  10. R, you are a fast learner, and what a great way to learn.

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  11. That was amazing!! Really makes us want to try that too. R is really smart. You will see that the pups here could use a lot of that type of training in today's video:)

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  12. Mom just doesn't like using a clicker at all. We learn stuff that is useful for whatever we are doing. A lot of people we know do use clickers and love doing different shaping things.

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  13. When we took Luke to a trainer when he was young, he taught us how to do the shaping with that same target and a clicker. Luke was so quick to catch on, and we've been hooked on a clicker and shaping ever since! I like how you compare it to the warmer/colder game - I never really looked at it that way! We haven't tried anything new for a while, so we might have to do that.
    Jan, Wag 'n Woof Pets

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    1. PS...that really was impressive how quickly R learned that!!

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  14. R is so smart! You are such an awesome person to do this with your dogs! I know they love learning - and it's such great bonding!
    KZK

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