Training a Dog

Training a dog through shaping behavior is fun.

But it is a little more advanced method of training your dog.

This is Larry.

Shaping is a fancy term (well, maybe not all that fancy of a word) for training a dog to do something he does not readily do.

When you teach your dog to sit, it's sortof a one shot deal. You can either catch him in the act of sitting and toss him a treat for doing it OR you can lure him into the sit with a treat slightly above his nose.

After a few trials of either of these methods of training your dog he's going to figure out that when he puts his butt to the ground good treats come his way.

Training a dog for tricks
Some dogs are great at offering you cool tricks without much prompting. Larry is not one of them - unless of course you want to reinforce sleeping on the couch. That he can do.

So how did I get Larry to do Yoga?

Through reinforcing successive approximations. I started with something Larry already knew how to do, which was lay down (see that couch stuff comes in handy). Shaping works best with a clicker because we need to be specific.

It looks something like this.

1. Larry lay down

2. Now I wait for Larry to make a paw movement. He moves his right paw a tad and I click that paw movement and then offer a treat. I do this a couple times until Larry gets that laying down and moving his right paw gets the treat.

3. Now I wait again for Larry to move a different paw. At first he tries to move his right front paw, but since that gets him nowhere he moves his hind left leg. Aha! I click and treat. We do this a couple times.

4. Now Larry is getting into this game. He lays down right away and moves his right front paw and then his right hind paw. I don't reinforce this, I wait for another movement that gets me closer to Larry on his back in this position. I ignore his attempts at showing me he can move his right paws. Larry starts to move like he is going to roll over. I click and treat that move. We repeat this a few times.

5. This time Larry lays right on the ground and starts to roll onto his back. He has 3 out of 4 paws in the air and I click and treat him for that brave move.

6. This is where it all falls into place. Larry immediately starts rolling onto his back, he tries to put his paw in different positions (I try not to bust out laughing). The funniest part is that he stayed on his back trying different paw positions for almost 20 seconds. I finally clicked an attempt at raising his left paw straight into the air. This is where he learned that that was the paw which could get him a treat.

7. Bingo! Larry rolls onto his back and started moving his left paw around until I clicked when he put it towards his head.

8. We did this a few times, then I added a label (Yoga). I practice it inside a few times and over the next couple weeks. Then we take it on the road until he offered to me on the beach one morning. I clicked and treated and now he offers Yoga to me every chance we get on the beach :)

Training a dog to do tricks is fun and bonds you closer to your dog.

If you'd like to know more about the signals your dog is sending you see these dog pictures. Training a dog is easier if you understand canine behavior