Wren has been offering this behavior (circling) whenever Foggy has the ball, so I decided to reinforce it by marking (yes!) and rewarding (tossing the ball). I did not lure or prompt this behavior in any way -- she just came up with it. This method is called capturing and often includes shaping to a final goal behavior. (In this case, she offered the entire behavior up front so no shaping was needed.) Now Im ready to add a cue to this behavior. I need to wait until I can predict that she is about to do the behavior or as she initiates the behavior. I insert the cue around the moment she starts to circle. By repeating this an estimated 50 to 100 times (but perhaps not so many reps for my clever Wren), the cue around should be a way to elicit the behavior from her as opposed to her offering it on her own. For now, it is still in the cue acquisition phase, meaning she has not learned that the cue around is an opportunity to circle a prop for reinforcement. I also taught Wren to take a bow (ta da!) using this method; I marked and rewarded every time she went into a play bow, then added the cue following the above procedure. Capturing (and shaping) is a fun learning process for your dog, a cool training challenge for you, and allows you to put behaviors on cue that may be difficult to elicit using a luring (follow the cookie) method. What behaviors does your dog offer that you could (or have) put on cue?
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 22:51:41 +0000
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