When it comes to training a puppy or dog new actions or behaviours, there are 3 main ways to do this: Luring Capturing Shaping
Luring -
Luring is perhaps the most instinctive way for owners to start training their dog. This involves holding a treat and putting it near the dogs nose. From hear we aim to have the dog follow this treat, up, down, left, right, forwards.... any direction to encourage the dog to complete the movement we are hoping to teach.
After the dog has understood the lure for what we are teaching, we would begin to fade the lure by holding it further away from the dogs nose, then transition to luring with and empty hand, then to a hand cue, before finally adding a verbal cue.
Luring is a great technique to teach actions like 'Sit' or 'Down' and also can be used as a way to tempt a dog over new objects such as steps or jumps.
Capturing -
Capturing involves marking and rewarding behaviours the dog offers naturally so that we can encourage the dog to do these more or add a cue.
For example, we could wait outside a shop and let the dog sniff around until it realises we are not going anywhere. Then if the dog sits or lays down, we can use our MARKER WORD and TREAT, or just give treats to the dog to let it know 'we want more of this'.
With time and repetition, you will start to find that when you stop to talk, or wait, or take your dog to a cafe, your dog will offer the desirable behaviour like SIT or DOWN, and through giving treats whilst the dog has offered us this, the dog will begin to offer it more and more without a command.
Capturing can take a long time as we have to wait for the behaviour we want. But the thing I like about it is the dog is rewarded for the thing that the dog wanted to do, which can result in a more relaxed dog or result in a DOWN or SETTLE with much better duration as the dog isn't overly reliant on cues.
Shaping -
Shaping is breaking a task into smaller steps and MARKING and REWARDING for these smaller steps along the way.
If you want to teach your dog to GO TO BED, you would put the bed on the floor in the room and and MARK and REWARD your for going near it.
The dog will start to figure out going near the bed earns a treat and so will start repeating this. This is where we can start to expect a little more, for example waiting for the dog to put a single paw on the bed and then MARK and REWARD. Eventually the dog will make it all the way to getting on the bed before earning the treat.
Shaping can be tricky and requires good timing and observation of the dog. It is common to utilise clicker training for shaping and the marker is quick, can be delivered accurately and is consistent, so the dog knows exactly what it did to earn the treat.
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