Shaping is a method of training a behavior where a dog is rewarded for behavior that is incrementally closer to the behavior the trainer wants. When using shaping, the trainer plays a waiting game while the dog guesses what the trainer wants. The trainer rewards the dog as the dog guesses behaviors closer and closer to the trainers desired behavior.
Dogs are highly motivated by this game of offering behaviors. When they get it right and hear the marker word, dogs get a rush of dopamine prior to obtaining their food or toy. This dopamine rush motivates them to want to play the game again.
Initially, the game must be very easy until the dog is thoroughly invested in and loving the game. Once the dog is hooked on the game, the trainer can gradually add difficulty. As long as the trainer doesn’t increase the difficulty too quickly, the added challenges of more difficult tasks build resilience when the dog has incorrect responses and confidence when the dog gets it right.
Shaping is always used in conjunction with marker training, operant conditioning, and classical conditioning. These principles and tools are the foundation for all that we do for the life of the dog.
Why You Should Use Shaping to Create Good Behavior
Here are some reasons to consider shaping behaviors over using other training methods.
- It creates a dog who thinks about how he can influence his own environment rather than a dog who allows the environment to influence him.
- A dog who has learned a behavior by shaping will remember it better then a dog trained using other methods.
- A dog who has been taught by shaping will leave a training session thinking about how he can do better at his next training sessions.
- A dog who has been taught by shaping need never see the food until after the sound of the marker. This makes for a smoother transition from being food focused to being handler focused.
- Shaping works well with classical conditioning to create a dog who loves to work.
- Shaping creates internal qualities such as confidence, resilience, self-control, focus, and motivation.
How Shaping Builds Internal Qualities
- Shaping creates a dog who is motivated to work because it is fun and the dog is reinforced when he is successful.
- It builds resilience as the dog works through small amounts of frustration while figuring out what his trainer wants.
- Shaping creates a dog who is motivated to please his trainer as the trainer nurtures the dog’s love of the shaping game.
- Shaping creates confidence as the dog learns that “He can do it!”
- It creates self-control as the dog learns to control his impulses in order to think first and then act rather than to re-act.
- Shaping teaches a dog to think through a problem instead of just reacting to it.
Steps for Shaping Behavior
- The first step to shape a behavior is to wait for the dog to offer any behavior that is a little bit similar to the behavior you are wanting.
- The instant the dog offers any behavior that is remotely close to the desired behavior, mark and reward the dog’s effort. As you are rewarding the dog, try to physically move the dog toward being closer to the desired behavior with reward placement.
- Get the dog excited about trying again. This time, wait for a little better performance before marking.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 until the dog is performing the desired behavior.
Troubleshooting
- If the dog gets it wrong, just encourage him to try something new.
- If the dog’s just sitting there and continues to keep sitting without trying anything new, your dog needs to get unstuck. Move around and play with him a bit. Then start waiting again. He will eventually offer something. If the dog is struggling, mark and reward efforts. Use reward placement to try to get him closer to the desired behavior.
- Make sure that you are keeping your expectations low enough to keep the dog successful without letting him get frustrated.
An Example of Shaping
An example might help make understanding the process of shaping more clear. Let’s say we want to shape a dog into sitting with good eye contact for attention. This is a fairly easy behavior to shape. The process is straight-forward.
The first step in shaping any behavior is to wait until the dog tries something remotely close to what you as the trainer ultimately want.
Your dog might start the first session by jumping on you or by exploring his surroundings. We’re going to say that in our example, the dog is jumping. In this case, the first step is to wait until the dog quits jumping.
The instant the dog has all four feet on the floor, say “yes” in a short, clear tone and give the dog a piece of food. This first step requires that the trainer has a good understanding of the basics of marker training. Timing, in particular, is extremely important for marker training and shaping to work. In this example, the “yes” must be said the instant all four feet on the floor and before he jumps again.
As you give your dog his reward, use reward placement to accelerate the process by holding the food slightly over the dog’s head to encourage him to sit. Don’t hold the food so much over his head that he must jump to get it. That will encourage further jumping. Hold the food in such a way that the it is easiest for the dog to obtain the food if he is sitting and looking up at you. Once the dog gets his first reward, he will likely be eager to earn more. Repeatedly mark and reward the dog as he keeps all four feet on the ground.
You’re ready to move to the next step when the puppy is no longer jumping. This next step is to increase your criteria for reward. Initially, all the dog had to do to earn his mark and reward was to keep all four feet on the ground. During this second step, the dog must now do more. Before marking your dog’s behavior, wait until he either gives eye contact or sits. Then, the instant he does either, mark and reward.
Continue marking and rewarding over and over again as long as the dog maintains the sit and/or the eye contact.
Once the dog is proficient at either holding a sit or maintaining eye contact, it’s time to increase the criteria for reward again. Wait until the dog does both: sits and maintains eye contact.
Mark and reward repeatedly again reinforcing your dog as he sits while maintaining eye contact. Shaping all of this needs to be done in steps and incrementally.
Not all dogs will take the steps in the same order or move along the same path. Some dogs might initially ignore you so that your first reward event would occur when the dog looks at you, even if he’s not close to you.
The dog chooses the path to correct behavior and there are always many paths toward the same end result. The handler simply reinforces the dog as the dog gets closer to what the handler wants.
Tips for Successful Shaping
- Make training a game and keep it fun. Set a happy tone.
- Let the dog initiate the work.
- Use luring and other hints (such as body motion or spatial pressure) only when necessary. Try to use shaping and let the dog figure out what will earn his reward on his own without hints as much as possible.
- Use luring and hints only as a jump-start to the process when shaping would be so difficult that the dog would get overly frustrated.
- At the same time, the handler needs to give enough hints so that the dog doesn’t get so frustrated that he looses interest in the game. Allowing a dog or especially a puppy to become overly frustrated can decrease your dog’s drive to work with you. It is better to err on the side of setting criteria too low than to risk setting criteria too high.
- Fade these hints as quickly as possible to get the dog’s brain back in the game.
- Use props (such as a platform) if necessary to build muscle memory.
- Fade props as soon as possible so that the dog doesn’t get dependent on them.
- Use luring to build muscle memory before using shaping if the desired behavior is so hard that the dog will not offer a behavior even close to it.
- Fade the luring as soon as possible so that the dog’s mind is on the marker and on earning the reward and not on the reward itself..
- Shaping requires patience. It is often a waiting game. Be especially patient with a dog new to shaping. Shaping has to be taught. A dog who is new to shaping will take longer to figure out what to do. Once a dog is used to shaping, he will start offering behaviors much more quickly. If you are feeling inpatient, quit training and come back to it when you are in a better frame of mind.
- Remember, your goal is not initial perfection, but an increasingly better performance.
- Set the criteria for reward to be at a level that will challenge the dog to do his best. At the same time, keep the criteria low enough and the game easy enough to keep the dog motivated to keep trying and to keep engaged in the game.
- Increase criteria gradually as the dog becomes proficient at the behavior.
- Remember that resilience is built when a puppy works through a little failure. However, too much failure will cause a puppy to loose confidence and motivation and possibly to even shut down. Always err on the side of keeping your puppy successful.
- Do not forcefully say “no” to the dog when he gets it wrong. Always set a happy upbeat tone. When training a new behavior with shaping, simply quietly wait for the dog to do something closer to what you want. When perfecting behaviors, we’ll talk later about a different technique for encouraging a dog to keep trying. There are several ways to handle incorrect responses. Being harsh or even communicating disappointment is never one of them.
- Reward your dog for effort. If the dog is trying hard, don’t let it go unnoticed. Even if he lacks the perfection you’re hoping for, lower the criteria so he is successful and you can reward his effort while he is performing correct behavior.
