Capturing, Shaping, Modeling, Luring

Sounds like something a metrosexual would lisp provocatively on America's Next Top Model doesn't it? With Madonna's Vogue as the theme song. Believe it or not, Capturing, Shaping, Modeling and Luring are all dog training terms and describe ways we teach our dogs skills.

Capturing, Luring and Modeling are the easiest skills to learn. Shaping the most difficult but also the best way to really harness the power of the clicker. But what are they?

Luring
Luring is using food as, (duh) a lure. You stick a cookie in front of your dog's nose and use it to get the dog to do something, whether it's come (pull treat toward you) walk forward in heel (hold treat in left hand at nose level and walk), or sit (lift treat up and back so dog naturally wants to sit). Like a fish following a lure, the dog's body follows the dog's nose and the dog's nose is following the treat. Luring is easy to do but also very easy to abuse. It's really easy for the dog to expect that treat to be there and part of the picture. And because the dog is simply following his nose, he's not necessarily really thinking of what you want. He may not even notice he's now in a sit or following you, he's just following his nose. So lures should be very quickly faded into rewards. A lure is used to PRODUCE a behavior. A reward is used AFTER the dog offers the behavior.

Capturing
Capturing is pretty easy too, as long as you keep a clicker and small treats really close and handy. Capturing is when you just happen to catch a dog doing what you want and click for it. So you're sitting around watching TV and you have your clicker and some small treats you just carry in your pocket. Your dog doesn't like to down on command, but you know your dog knows how to down--all dogs sleep sometime! When your dog lays down, you click and pitch him a treat. Capturing is also a really great way to put fun stuff on command. Kathy has taught Kip to "commando crawl" by capturing. He likes to crawl forward on his belly, back legs dragging. She captured it by clicking it when he happened to be doing it. You can capture things like yawning, sneezing, begging—pretty much anything your dog does that you think it really cute.

Shaping
Shaping is more difficult but very powerful. Shaping is rewarding incremental steps to a final behavior. With shaping, you start global and go local. Shaping requires understanding your dog's body language and good timing, because you need to be able to click just at the right moment. Shaping also requires that the dog understands the clicker game, but dogs catch onto the clicker game really fast. The clicker game is that the dog knows that he can offer things and get a click/treat.

You can use shaping to, say, get a dog to pick up and hold a dumbbell. You can first click for the dog looking at the dumbell, then up the ante to having the dog touch it with his nose, then licking it, then taking it in his mouth for a moment, then holding it, then picking it up from the floor. All without pain or trauma, and the dog understands the lesson. Shirley Chong has a great detailed page on clicking the retrieve.

And here's a video of shaping from the Karen Pryor website.

Modeling
Modeling is the option least used by clicker trainers. Modeling uses physical positioning to teach. As an example, pushing a dog into a sit to teach the sit command. I try to avoid modeling if at all possible, because it's the slowest and least effective way to train since the dog is being physically put into position, which requires no brain power on his part and may be either scary or painful. It's always best to get the dog to freely offer a behavior rather than forcing the behavior on the dog.

--Robin