A fun shaping session

Any training that involves gradual approximations towards a defined end goal can be defined as shaping, regardless of which training methods you use otherwise.

You can shape different aspects of a behaviour:

• Form/topography of the behaviour (e.g. when you shape the dog from turning their head to spinning around multiple times)
• Duration of the behaviour (e.g. when you teach the dog to walk gradually further off-lead at heel)
• Latency (e.g. so the dog reacts gradually faster to a signal)
• Intensity/tempo (e.g. when you increase criteria and reinforce (only) a gradually faster "Down")
• Relation to gradually increasing/reduced stimuli (e.g. when you gradually reduce the use of help, or introduce gradually increasing distractions).

The first four points are called *response generalisation* (since it is the response itself that changes gradually). The last point is *stimulus generalisation* (since it is the strength/form of the stimuli that changes gradually). But all variations fall under the rather broad definition of "shaping".

In this film you can see an example of the last type of shaping (and clicker training!).

Cuba had never learned to sit calmly when I throw the retrieve before this session (and she is fairly "keen", so I need to increase the difficulty level very gradually at the start), but fortunately it progresses quite quickly when you combine shaping with clicker training.