Shaping

[hannahb_patch_faith]

Hi All,

I have been doing some shaping with my 4 1/2 month old Border Collie who is doing really well with it and is offering lots of behaviours that i like.

My question is how do i then put it on que?

Hannah

 

[Dlilly]

This is what I do, when I taught Rory to put his nose in my boot, I would say the cue 'Boot' right as he would start to put his nose in the boot. I repeated it a few times, and he soon understood.

 

[fickla]

That's the hardest part! And the most boring I usually say the cue right before I think they're going to offer it. Once the dog is starting to get it I'll tell them to wait before I cue the trick so I can make sure the dog is listening. From there I then work on discriminating other simple tricks mixed in with the new trick.

For most things you really don't need a verbal only cue. Hand signals are easier for most dogs to get as they are usually some variation of a lure and even if you only used shaping to get the trick dogs are more visual. And for many tricks you don't need a verbal or a hand signal as an object becomes the cue itself. Even when the dog knows how to do many things with one object, a clicker savy dog will get what you want in that session within very few clicks.