While shaping is usually used to teach a new behavior to a dog, it can also be used to fine tune a behavior or even reshape an old one or parts of a known one. Shaping can be applied to large behavior changes or fine tuning behaviors.
Think of shaping a behavior as a process of revision. Rewriting a book is shaping that book into a different form to a higher degree of detail. For dogs it might be teaching your dog to walk on a loose leash. Heeling is a finer precision of walking on a loose leash.
How do you do this?
1. Select which criteria you want to improve.
Every behavior has more than one part that makes up the whole behavior. This is criteria. Is it timing, movement, speed of response, finesse, accuracy of a behavior? Do trial of 10 repetitions for one behavior. Note your dog’s proficiency in it. Is the whole behavior where you would like it? Is there a part of it you would like to improve? Note which ones your dog needs improvement with. You can shape each of these separately.
2. For each criteria, select for the better responses.
Repeat 10 repetitions and see how many times out of 10 that your dog actually does the criteria to your satisfaction. Is it 5 out of 10? To move to the next level you want it to be at least 8/10.
Dogs are not computers and each time they do a behavior there is variability in how they perform it. A behavior might be harder, longer, more focused, superfluous etc. It is this variability that allows us to shape behaviors.
3. Practice only that part of a behavior you want to improve the criteria, this time clicking/treating only for those behaviors that meet your slightly higher requirements.
So to reshape your dog to be more gentle with his teeth (and more aware that there are toes under your sock) focus on the first part of the pull only. Maybe in 10 repetitions, your dog grabs your sock roughly 4 times and slightly more gently 6 times before pulling it all the way off. Click only the more gentle grabs and he need not pull the sock all the way off. Keep practicing until you notice that your dog is able to offer the gentler grabs 8/10 times.
Tip: If you raise your requirements too fast, your dog will not get c/t and will get frustrated and may quit. You must be observant to ensure that you are raising your criteria at a level appropriate to your dog's current abilities so she can still have success but start slightly modifying her behavior to match your shaping plans.
Now increase your requirements so this time your dog takes the sock a little more gently 8/10 times (or more). Increase your requirements slightly again. Does he still need more improvement? Keep practicing and increasing his required gentleness and only select those behaviors which are slightly more gentle.
Keep upping the requirements in little steps until your dog is able to offer the behavior you desire consistently. Then add the new criteria as part of the whole behavior.
Example 1:
Placing a coin into a small container is really an exercise in shaping. You need to work on two different shaping criteria separately.
1. Size of object being retrieved and placed.
2. Size of the opening the object is being placed into.
1. Size of object being retrieved and placed.
Start with an object that is comfortable size and familiar to your dog. Practice with this until he is successful 8/20 or more. Then choose a slightly smaller object and practice with that until 8/10 successful. Continue in this vein until your dog is able to pick up and carry very small items such as coins (start with largest coins and work down), a chain of paper clips, a ring etc. If you are introducing a new material to your dog, you may need to do some separate training until your dog is comfortable it before decreasing size of object further-metal is a good example)
2. Size of the opening the object is being placed into.
During a separate training session, start with a laundry basket your dog can easily reach into. Then when he is successful placing objects into that, try a slightly smaller box. Then a smaller one, then a plastic bucket, then a plastic container with a smaller opening. Notice that you are slowly decreasing the size of the target area where your dog drops the object. At some point you will need to switch to smaller and smaller objects so do that training first. Train your way down in size to the narrow-mouthed container.
Now you can combine the criteria to finish with the final behavior-your dog retrieves a coin and places it into a narrow-mouthed jar. Congratulations, you have just shaped two criteria and put them together to get a finished behavior!
Example 2
Don’t like the way your dog delivers retrieved objects to you? Reshape that end part of the retrieve. Start from where he is at, and determine what criteria you need to work on. Is it how accurately he can target your hand? (see above for process) or that he lets go as soon as he touches your hand with his nose? Work on only that part of the skill before you start adding it to the whole retrieve behavior chain. Barbara Handelman describes this very nicely in Marriage of Target and Retrieve when she discusses the dog pushing objects into your hand and holding them there until you to give a release cue.
Why do You Retrain Only One Part of a Complicated Behavior?
If you wait until the dog has completed a whole behavior to click, he has no way to know which part of the behavior he did well and which part he did substandard. Was was too boisterous in running to get the object? Was he sloppy in picking it up? Was he slow in returning to you? Did he drop it on the floor at your feet? Because there are so many parts to a behavior, you really need to zero in on the part that he is not performing as well as you would like. Work on that, then integrate it by chaining it back into the larger behavior.
What Behaviors Do you Want to Improve?
Break them down into their criteria and reshape each part as neccessary!
