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Every dog is different, even when it comes to training. What works for one dog might not work for another. Thankfully, there are many ways to teach a new behavior. For example, you might try lure and reward training聽where you lead your dog into the desired behavior with a lure. Or you can聽capture a behavior聽by rewarding your dog when they do it on their own. But sometimes you want to train something complicated your dog doesn鈥檛 do often or perhaps your dog is struggling to follow a lure. In these cases, you can try shaping a behavior, which is basically building something by taking baby steps. Read on for shaping tips.

What Is Shaping?

With shaping, you don鈥檛 teach the final behavior but rather break it down into smaller steps that build toward it. So, if you want to聽teach your dog to roll over, you could lure them all the way over, or you could shape it by starting with them lying on the ground. Then the next step would be lying on their side, then on their back, and so on until they have completed an entire roll over motion.

Before you start training, plan your sessions. Don鈥檛 just wing it as you go. That can lead to frustration for both you and your dog. Instead, break the final behavior into as many steps as you think your dog will need. But, once you start working with your dog, be ready to adjust on the fly if they get stuck or offer you more than expected.

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Once you鈥檙e ready to go, set your criteria for step one. Reward your dog anytime they produce that first level

action. Don鈥檛 worry about step two until your dog is performing the first step consistently. Once they do that, you can increase your criteria by one step. Now you stop rewarding the step one behavior and only reinforce step two. And so on as you build toward the final action.

But how do you get your dog to move from one step to the next? Well, there is always some degree of variation in behavior. For example, each time your dog lies down there鈥檚 the possibility their position will be slightly different 鈥� sometimes they might have their back feet tucked under them, but other times they might roll onto one hip. And that hip roll is one step closer to rolling over. Your dog鈥檚 impatience will also play a role. They might try new things to earn a treat. So, you must be observant and watch for these changes so you can adjust what you鈥檙e rewarding accordingly.

The Benefits of Shaping

As you can probably imagine, shaping requires a bit more technical skill from the trainer than luring or capturing. You need to be patient, focused, and fast with your rewards. It can also help to聽train with a clicker or marker word聽to communicate with your dog the exact moment they did what you wanted. And that requires good timing.

So, why go to the extra effort? Because shaping can help you train behaviors that are difficult to get otherwise. It鈥檚 also great for working with fearful or aggressive dogs that don鈥檛 respond well to more interactive techniques like luring. Finally, shaping is great for dogs. It makes them an active part of the training process and teaches them to think for themselves. A shaping-savvy dog will start to offer behaviors as they anticipate what you鈥檙e looking for and try to earn their聽treat. They don鈥檛 wait to be shown what to do, they ask you, 鈥淚s this what you want?鈥� That kind of mental exercise is always beneficial.

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Shaping for Obedience, Trick Training, and Dog Sports

Shaping can help you teach obedience behaviors. For example, some dogs struggle to聽lie down on cue. If you break it down into its components such as looking at the ground, dropping the nose to the floor, bending the elbows, and so on, you can eventually have your dog happily lying down whenever you ask.

Shaping is also wonderful for聽teaching tricks聽and for聽dog sports听濒颈办别听agility. You can train all kinds of fun behaviors by starting small and building. For example, dogs don鈥檛 naturally wave hello, but you can teach your dog to wave their paw at you with shaping. The following is a sample plan for training a wave:

1. Click and reward your dog for聽lifting one paw off the ground. Choose either the right or left paw, whichever your dog is more likely to use, and stick with that paw through your training. If your dog won鈥檛 lift a paw, start by simply rewarding a shift in weight.
2. Once your dog is lifting one paw off the ground about 80% of the time, you can raise your criteria. Only click and reward if they lift their paw to shoulder height. If that鈥檚 too far too fast, then raise your criteria an inch at a time.
3. Once your dog is consistently lifting their paw to shoulder height, raise your criteria. Now, only click and reward if there is any movement of the paw.
4. Once your dog is consistently moving their paw, raise your criteria so you only reward an up and down movement.
5. Once your dog is consistently moving their paw up and down, you can add a verbal cue or hand signal to the behavior.

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You might need to adjust the plan above for your dog. Just be sure you don鈥檛 advance from one step to the next too quickly. Or conversely, don鈥檛 stay on one step for too long or your dog might get stuck thinking that鈥檚 the only thing you want. Finally, don鈥檛 move too far ahead at once. If you skip steps or expect your dog to make too far a leap between steps, you will only frustrate them.

Play Shaping Games

You can also play fun shaping games with your dog. One of the classics is Karen Pryor鈥檚 鈥�101 things to do with a box.鈥� All you need is a , an empty box, and some delicious . Start by rewarding your dog for any interaction with the box and then go from there. You can end up with them sitting inside the box (this is fun to do with smaller and smaller boxes), pushing the box, pawing the box, or whatever else their actions and your imagination can dream up.