Friday Shaping
April 19th 2009 22:14
Well Friday was shaping day. All the training that day, I did via shaping. Shaping can be used to teach pieces of a complex behavior by rewarding "partial answers" towards the ultimate goal you want to achieve. Say if you wanted the dog to fetch - you could reward her for looking at where the object landed. Then reward her for looking then walking to the object. Then looking, walking, picking up the object. Then looking walking, picking up, and holding the object. Then looking, walking, picking up, holding, bringing back the object. Then finally the whole chain plus dropping the object at your feet (or in your hands, however you wanted her to give the object back).
It sounds complicated. It sounds really long - and it DOES take time and patience as well as requiring the trainer to not only know what he/she wants, but how to break it down so he/she can reward a partial answer. Then you have to be willing to keep rewarding the partial answers the dog gives until she's giving them consistently (a sign she understands what actions are getting her the reward) before holding out for the next step.
While shaping is great for that - a lot of times, I just use it to get Wally into actually offering a behavior. Instead of just waiting to be told what to do, I want him to say "how about this? no? Then how about this? No? What if I do it like this? Yes? Yay!" Then the stuff I "say" yes to, he'll keep doing.
This Friday was an example of that. I put a fuzzy baseball on the floor and waited for him to interact with it. His first action was looking at it - so I clicked and treated (c/t) that. He looked at me for a moment, likely because that's where food came from, and then looked at the ball again. Another c/t. This time he immediately looked at the ball. C/T. Again, he looked at it. But I held out. He looked at me, then at the ball again. Staring at it. I'm still holding out. He started pushing it with his nose. C/T. Now I'm telling the next thing I'm looking for. I'm not paying for looks - now I want at least nose touching ball.
So we did that for about 10 times of him nosing the ball before I held out. He pushed the ball harder. See, when you hold out and what worked stopped working - the dog will likely do what he just did harder, as if you (or the ball) didn't realize that his nose touched it.
But I don't want nose touches anymore. Since staring worked before - he did that. I don't want that either. Since he knows how to paw things, that's what I want - but I didn't tell him. He nose pushed it again - nope. At least, almost in frustrating, he flopped a paw on it. C/T. Now his eyes got big - he found out what would keep the food coming. Paw. C/T. Paw. C/T. Paw AND a nose-touch (wasn't expecting that!) Click and a bit of a jackpot (i.e. more than one treat on that click - kinda a bonus for doing something especially well, finishing the session, etc).
So 10 more times of pawing - and then I held out. He started harassing the poor ball, pawing at it like he was a cat. Once, he got his paw on it and pulled it towards him. C/T. By this time, he's excited - so he bit the ball. C/T. He picked it up. C/T. Did it again. C/T. Did it again. Silence. He did it again. Nope. This time he did it and did the canine version of slamming it on the ground. C/T. He did it again, and this time click, a jackpot, and called it a session.
That was one session. The next one was the same idea - except I was the object. I knelt in front of him and waited for him to do something (other than stare, sit, or lie down). Sometimes when he does it with me as the object - I have to help him a little. If I'm never going to pay for lying down, if he does it - I'll lightly slide my hand under him and he'll stand up. Then I'll cllick. That helps him to understand I want him to stand.
Well, that worked. He pawed my knee. C/T. Did it a few more times with a c/t after each before holding out. He tried the other paw. C/T. Now when I held out, he's switching paws and it looks funny.
While he was doing that, he had both paws on one knee at one point, and that got him a c/t. He didn't do that again, though, but what he did do was start scratching on my knee (do I have a cat or a dog??). That got a c/t. Eventually he'd start doing it pretty hard when I held out. But that stopped working and he started barking. C/T. Another bark. C/T. Now I want a certain kind of bark. I held out and he made all kinds of sounds. When made it sort of moaning whimper (only way I can describe it), he got a c/t. Played the "Bark a different way each time" game for a few more minutes before the session was over.
It sounds complicated. It sounds really long - and it DOES take time and patience as well as requiring the trainer to not only know what he/she wants, but how to break it down so he/she can reward a partial answer. Then you have to be willing to keep rewarding the partial answers the dog gives until she's giving them consistently (a sign she understands what actions are getting her the reward) before holding out for the next step.
While shaping is great for that - a lot of times, I just use it to get Wally into actually offering a behavior. Instead of just waiting to be told what to do, I want him to say "how about this? no? Then how about this? No? What if I do it like this? Yes? Yay!" Then the stuff I "say" yes to, he'll keep doing.
This Friday was an example of that. I put a fuzzy baseball on the floor and waited for him to interact with it. His first action was looking at it - so I clicked and treated (c/t) that. He looked at me for a moment, likely because that's where food came from, and then looked at the ball again. Another c/t. This time he immediately looked at the ball. C/T. Again, he looked at it. But I held out. He looked at me, then at the ball again. Staring at it. I'm still holding out. He started pushing it with his nose. C/T. Now I'm telling the next thing I'm looking for. I'm not paying for looks - now I want at least nose touching ball.
So we did that for about 10 times of him nosing the ball before I held out. He pushed the ball harder. See, when you hold out and what worked stopped working - the dog will likely do what he just did harder, as if you (or the ball) didn't realize that his nose touched it.
But I don't want nose touches anymore. Since staring worked before - he did that. I don't want that either. Since he knows how to paw things, that's what I want - but I didn't tell him. He nose pushed it again - nope. At least, almost in frustrating, he flopped a paw on it. C/T. Now his eyes got big - he found out what would keep the food coming. Paw. C/T. Paw. C/T. Paw AND a nose-touch (wasn't expecting that!) Click and a bit of a jackpot (i.e. more than one treat on that click - kinda a bonus for doing something especially well, finishing the session, etc).
So 10 more times of pawing - and then I held out. He started harassing the poor ball, pawing at it like he was a cat. Once, he got his paw on it and pulled it towards him. C/T. By this time, he's excited - so he bit the ball. C/T. He picked it up. C/T. Did it again. C/T. Did it again. Silence. He did it again. Nope. This time he did it and did the canine version of slamming it on the ground. C/T. He did it again, and this time click, a jackpot, and called it a session.
That was one session. The next one was the same idea - except I was the object. I knelt in front of him and waited for him to do something (other than stare, sit, or lie down). Sometimes when he does it with me as the object - I have to help him a little. If I'm never going to pay for lying down, if he does it - I'll lightly slide my hand under him and he'll stand up. Then I'll cllick. That helps him to understand I want him to stand.
Well, that worked. He pawed my knee. C/T. Did it a few more times with a c/t after each before holding out. He tried the other paw. C/T. Now when I held out, he's switching paws and it looks funny.
While he was doing that, he had both paws on one knee at one point, and that got him a c/t. He didn't do that again, though, but what he did do was start scratching on my knee (do I have a cat or a dog??). That got a c/t. Eventually he'd start doing it pretty hard when I held out. But that stopped working and he started barking. C/T. Another bark. C/T. Now I want a certain kind of bark. I held out and he made all kinds of sounds. When made it sort of moaning whimper (only way I can describe it), he got a c/t. Played the "Bark a different way each time" game for a few more minutes before the session was over.
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