Behavior multiplies. Let me explain what this means. When you have a well-designed shaping program that is appropriate for your learner, behavior change can happen exponentially. Imagine you are teaching your horse (or dog or other critter) to walk next to you without a leash or lead rope. On the first day, you may start […]
This spring, as I teach my online shaping skills class, I’ve been thinking a lot about the decisions we make during shaping. I find that many trainers don’t know quite what to do when their animal is almost, but not quite, performing a desired behavior. For example, imagine you’re working with your animal on backing […]
Have you heard the big news? Alexandra Kurland, Dominique Day and I have just released our first audio course about behavior analysis and animal training. You can find out more here. As part of our course launch, I am part of the conversation on this week’s episode of the Equiosity podcast. In the podcast episode, […]
At the end of September, Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz and I gave a two-day PORTL shaping workshop in San Diego. We had an awesome group of participants, and it was a really great weekend. Emily Larlham, who hosted the workshop, posted a video with some highlights from the event. (In the photo to the right, Emily’s […]
Recently, my friend Cindy sent me a great video from agility dog trainer Susan Garrett. The video shows Susan shaping two of her dogs to jump on a cooler. Both dogs are eight-year-old border collies owned by Susan. Both dogs are pretty smart pups with an extensive history of training. However, the second dog learns […]
“The continuousness of behavior means that the organism can be thought of as always doing something.” In September, I shared this quote on my blog and discussed how it relates to “problem” behaviors. You can find that post here. However, this quote also relates to shaping. If you spend some time on YouTube, you can […]
