Sky Learns "Shake"

Today I was working with Sky on a new behaviour - her first trick! "Shake"

There's a few things to consider when teaching a new behaviour to your dog. It is best of to have an idea as to what behaviour you want, but also the what behaviour should be like. Some people may be more extreme and compile a written plan, a sequence, as to how the behaviour should be acquired. Others may take a mental note as to how a behaviour should progress, whereas set off with no clue how to proceed in teaching a specific behaviour.

Different clicker methods: 
There are a variety of ways to acquire behaviours using rewards and a clicker or other form of marker.

- Luring: using a food or toy reward (whatever is a motivator) to show the dog what you want. This may include using a tid bit on the dogs nose and lifting it upward for it's butt to lower onto the ground for a sit. Luring is also commonly used to teach other basic obedience behaviours and tricks such as spin, down, and the recall. Luring is commonly used in conjunction with a marker or can be used without the use of a marker - known as lure-reward method.

- Capturing: involves marking (often clicking) and rewarding for behaviour the dog offers. A good way to remember this type of acquiring behaviour is to think of photographs - they often capture a perfect moment. Capturing is most common for behaviours that are impossible or hard to lure, such as a dog sneezing, chasing it's tail, barking, silence, a dog being on the ground after jumping,

- Shaping: includes molding behaviour or systematically adding criteria or breaking a behaviour into simple steps when teaching it. It is often used for complex behaviours or to refine a behaviour. Shaping may be used to add duration to a stay or settle, to refine a spin, to acquire more exaggerated behaviour, or to

Any of these principles can be, and often are, used in combination with each other. I generally do not capture and shape behaviour which can aided through luring, because I personally like making learning as simple as possible for the dog with as much information as thinkable available during the process. Some people will chose to capture and shape even the most simple of behaviours. I totally agree with capturing as much natural behaviour as possible when teaching a dog good manners and to settle down, especially in an environment which may be highly over-stimulating for a dog.


For the "shake" behaviour I primarily used some for of luring, capturing, and shaping.

Phase 1: I started off by placing a food reward in my hand in a fist. I then presented the fist to Sky, at which point she was interested in my hand. She first began by nose targeting it, as she has learned to "touch" in previous lessons. Clicker trained dogs often like to think and offer previously learned and rewarded behaviour before trying something else. Soon after she began pawing at my fist at which point I was clicking and treating every time she placed her paw on my hand.

Phase 2: After many repetitions I offered a flat hand without a treat to Sky. She first just looked at my hand without a clue as to what to do, but quickly tried pawing at the treat-less hand after no feedback occurred. I made sure to keep my hand with clicker and food far away from Sky to avoid any confusion during this part of the training. Some dogs may require more or less work on phase 1 in order to get to this stage where the dog will offer the behaviour. This may include anything between 20-50 repetitions depending on the dog's experience level, timing and rewarding of the behaviour by the trainer.

Phase 3: Add the cue. In order to make sure the training was as clear as possible during this stage I made sure to add the cue exactly as I presented my hand to Sky. At this stage she had already been eagerly targeting my hand with her paw each time I presented it without a cue in phase 2. The sequence went  1. present hand and say "shake" 2. click and treat the instant the dog paws my hand. This way of teaching a cue helps form a solid association between word and behaviour.

It is sometimes helpful to take the item with which the dog should interact with away when teaching a behaviour. It is highly important when introducing the cue to be patient and only say the word once, otherwise the dog will learn that the cue is not "shake", but "shake, shake, shake". The dog does not speak human language and will not learn any more by repeating a word. In this phase shaping can become a good friend of yours.

If the dog has a good foundation, then selectively clicking and rewarding for immediate behaviour rather than delayed responses can be highly effective in getting quick responses to the associated cue. This is one way of shaping behaviour to good efficiency. You can also use shaping to get a more gentle paw rather than a dog who is scratching your hand off - simply click and treat for light touches and remove the clicker and reward for a few seconds if the dog is a bit powerful in it's interactions. This way the dog clearly learns what works and is rewarded, and what behaviour is not allowed.

Phase 4: switching to a verbal marker and random reinforcement is a great way to proof and strengthen a behaviour. Some people opt to use a verbal marker with consistent reinforcement instead of a clicker when marking a dog for newly taught behaviour. Others may not use any marker once the behaviour is well on cue. I personally prefer to use a clicker with continuous reward in the early learning stages and a verbal marker with random reinforcement once the dog is reliably performing on cue. Why you may ask? Well my dogs, and those of my clients, know that a verbal marker is a great way to continue relaying information to the dog. I am all about giving the dog as much direction as possible and making learning clear and concise. Adding a verbal marker in conjunction to a random schedule of reinforcement does exactly that - tell the dog that they have done right, but that we may want to do a few more behaviours before a reward is earned. I often see that dogs shut down when the clicker is removed from training or that extinction occurs, which is avoided when a verbal marker is used.

In case you were wondering, a random schedule of reinforcement means you do not reward the dog for every behaviour, rather for every few behaviours. It may be the first "shake", then after doing three "shakes" and then maybe after, five, then again after three, and so on ... It's kind of like the slot machine phenomenon found in compulsive gamblers - people seem to keep shoving their money into a machine which only randomly dispenses money back - sometimes more and sometimes less. When training food, toys, and other rewards which motivate your dog are your currency. It is smart to use a variety of rewards when working with your dog to keep training fun and interesting - sometimes the dog gets a piece of kibble and sometimes it hits the jackpot with some chicken or a few helpings of dried liver.

I was able to video tape my session with Sky today during her second time practicing the "shake" behaviour. I have gone through the full sequence of teaching the behaviour not only to demonstrate how to acquire this behaviour, but also because this was only her second time working on "shake" and it had previously not been through phases 2-4, rather I spent the evening before just clicking and treating her in the kitchen for about five minutes every time she pawed at my fist with a treat inside.

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