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Capturing Behaviors
I’m a huge fan of capturing natural occurrences of a behavior, either the whole thing or an important building-block for a bigger skill that I can then shape. I’ve taught some unusual tricks with my dogs in the past that began by capturing. One example was my min pin, Hahnia, who pressed her two front paws together in a prayer-like pose. Another was my papillon, La Miette, standing on her hind feet and swatting her butterfly ears with her front paws (like those satellite dishes needed to be pointed out!). And yet another was my min pin, Goliath, making silent air-snaps with his mouth. In his case, my original aim was to teach him to speak on cue but, when I saw the silent snap instead, I veered off course and focused on that instead.
On a more basic level, there’s much good we can capture in our regular routines. When I have puppies staying with me for training, one of my faves to capture is settling on their dog bed.
What are some skills that you’ve captured with your own dogs? Was it the full behavior or just an important piece that you then continued to work on?
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9 Replies
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This is HANDS DOWN the best cue I ever saw a dog do!! I honestly never captured anything but auto sits, focus, and settles. How long do you think it took you to capture something like this? What steps did you take? I am so curious…
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@pawsup , this was years ago, but I’m pretty sure my original goal was to teach La Miette how to ‘dance’ on her hind legs. But as soon as I saw the first paw-swipe on her ear, I took that detour. Then it was just a matter of shaping for more swipes. Because La Miette was very clicker-savvy, I’m sure it didn’t take very long at all.
Once a dog knows how to stand on their hind legs, one might speed the process of getting the first few paw-swipes by placing something innocuous on the ear, like a tiny piece of masking tape.
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And, BTW, I love the sensible skills you’ve captured. It’s a powerful tool in our trainer’s belt. ☺
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Awe! Your Papillion is darling, what did you end up calling the trick?
Yes, on capturing! I have tried to get owners to pay attention to dogs who really struggle with luring Downs to wait until the dog is naturally doing the Down (yeah, cuz they all do!) and that usually works! Especially with Dachshunds and I had a long-legged Pug mix who simply couldn’t accept a lured Down. That capture worked great!
I like to tell clients to capture whatever they want to see more of! Like all 4 on the floor (for jumpers), polite Sits (for bossy dogs), and basically “everything good “…
I capture all I can while I’m there in the lesson and usually people are stunned by “how good their dog is, while I’m there.” Ha. It’s like a camera, snap it all…they really DO offer more of whatever you mark and reward.
Amazingly, I did a course on clicker training cats and they use capturing a lot for kitties, too! I guess they don’t lure as easily as dogs, although I’ve had some luck with a few kitties I pet sit. ☺️
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@bernerlabreclectus , you are so right about capturing downs for those hard-to-lure dogs!
Please share some of the cute tricks you captured with cats. ????
La Miette’s trick was called “show off your ears.”
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That’s a great name for her trick! Thanks for sharing the video, I have never seen Show Off Your Ears before her!
With cats, I wouldn’t call the stuff I’ve trained tricks. However, this cat, Griz, is a young 2 year old and he and his brother LOVE their dry kibble (never seen a cat love their dry food this much ). So, I started creating interest by saving a portion of their rations to hide kibble around their house. Then, they kept seeing me hide it and finally, Griz would do just about anything for it.
I was going for luring with him, because he is very malleable and friendly and had good bite inhibition. We were trying Kitty Sits and Downs(cats lie down quite differently, paws underneath).
What I just went back and reviewed was that I could have clicked with him perhaps as he’s trying to offer a stand up and swat or give paw behavior while he’s attempting to figure out what I want.
What do you think?
Also, capturing using the scratching post is a great tool in young cats, who aren’t certain where to use their claws!
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What a cute cat!
My sister used to clicker train her cats, and I remember she taught a sit, high-five, and sit pretty (looks like Griz could easily do all of those).Nose targeting is popular for cat training, i.e., touching nose to a target stick. And tapping on various surfaces as a cue to jump onto that surface.
Years ago, I had two extremely food-motivated cats and they were lots of fun to train. They also hung out whenever I was training my dogs in case a stray treat could be pounced on.
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That’s so cool about training those behaviors in cats. Yes, I’ve heard of target training cats with a stick or chopstick. I didn’t have those and tried the two fingers extended (like CATCH teaches) and have a darling video of Griz nose-bumping my two fingers. His brother, Rizzo, did it once, but was camera shy and decided to not do it again on camera. He’s a little more reserved than Griz, but still very friendly. Likes to keep a 5’ radius distance from action, but still keep an eye on what’s happening from the outskirts…
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