A Story About Shaping Behaviour + Hold It!

Harlan definitely has no trace of a retrieving instinct at all, and this has been one of the most challenging behaviours to shape with him, but also the most fun! I had purchased a costume for the dogs to wear which came with a magic wand, and I wanted to get some cute photos of the dogs for Halloween so I taught them both “hold it” using different methods.

With Telka I would just offer the wand and she would take it. The holding part needed to be shaped but at least she had sense enough to grab it with her mouth!

Harlan needed a different strategy. I sat on the floor with him with my big bag of treats and the clicker.. Harlan knows this means he has an opportunity to earn a premium wage so he immediately gets in the zone. I place the wand on the floor beside him and let him think….

He looks around the room.. eventually glancing in the direction of the wand *click and treat*.

He wonders what he did to trigger the reward.

He looks back in the direction of the wand. *click and treat*

After a couple more times he realizes the wand and makes the connection.. he walks toward the wand *click and treat*. Bingo.

he leans down to sniff the wand *click and treat*.

He watches me as he nudges the wand with his nose. Is this what you want? No? What if I put my mouth around it? *click and treat*

And quickly Harlan realizes what I am asking. It’s unnatural for him (he isn’t a toy motivated dog and doesn’t have a lot of interest in using his mouth to interact with things other than the voracious consumption of food) and it’s taken a lot of practice to get to the point where he will actually hold the item in his mouth and not just flail it around and launch it across the room. Practice, consistency and timing of our reinforcement is essential.

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