[Adara]

My friend is getting another training license and used Flirt for a video. She was going to teach her bow but in the 2 minutes I went to get water and come back she'd already started offerig it so she worked on a head turn. Once home I decided to finish shaping the bow. Here are some of our steps.

My first session (the new show Whitney is in the background)
bow - YouTube


My second
bow2 - YouTube

Now...who has a creative name? Bow sounds so much like down? And this is WHY I love shaping .The dog gets the behavior so quickly. You can see in video one at first she tries turning to the right. I should have marked that since it's harder for me to get. So far, she's had maybe 7 minutes max on this. I'd say closer to 5. I bet within 10-11 minutes of training, she'll know Bow. This one is easier. than other commands. You click when they offer the down BEFORE the butt hits the ground. Other behaviors may take a bit longer.

 

[Doug & Lucy AKA Hoopdie]

NICE WORK! That's very cool!

I have no idea though for an alternate command, that's a tough one.

 

[newtodobes]

I love shaping too! Neo is very clicker savvy. I taught him this trick too and I call it 'stretch'. I also taught him to lift up 1 rear leg (like he's peeing, ha!) and I named it 'think'. So now I can say 'what do you THINK of the Vikings?' and he lifts his rear leg, hahaha my husband loves it, jk. He's a Viking fan and I'm a packer fan, it's great this trick is also really good for their groin muscles for agility dogs.

 

[Reds]

How about royal? It's what you do when meeting royalty. Or grace, like your grace? Maybe worthy....so when you say were not worthy, they bow?

 

[GingerGunlock]

You could say something like "tada!"

I use "bow" with Elka and she seems to get it, but I do agree that it sounds way close to "down" and there could be confusion.

 

[Jonesy'sMom]

Maybe a preface like "Take a bow"? or you could use "Curtsy"

 

[Audrey1]

WOW, Impressive! It's like a kowtow (in Chinese the real pronunciation is ketou - pronounced ke-toe).
How does one do shaping?

 

[Beaumont67]

Maybe a preface like "Take a bow"? or you could use "Curtsy"

(+^^^^^)...Reading this thread, "curtsy" was what I also thought of.

- has 2 syllables and ends in a sharp "e" sound / clear & short, command name

 

[MeadowCat]

Someone I know trained a bow and would ask her dog, "Who's your queen, baby?" and the dog would bow. I thought it was super cute. The cue ended up being "queen, baby."

 

[Adara]

WOW, Impressive! It's like a kowtow (in Chinese the real pronunciation is ketou - pronounced ke-toe).
How does one do shaping?

With shaping you have a final behavior you want (the bow) and you mark (click and reward) for closer and closer approximations. Bow was easier because when Flirt sees a clicker she starts doing ANYTHING, paw to walll, paw to ground, nose to wall, spin, sit, then she did a down and the instrutor clicked before her butt went down. THEN the lights went on and she kept throwing things out, slamming her feet, putting her nose down, finally she again startet to lie down and she clicked before her butt went down. From there I did the 2 videos.

If you want to teach a dog get on a mat. I woud get clicker and treats and put mat out. I'd stand relatively close, say 1-2 ft. Dog looks at mat, click treat. I'd do this 2-3 times. Then I'd wait to see if they took 1 step towards it. click treat. Again do this a few times. Wait for 2 steps. Wait until 1 foot is on. then 2 feet, the 3 feet, then 4 feet.

I'm hoping she'll share the video of the head turn and it will be a great video example of how it's down.

 

[mangujowa]

Seeing Flirt's really quick progress within the video was really cool! My hw for this week is actually to teach a new behavior via shaping

 

[GingerGunlock]

If you want to teach a dog get on a mat. I woud get clicker and treats and put mat out. I'd stand relatively close, say 1-2 ft. Dog looks at mat, click treat. I'd do this 2-3 times. Then I'd wait to see if they took 1 step towards it. click treat. Again do this a few times. Wait for 2 steps. Wait until 1 foot is on. then 2 feet, the 3 feet, then 4 feet.

I'm hoping she'll share the video of the head turn and it will be a great video example of how it's down.

/snip

I just blogged about shaping "go to your bed" last week!

It's a lot of fun, and a great way to teach cues.

 

[MeadowCat]

/snip

I just blogged about shaping "go to your bed" last week!

It's a lot of fun, and a great way to teach cues.

I LOVED the book, "The Thinking Dog: Crossover to Clicker Training!" My CU trainer suggested it when we first started using CU, as we had never clicker trained. Shanoa is still not very good at shaping, though. We work on it, and she does okay, but I really wish I had done shaping with her from the beginning.

 

[Adara]

I LOVED the book, "The Thinking Dog: Crossover to Clicker Training!" My CU trainer suggested it when we first started using CU, as we had never clicker trained. Shanoa is still not very good at shaping, though. We work on it, and she does okay, but I really wish I had done shaping with her from the beginning.

My trainer friend absolutely recommends this book. She suggstd it again when we met up Friday!

 

[MeadowCat]

It's one of the best books I've read. It's especially great for people who haven't used clicker training before and have previously used other methods with their dog. With Shanoa, we had trained with a lot of lure/reward and some corrections before we started CU and that book really helped me get a grasp on changing methods.

 

[Jenny]

Vader bows and puts his nose between his paws (staright down, not BC style) We started this to get him to lower his center of gravity on the teeter. He now does it on the table too. He gets a table - down, and drops and puts his nose down. We didn't want him looking at me so that's how his nose started. It was a click when the head when down - now he pushes his nose onto the table or teeter or ground waiting for the click We named the bow - bow, I know super creative on my part. It's quick - teeter - bow, ok(release). Hope that makes sense. Everyone that's seen it thinks it is the cutest behavior. Hoping to fade the bow with the teeter and the down with the table.

 

[GingerGunlock]

yes, The Thinking Dog is definitely one of the best dog training books I've read, hands down. The clicker and shaping stuff is all beautifully explained, the pictures are good, and there are plenty of anecdotes (I loves the stories!)