Shaping Success

Free shape—or not? Free shaping is a type of animal training where you teach the behaviors in gradual steps using a marker, like a clicker, and rewards. Shaping can be a great way to teach some difficult behaviors, expand your animal’s capabilities, exercise your animal’s brain, and build your chops as a trainer. There has been a recent trend pushing toward free shaping as …

What is Microshaping, Anyway?

Focus on the student and the process Someone recently asked me how the term “microshaping” developed, and what, exactly, it means. I think I probably originated that term some years ago. At that time, it rather alarmed me that much of the shaping I was witnessing was focused on achieving the end behavior, rather than on the learner or on the …