Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Lure-Reward vs Shaping

I've been busy lately! In September I was accepted to the Karen Pryor Academy and I have been working very diligently on the program... I was going to work with Duke through the program, but I've decided to work with Petey instead, so that when we're finished, he'll have skills that will give him the biggest leg up he'll have in life.

Karen Pryor wrote the seminal "Don't Shoot the Dog!" back in the mid 80s and is basically the trainer who brought clicker training from the dolphin world to the dog world.

Prior to beginning the program I was strictly a lure-reward style positive reinforcement trainer. Karen Pryor's curriculum is all about Free Shaping or Capturing, which I've learned is very different than lure-reward, even though the tools are the same (reinforcers, event marker aka clicker, positive reinforcement etc.)

I'll blog more about my experience with Shaping and Capturing vs Lure-Reward, but for now... two videos of Petey!

Petey at class at Who's Walking Who - restrained recalls, musical mats, and leave it (food on the floor) game.



Free Shaping "Go to Bed"