Free Shaping (Teaching Your Dog Tricks)

We've all seen dogs that shake hands, play dead, hold a treat on their nose etc. Teaching a dog tricks should come only after a dog has learned basic obedience commands and is well-adjusted and integrated into its home and community. A dog that can play dead might be cute to watch but if that same dog cannot go for a walk without pulling on the leash it can become not-so-cute real quick. With this understood, I want to emphasize how helpful trick training can be for several reasons. Before I offer "Free-Shaping" as a great tool for learning tricks let me first mention how teaching a dog tricks will improve the dog/owner relationship.

Obedience: An owner that spends a few minutes every so often teaching their dog a new trick will have a dog that listens better and admires its owner and friend...you. Just like a teacher that spends time with you in school won your attention and admiration, so will be the result of you spending teaching time with your dog in trick school. Your dog will be more likely to pay attention to your voice on a walk or when someone comes to the door knocking. Your dogs level of trust and admiration will grow as you spend quality time teaching.

Self Esteem: Dogs grow in self esteem and confidence when they are set up time and time again for success in learning tricks and basic commands. Dogs with high self-esteem are not as hyper or timid, are healthier and are more likely to have a home for life.

Social Grace: Everyone loves a dog that behaves well around people and other dogs. Dogs who know tricks are like well socialized teenagers in a group of mature adults.

How To Use the Art of Free Shaping

Free Shaping is the use of a clicker to mark a normally ocurring behavior in a canine companion. The easiest way to descibe this is with an example. One of my dogs has learned to howl (sing) along with me when I play Happy Birthday on the harmonica. When we finish the song I ask him to take a bow and he does! Both the howling and bowing were normal behaviors I noticed in him. You've surely noticed dogs that stretch by putting their butt up in the air and reaching far out in front of themselves with their front legs while their head goes down to the ground as if "taking a bow". Since I knew there were certain times my dog would do this I decided to mark that behavior with a clicker when saying "take a bow". (Using a clicker is another important technique that is covered in another post. see here). It only took a couple of minutes to have my dog "bowing" after we went into a quiet room together for a Free Shaping session. He instinctively howled with the sound of the harmonica.

Take your dog into a quiet place and observe his/her behavior and select certain behaviors that can be made into tricks and you'll have a blast performing with your canine companion! Be sure to learn proper clicker techniques.