My Sidekick and Me: Strategies

By Lisa Desatnik, CPDT-KA, FFCP, FDM, CPBC–Pet Behavior Columnist

Dog training (and training birds or other animals) with positive reinforcement often involves either luring, shaping, or capturing to teach new behaviors. For today, let’s talk about capturing behaviors. 

What is capturing as an animal training strategy?

Simply described, capturing teaches your dog or bird or other animal a new behavior by your catching your pet doing a behavior and then adding value to that behavior by following it with something that your pet really values, a reinforcer. 

Internationally respected Applied Animal Behaviorist Kathy Sdao, M.A., refers to this as SMART training meaning See, Mark, and Reinforce Training. You SEE (or capture) the wanted behavior, then you MARK the behavior (often with either a word like ‘good’ or ‘yes’, or a click), and then you follow the marker with the reinforcing consequence.

Food is often used as training reinforcement but really anything that your dog values (like the opportunity to chase a ball or tug with you) can be used as a reinforcement for behavior.  I often use food in teaching new behaviors because I can get a lot more repetitions in a short period of time, which means a lot more value building experience for the learner. 

This strategy can be a difficult training strategy for a behavior that is naturally infrequent because you have very little opportunity to see it happen, which weakens your pet’s ability to learn an association between the behavior and positive consequence. 

How To Have More Success Using Capturing In Animal Training

Here is something to consider. You may not realize this. Learning happens all the time. For the good and the bad, the environment provides so many contextual cues for our pets (and ourselves) that indicate, NOW is the time to do something to cause a consequence. 

When your dog feels that bladder pressure (and when we do as well), that is a contextual cue for pottying to relieve that bladder pressure. (And as an observant dog parent, your puppy sniffing on the carpet becomes your contextual cue to rush your puppy outside to get practice of pottying in the grass.)

When you pull out the leash, that is often a contextual cue for your dog to jump and bark, to get the opportunity to go on a walk. 

When you have a treat pouch on, and stand facing your dog, that very well can be a contextual cue for your dog to sit in front of you to get a treat. 

In the case of my dog, when I open Dawson’s crate door, that is a contextual cue for him to seek the closest stuffed animal to put in his mouth. 

Changing species, my cooking in my kitchen can be a contextual cue for my African Grey, Barnaby, to call out, Mommy – want cream cheese! Yep, he loves his pinches of cream cheese!

As you can see, there are times in your pet’s day when it is more likely for your pet to do certain behaviors. So, begin by considering those times and being deliberate about watching for the wanted behaviors at those times. Practice SMART training. 

When that behavior has even more value (because of your reinforcing it a lot), THEN you can think about adding a new cue like a verbal cue. 

To do that, just before you know your pet is about to do the behavior, go ahead and insert a word. Then mark and reinforce the behavior…over and over again. 

What behaviors have you taught your pet using capturing?

Lisa Desatnik, CPDT-KA, FFCP, FDM, CPBC, is a certified dog trainer, a certified dog bite prevention educator, a certified Family Dog Mediator, and the first trainer in Hamilton County to earn Fear Free certification. She is also a licensed Family Paws Parent Educator. She is committed to using and teaching the most positive, science-based approaches to changing behavior. For more information, visit www.SoMuchPETential.com.