These dogs...

[Juke99]

are all trained with a method called "free shaping" and with the use of a clicker to mark desired behaviors.

[justbob]

Pretty neat there Juke --can they cook and clean

[Bob Sacamano]

That's pretty ****ing cool.

[Juke99]

It's beyond cool to train the dog this way.

Essentially, when we train a dog, we have in mind what we want it to do, and we reinforce behavior to get the dog to comply.

In this case, with the use of a clicker (which is nothing more than a very precise behavior marker) we let the dog sorta roam around and when we see something that we like, we "click" it.

So, if you have a yard with a few toys, a box, a bucket, etc...you let the dog roam about. If he looks at the bucket, you click. He'll learn "ah, there's something special about that bucket"

Sooner or later, he'll begin to move toward the bucket, click.

Sniff the bucket. Click.

Put a paw on the bucket, Click.

Before ya know it, you've got your dog sitting on the bucket.

Then, you use a word to associate, click...then you drop the clicker out all together and just use the word.

These folks did a ton of free shaping...added voice, or even better, hand signal commands...

The nice thing about free shape clicker training is, the dog is never wrong. So it's also a great way to build confidence with a timid pooch.