Modeling to Get Behaviors

Modeling (or molding) involves physical manipulation of the dog into a position or place. It can be effective for simple behaviors with some dogs.  It is especially useful to gently teach the dog to accept touch on all parts of their body.

One drawback is that many dogs seem to resent being physically manipulated into position or are uncomfortable with being touched or held in certain ways. There is also a natural occurrence of resistance against pressure (called thigmotaxis) that happens with all mammals. Other dogs never seem to get the concept of doing a behavior independently, having learned to simply let you "do stuff" to them. If the behavior you want involves something the dog is unsure of, modeling may increase their anxiety since it has a component of compulsion (force).

You start by gently guiding the dog into position and as they accept the position click/treat. Then gradually decrease the pressure required to a very light touch. Over time you will fade the touch to a hand signal which you will have incorporated consistently before the touch, so that the dog recognizes that it comes before and sees that as a cue to do the behavior.

I don't find modeling to be very useful for teaching tricks (though you could use an element of modeling to fine tune a portion of a trick), therefore, I've never developed a list of trick possibilities for modeling.

For an example of modeling, lets say you want to teach your dog to let you handle her feet (in preparation for doing her nails).  The process is simple and progresses carefully with a click/treat for several repetitions of each of the following increments:

          ·  reach hand toward foot
          ·  touch toe gently with finger tip
          ·  touch toe with slight hold of touch
          ·  touch toe with more pressure
          ·  touch side of toe
          ·  touch back of foot
          ·  touch back of foot with gentle pressure
          ·  lift foot ever so gently so its "light" on the ground
          ·  lift foot more
          ·  lift foot and pause before clicking
          ·  lift foot and add duration to the hold
          ·  lift/hold foot and gently touch a toe with the other hand
          ·  lift/hold foot and gently manipulate a toe with the other hand
          ·  lift/hold foot and manipulate toe as if to clip the nail

You would need to repeat this process in its entirety, while holding the clippers in the other hand.  You will need to insert these steps after "lift foot and add duration to the hold".

          ·  reach toward foot with hand holding the clippers
          ·  reach toward foot and touch clippers to nail
          ·  tap clippers on the nail
          ·  hold foot and gently manipulate a toe while touching nail with clippers
          ·  hold foot and mock clipping the nail

 

Gimme here:  Even though I had my nails done often when I was a tiny puppy, when I first got my person, I didn't think she should do them.  I didn't know if she knew what she was doing and that worried me.  She waited until she had time for us to go through this whole process.  When I was sure she was well trained in trimming nails, then I didn't have to worry anymore.  Besides there were at least a hundred yummy treats to eat while she was learning, so that made it like a special spa treatment.  What more could a pretty spottie girl deserve...

 

Its important to build in a bit of delay between the mock clipping of the nail and the clicking.  Remember, click ends the behavior, so you don't want your dog to think the behavior is over and jerk his foot away, getting ouched in the process.  Usually by the time I get to this point, I can no longer hold the clicker and the clippers and go through the motions.  So I set the clicker down on a stable surface.  Then after I do the behavior and while still holding the foot, I use a finger to click the clicker.  This pretty clearly reinforces for the dog the idea of letting me continue to hold the paw after the manipulation/clipping.