R+ training methods: Capturing

Capturing is one of many ways to teach your dog the behaviors or skills they need to thrive in your home.

The very nature of capturing is giving clear feedback to your dog for the behaviors they’re offering. More importantly, they’re behaviors that you want to reinforce.

The keyword is “offer” or “offering” because you don’t cue the dog to do the behaviors. You’ll find yourself waiting for your dog to offer it and then capture it with a marker and reinforcement.

In capturing, you mark the behavior the second you see it with your reward marker—a click, a word, etc. Then you give your dog a reward to reinforce it. This can be food, a toy, or anything your dog finds reinforcing.

This gets their brain 🧠 thinking, “If I offer the same behavior, Mom gives me the treat.”

With 10-year old Sappho, I choose and capture very subtle and easy behaviors, like a shift in position or paw raise. My only goal is more to encourage her to confidently offer behaviors for reinforcement.

Use the same method when teaching your puppy, young dog, or senior dog a behavior you’d like them to do more of, and see if they start offering it on their own.

Feel free to post your questions in the comments or send a message to @diwadogstraining on Instagram. Heck, tag us in your training videos so we can see! 🐾