Free shaping sessions give us a window into the thought process of learners. We can see how learners make choices toward solutions, and we can see when they have run out of ideas.
Shaping and Targeting
The Sea Food Circus: Training Fish
By Karen Pryor on 11/01/2007Are fish trainable? And if they are, why bother?
Lessons from Llamas
By Karen Pryor on 09/01/2007Newcomers to operant training may place superstitious value on the specific tools they see others using, not realizing that it's the process, not the equipment, that counts.
Chasing Squirrels
By Karen Pryor on 07/17/2007In April of this year there was a discussion on the ClickerExpo Yahoo Group e-mail list about squirrel chasing. It became a hot topic, generating many opinions and replies. I responded to the ruckus with this post.
The Shape of Shaping: Some Historical Notes
By Karen Pryor on 04/10/2007Shaping is a concept that many pet owners find hard to grasp. We're used to making animals do things by leading them or pushing them into the behavior we want—and it is hard to believe that there is another way. Common sense tells us that there is no possible way to get an animal to do something it has never done before, doing nothing yourself but reinforcing spontaneous movements.
