COVER STORY
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Are 'free-shaped' dogs better problem solvers?
Carmen LeBlanc explores criticisms that lure-reward training may produce a passive dog, and compares this training method to free-shaping – which some believe produces a more creative dog 12
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Shaping is about developing a behavior that is not yet in the animal’s repertoire
BARKS from the Guild/April 2014
ost professional dog trainers have heard about criticisms of lure-reward training in recent years. These criticisms have been made along with enthusiastic claims about the superiority of freeshaped (unprompted, trial-and-error) clicker training. Those of us who use free-shaping understand the enthusiasm. It is challenging and exciting to communicate with dogs in such a free-form way, developing a new behavior one small increment at a time. As technicians of scientific procedures, however, it is important that we take a collective, critical look at what is being said. Are these criticisms and claims supported at all by empirical studies? Do they represent the cutting