Ari and Chris reconvene in their office to discuss Don't Shoot the Dog's Ten Laws of Shaping! Having not read the book in years, we were interested to look at Karen Pryor's ten suggestions for successful shaping through the filter of our current training practices and understanding of the science of behavior change. Because we can talk forever about this stuff we only get through the first 3, so this is the first episode in a new TEC Talk mini-series - how fun is that?

(Also, we're making it clear right now that we own "DRSA" as a training term since we coined it in this episode. You can't have it. So there.)

This time we share our thoughts on the following:

1. Raise criteria in increments small enough so that the subject always has a realistic chance for reinforcement.
2. Train one thing at a time; don't try to shape for two criteria simultaneously.
3. Always put the current level of response onto a variable schedule of reinforcement before adding or raisining criteria. 

Have thoughts to share about the Ten Laws of Shaping, or anything else you'd like to share? Please do so by emailing us at [email protected]!