Capturing

Last week, we talked about luring to train your dog. This week, we’re going to look at capturing.

What is Capturing?

Capturing is teaching your dog to perform a natural behavior on cue.

You catch your dog performing the desired behavior without any prompting or guidance from you, and mark and reward him immediately afterwards.

Capturing is one of the most efficient ways to teach a dog to perform a behavior on cue. Plus, it’s easy and straightforward for us humans to master!

When Should You Use Capturing?

Capturing works best for behaviors a dog performs naturally.

For example, you want to teach your dog to settle on command. Dogs will settle naturally after exercise and play, so this is a great opportunity to add the command.

Similarly, dogs sit naturally, so you can observe your dog, catch him sitting on his own, and capture the behavior.

Pros and Cons

The major pro for this technique is that it’s easy to apply and help your dog learn very quickly.

The con is that you need the time to observe your dog performing the behavior, which means it isn’t practical in every situation.

While luring tends to be our first go-to in training dogs, learning how to capture desired behaviors can really advanced your communication with your dog.

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