Does your pet struggle with food puzzles? Using the concept of “shaping” can be a super helpful way to improve their skills. . . Try breaking down the behaviors your pet needs to solve a food puzzle. Figure out how you can dispense reinforcement for behaviors that get closer and closer to that behavior, until your pet can perform the behavior to get the reinforcer from the puzzle themselves! . Sophie, while being very smart in her way, has not been able to solve this Mad Scientist cat toy from @trixie.de Trixie. To apply the concept of shaping, which is the process of reinforcing successive approximations to a desired behavior, I am looking for Sophie’s paw movement towards the beakers, where her kibble is. Any time she paws up and near the beaker, I dispense the beaker as if she had hit it all the way around. This paw movement near the beakers is a HUGE improvement to where we started! Sophie is pretty short and isn’t naturally inclined to paw things like this. #trainyourcat #foodpuzzles #treat #treats #catreinforcement #positivereinforcement #forcefree #cattraining #domorewithyourcat #cat #catbehavior #catpuzzle #foodpuzzle #petenrichment #enrichment #catenrichment https://www.instagram.com/p/B6ZW_CwJ4GQ/?igshid=r7xe66rfmvn3