29/08/2026
🌼TEACHING and BEHAVIOUR SHAPING🌼...
versus command/reward TRAINING
TEACHING is the big job.
SHAPING is one precision tool inside that job.
👉1. TEACHING = setting the stage so learning can happen. You create the right environment so the student/child/dog/pup WANTS to learn.
Teaching is relational. You're responsible for motivation, clarity, and keeping frustration low. A good teacher adjusts to the learner. A good teacher is highly respected.
👉2. BEHAVIOUR SHAPING = building something new without showing the answer
Shaping- You DON'T show the answer. You wait for tiny tries and reward those, step by step.
The learner has to figure it out. That's why it's powerful — the behaviour sticks because they built it themselves. Because they understand it.
Encouragement on the way. Not reward for ex*****on of a random command
So why use shaping?
Because it creates thinkers, not just followers.
If you only lure/prompt (command and treat reward):
- Puppy only sits when command is given and when food is visible. It does not see the bigger picture - that you actually want pup to be calm and sit before opening the door and look at you.
If you shape:
- Puppy learns to experiment: "what can I do to get there... to get the food... to have that hand open the door?" It's problem-solving: "if I try this, does it work?"
And if it works? Then there is no need for a reward like (yes. Good boy. or a food treat). When it works... the door will open. And this IS the reward.
----> So next time I want my human to open the door... I better sit down calmly (instead of hopping around japping like an excited clown).
Summed up:
- Teaching = "I am responsible for creating the conditions where you can succeed"
- Shaping = "I will mark/reward you for getting closer, without doing it for you"
It's actually the difference between a kid/puppy who complies when you're watching, and one who understands and can do it when you're not.
-----
All this goes back to my favourite quote from the book
The Man Who Listenes To Horses - M. Roberts
"It was [my teachers] belief that no teacher could ever teach anyone anything. She felt her task as a teacher was to create an environment in which the student can learn.
Her opinion was that knowledge needs to be pulled into the brain by the student. Not pushed into it by the teacher. Knowledge was not to be forced on a student. The brain has to be receptive, malleable, and most importantly desirous of that knowledge. "
If you want to teach your child a poem - do it with the child. Read it together, maybe sing parts, act parts... whatever works best.
Dont give him the written poem to learn in his room... and then expect it to recite it correctly before it is able to sit down at the table and eat the chocolate cake it desires.
Thats not "want to learn" - thats bribery
![🔆The merle gene🔆What does it do?It changes the black coat pigment (eumelanin) [and variations thereof] to grey in certai...](https://img4.schoolandcollegelistings.com/412/706/1646689134127061.jpg)
