# Teaching Facial Expression



## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

How would guys teach facial expressions - closed eyes, open mouth, head tilt, snarl, ears forward, etc? I suspect you'd have to wait till the dog does those expressions naturally or incite them somehow and then click and reward?


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

I have no idea but you must have seen the video where the dog crosses his eyes on command? I would love to know how he was taught to do that!


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## wenryder (Oct 21, 2010)

I've never seen that video - but I'm sure it would be really funny!!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I think capturing the expression and marking it (clicker,YES etc) would probably be the way to go. After capturing and possibly shaping to exactly what you want, add the cue.


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## RedDogs (Jan 30, 2010)

Capturing: click when it happens and then feed. 

HOWEVER capturing only works well for things in a dog's natural repertoire. If your dog doesn't do some of the tilts and such, then we would have to discuss other ways to get fine movements. 

Due to the difficulty in how FAST some of these face movements happen and how fine of muscle movement.... I would recommend that you capture bigger behaviors (...watch your dog to see what he does.... bow, head turns, paw lifts) before going to the tiny things.... 

A few years ago I did a project working with mice, and then I would go home and be working my horses.. a BIG movement for a mouse was SO different from a tiny movement from a horse. As I got better, I could do smaller mice movements....and also the ability to do MUCH smaller horse movements --greatly-- improved my training. 

Here is someone working on capturing the blink


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## Griffyn'sMom (Mar 22, 2007)

The video was interesting - you could see her catching on - but did you add a hand movement or comand after that? 

I'm a big fan of hand signals. I first taught them to Jake and was so glad I did when he aged and pretty much lost his hearing.


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

I never really trained Vendetta to close her eyes but if I look at her and close my eyes she will close her eyes. My mom had a little dog that she taught to sneeze when my mom would ask her if she had a cold. It was cute.


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## SteveV (Apr 3, 2011)

If you figure out a way to do it, you've got to post a video for us !!


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## Oaklys Dad (Dec 28, 2005)

Clicker training and lots of patience sounds like the way to go to me.


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## jackie_hubert (Jun 2, 2010)

So I worked on blinking for an hor - nothing.

Worked on opening and closing mouth gor another hour - nada. 

Worked on blowing bubbles in his waterdish for 2 minutes - done. I posted a video in the tricks thread.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

jackie_hubert said:


> So I worked on blinking for an hor - nothing.
> 
> Worked on opening and closing mouth gor another hour - nada.
> 
> Worked on blowing bubbles in his waterdish for 2 minutes - done. I posted a video in the tricks thread.


I think the problem with things like blinking and open/closing the mouth is that the dog is going to do that a zillion times throughout the day w/o getting reinforcement, so b/c of all the unreinforced reps, I suspect it will take way more training sessions before the dog figures out that's what you're clicking for.

I'm shaping a snarl with Quiz. I originally prompted it b/c I discovered that when he was all riled up, if I sort of ruffled my fingers on the end of his snout, he'd playfully snarl. Now I can do one or two reps where I initiate it by ruffling his snout, then he starts to offer it so I can work on shaping for a larger presentation. I'm also working on a head shake, originally prompted by blowing in his face, now I just have to pucker my lips to trigger his offering it, then I can shape up from there. Not the cleanest shaping plans, but I've always said I was a lousy free-shaper!

Cognrats on the bubble blowing. A friend of mine taught her Golden to do that. She uses the cue, "What do whales do?" Very cute.


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## Phillyfisher (Jan 9, 2008)

FlyingQuizini said:


> I'm shaping a snarl with Quiz. I originally prompted it b/c I discovered that when he was all riled up, if I sort of ruffled my fingers on the end of his snout, he'd playfully snarl. Now I can do one or two reps where I initiate it by ruffling his snout, then he starts to offer it so I can work on shaping for a larger presentation.


Tucker does the same thing! Thanks for the idea! I am so gonna shape that into a smile....


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