A training technique in which a naturally occurring behaviour is reinforced when it spontaneously happens, with the goal of bringing the behaviour under cue control.

Capturing is used to train sneezing in dogs, yawning in cats, particular postures or movements in horses, vocalisations in parrots, and a wide variety of behaviours across species where the trainer cannot easily prompt the desired behaviour but the animal will offer it spontaneously. The trainer waits for the behaviour, marks and reinforces it when it occurs, and over time the behaviour comes under cue control.

The technique requires patience and good timing. The trainer cannot prompt the behaviour and must be ready to reinforce when it spontaneously occurs. This often means many sessions of observation with occasional reinforcement, rather than the more concentrated reinforcement opportunities of shaping or other techniques. The use of a bridging signal (such as a clicker) is particularly important for capturing because it allows precise marking of the behaviour at the moment it occurs, even if primary reinforcement arrives a moment later.

Capturing is often combined with other techniques. Once a captured behaviour has been reinforced enough times to occur more frequently, it can be brought under cue control through normal stimulus discrimination training, and can be shaped to higher criteria from the captured starting point.

The technique has its appeal precisely because it works with behaviours the animal already offers, rather than trying to construct new behaviours from scratch. This makes it particularly suitable for behaviours that are difficult or impossible to prompt directly (vocalisations, autonomic behaviours like sneezing, complex postural patterns).

Capturing is widely used in modern positive reinforcement training across species and is one of the more elegant techniques in the trainer’s toolkit because it does not require any pressure on the animal or any attempts to physically position them. The animal offers the behaviour; the trainer rewards it; over time, the trained outcome emerges.