Alexa Capra | Dogs and More - What is to touch a bottle with the muzzle?

Nothing, or rather a lot of things
As you can see in the video is the result of two work sessions in clicker training in two consecutive mornings. Flipper is a puppy very scared and worried about the people and the environment and on the first day that I put the bottle on the ground he was three meters that barked and hid behind the walls of my flower beds. Learning is an a relationship experience.

Working with a clicker in shaping means taking part in an experience that will enhance the skills emotional, mental, social, and, in the case of more complex behaviors, physical of the dog.

emotional skills: the dog learns to deal with and manage emotions such as frustration, stress or worry caused by having to figure out how to reach its goal which is the food, that will be the reinforcement
mental skills: once passed the big rock emotion the dog must engage mentally and reasoning to reach his goal (food)
social skills: I have the food, the dog wants the food, it must relate to me and learn to trust the information that I will give with clicker

We started from very far away and summarize by saying that we went through to reinforce the look at the bottle, close the bottle, move in space of the bottle, stretch to the bottle, until to the point where it touches the bottle with the muzzle.

What the dog learn?

The most important, in my opinion, is that it HAS CONTROL over the entire context.
It is free to leave whenever he wants and when he wants to return, manages time and space; decide whether to work or end the session; decide freely whether to interact with an object that scares him, or not; takes self-awareness and increases your self-esteem, learn to be proactive and to be successful; to trust the information it receives; learns to manage her emotional states and engage mentally; learns to find the solution to his problem with you, and with the consequent strengthening of the relationship.