The seismic responses of the shale properties are critical for shale gas reservoir evaluation and production. It has been widely reported that the clay minerals have substantial influences on the seismic wave anisotropy and brittleness. Hence, knowing the seismic responses of the clay-rich shales and estimation of shale elastic properties are significant for the shale gas industry. A physical model containing two groups of shale blocks as the target formations is constructed in laboratory. The group S contains six shale blocks with different clay contents, and the group N contains six shale blocks with different porosity. The acquired 2D seismic data is used to analyze the seismic responses of two corresponding seismic lines. An anisotropic three-term inversion method is applied to one of the seismic inline to estimate the elastic properties the target shale blocks. The inversed attributes can be used to reveal the effects of shale clay contents. This study shows the substantial significance of using a physical model to observe the seismic responses of shale properties. The inversion results indicate that the anisotropic three-term inversion method could provide accurate results of elastic properties as well as the P- wave anisotropy parameter for shale formations.