Poor Chewie has been feeling under the weather!
Chewie has had a snotty nose and an upper-respiratory infection, and she felt pretty yucky for several days. However, the good news is that she is on antibiotics and is starting to feel a lot better.
I’ve been reflecting on the importance of ready responses and interconnected chains of behavior. I do all of my training with positive reinforcement, and Chewie is usually an enthusiastic participant.
A day or so before Chewie started showing obvious signs of being sick, I actually knew that something was off. I could tell that she wasn’t feeling well because she hesitated to approach her platform several times and even walked off at one point during a training session.
Now that Chewie is feeling somewhat better, she is starting to want to do some training again.
Over the past couple of days, I’ve offered Chewie the opportunity to do a little training, but only if she wants. Since she is still recovering, my goal is not to teach new behaviors, but to provide a bit of interaction and enrichment if she wants to engage with me.
What has really helped is that all of our reinforcement systems have built in ready responses. After Chewie finishes consuming her reinforcer, she has specific behaviors that she performs to tell me when she’s ready to keep going.
For example, I often provide reinforcement by feeding Chewie a handful of pellets in a bucket on the ground. Then, she comes and stands on a platform to tell me when she is ready to begin again.
(You can read more about ready responses in Chewie’s Diary #41.)
During our recent sessions, I’ve paid special attention to Chewie’s ready responses. These behaviors have been one way that I have been able to assess how she’s feeling and whether she is still interested in participating in training.
What about you? Does your animal have clear ways to say, “Yes, let’s keep going!” during your training sessions?
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