I mentioned in my back to school post a couple of weeks ago that I am taking an ethics class this semester. This class is one of the required classes for my behavior analysis master’s program. The class has been pretty interesting so far and each class has been filled with plenty of good discussions and debate.

Recently we read a book chapter by Rushworth Kidder called “The Ethics of Right versus Right.” (If you’re interested, the full chapter is actually available for free from the Institute for Global Ethics, although you do have to sign up to get access to it.)

Tough choices and ethical dilemmas are often very hard to make. What makes these decisions hard, according to Kidder, is that they are often choices of “right” vs. “right.” Both possibilities have value and merit, yet one must be picked over the other. (Now, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t still right vs. wrong choices. These just aren’t ethical decisions.)

The most interesting part of this chapter was that Kidder names four basic paradigms that encompass most of these ethical dilemmas, the right vs. right choices. Ethical choices often involve decisions between:

• Individual versus community
• Truth versus loyalty
• Short term versus long term
• Justice versus mercy

These four basic paradigms can be useful for analyzing ethical choices and realizing what has created the conflict. If you have a better understanding of a choice, then you should be better prepared to solve it.

Ethical questions arise all the time in both animal training and in animal rescue work. I’ve been thinking recently of some of the ethical questions I’ve run into and how they fit into these four paradigms. For instance, many decisions in animal rescue work deal with how to allocate scarce resources. Many of these questions are often questions of “individual versus group” or questions about “short term versus long term.”

For example, should a rescue spend a significant amount of money to save an animal that needs extensive medical care, when the same amount of money could provide vaccinations and basic health care for half a dozen other animals? Or, during training, is it okay to do something that is very unpleasant for the animal for the short term if it will have long term benefits for both the animal and owner? And so on.

Of course, there are no “right” answers to any of these questions. Solutions often depend on the specifics of a certain situation and the personal values of the people involved. Still, I think it’s pretty interesting to think about what underlying decision makes something a hard ethical choice. If someone breaks a well known rule, should you provide the appropriate consequences or show the person a bit of mercy? Have you had to choose between something that would benefit an individual as opposed to something that would be better for a larger community or group?

What do you think about these paradigms? If you find this interesting or would like to see more examples, I encourage you to check out the link to the chapter toward the top of this post. Now, the book does focus entirely on examples that deal with people. I’d love to hear what sorts of ethical and moral decisions have you come across while working with and training animals. For example, I think many people run into ethical decisions regarding how to act and what to say when interacting with people who train in ways that differ from how they train.

Last week was my first week back to school for the spring semester. As some of you know, I’m currently working on a master’s in behavior analysis at the University of North Texas. If you don’t know much about behavior analysis, I’d encourage you to check out the post that I wrote last year about “What is Behavior Analysis?”

School is a lot of fun — I get to spend all week talking about behavior and the principles of good training and teaching. What I learn at school applies directly to what I’m doing with the animals I train and gives me lots of new ideas to think about and try.

This semester I’m taking two classes. One class is called the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB). We’ll read and discuss a lot of research papers that have discovered and explored basic principles of behavior. I’m excited about this class and plan to share some of what we’re learning on my blog. I’m also taking a class called Legal, Ethical, and Professional Issues. This should be pretty interesting as well.

This semester, I’m also a teaching assistant for an undergraduate behavior analysis course called Building Skills with Behavioral Technology. My graduate advisor, Jesus Rosales-Ruiz, teaches the course. This is a very neat course that covers a range of topics related to teaching and training, including shaping, chaining, errorless learning, programmed instruction, stimulus control, program development and more.

The students in the course also have to do a training project with an animal for part of their grade. I’m really looking forward to TAing this course, as it’s both an interesting and fun course. I’m planning to blog about some of the topics we talk about and read about in this course because the course covers many principles that relate to good animal training.

I’ll also be continuing many of the training projects through school that I was working on last semester. I’ll be working at a local nature museum with their Patagonian cavies and a raccoon. I’m also working at our local animal shelter with the dogs and cats at the shelter and will be helping to teach group training classes for people who adopt animals from the shelter.

Also, I’m really looking forward to March! In less than two months we’ll be having the 4th annual Art and Science of Animal Training Conference at UNT. This is one of my favorite parts of the year. If you are anywhere near the Dallas area, I urge you to attend. If you are not familiar with the conference, I have my notes from the first two conferences here.

This should be a very busy semester, but also an exciting semester!

The two lectures she gave in the morning were pretty interesting. In the afternoon, we had a handful of presentations so that some of my fellow graduate students could share their current research projects. This was great fun because it resulted in a lot of good discussion and conversation.

One fun thing about graduate school is that I get to interact with and learn from people who are involved in areas of behavior analysis that are pretty different from what I do. It’s fascinating to get to see different perspectives and approaches to teaching and training. At the end of the day, though, what I’m often left realizing is that good training is good training, no matter what species you work with or what task you are trying to train.

One thing that the speaker mentioned in one of her morning lectures was that when teaching a particular behavior, we should focus on training only one thing at a time. During a training session, only work on improving one aspect or feature of a behavior at a time.

Animal trainers often get in to trouble here! For instance, when teaching an animal to stay, work on increasing the duration of the behavior separately from increasing the distance between you and the animal. Don’t try to train both of these at once! This can be confusing to the animal and can slow down our training. When training, try to do what animal trainers refer to as a splitting, rather than lumping. (What is splitting?)

Taking lots of short breaks during a training session can make it a lot easier to be a good splitter. This is one thing I’ve learned from horse clicker trainer Alexandra Kurland. I often train in short sessions, 10-20 treats. At the beginning of the session, I decide what we’re going to work on during that session. Then, when I run out of treats, I take a short break before the next session. During the break I decide whether to work again on the same thing or whether we’re ready to move on. If the last session didn’t go so well, I might decide to move to something easier or different, so that the animal can be successful and understand what I want.

I think the take home message from all of this is that it helps to have a well thought out plan before you begin each training session. When we are trying to train too much at once, it is often because we haven’t thoroughly assessed where the animal is currently and what exactly, specifically, we want to work on in the current training session.

What is Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT)?

I’ve written a bit in the past about using CAT with fearful horses. Fearful behaviors and aggressive behaviors are often very similar–the animal behaves in some way to increase the distance between his self and the unwanted animal or object. So, an aggressive dog lunges or bites to increase the distance between it and something else, just as a fearful animal runs away to increase the distance between it and something else.

With Constructional Aggression Treatment, we give the animal what he wants (distance from something) whenever the animal displays any signs of friendly, relaxed, or calm behavior. We start small, accepting any small signs of better behavior and later on build up more and more friendly behavior.

Treating Resource Guarding using CAT

So, for Rocky, the trainer and another dog would approach Rocky while he was chewing on a tennis ball. As soon as Rocky showed any signs of more relaxed or friendly behavior, the trainer and other dog would leave, which is exactly what Rocky wanted. Before beginning the training, Rocky could use aggression (snapping, biting, etc.) to get the other dog to go away. Now, only friendly or relaxed behaviors would make the other dog go away.

Not only did Rocky figure out the new conditions, but he started trying to interact with the other dog and actually started to play with the other dog and share his toys!! This is what CAT calls “switch over,” where the animal switches from wanting something to go away to wanting interaction.

With a bit more training, Rocky’s new behavior quickly generalized to other dogs as well. Last I heard, Rocky is living with a new dog, who just joined the household. He will pick up a toy, take it to the new dog and ask him to play. Now that’s successful training, if you ask me! Check out the video below, which shows clips from the training process.

On Youtube: Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) for Resource Guarding

**Side note: Please be extremely careful when working with aggressive or fearful animals! Work at a level where the animal does not feel stressed or frustrated. Also, take precautions to insure that people and animals do not get injured. For instance, with an aggressive dog, keep the dog on a leash. Or, with a very fearful or aggressive horse, start by working with a fence between you and the horse. **

I had a lot of surprised friends several years ago when I did some clicker training and trick training with my goldfish Blaze. Many species are much more capable of learning than we give them credit for. A woman named Barbara Ray recently posted on one of the discussion groups I am on (the Click-L_ABAT list) about her experiences training urchins and sea stars. Using operant conditioning principles, which are the same principles that form the foundation for clicker training, even urchins and sea stars can be trained! I ask her if I could republish her post on my blog and she said that would be okay.

It amazes me, though, that so many people doubt that many species are not capable of learning. How else would the species survive in a changing environment? Barbara does a great job explaining how training principles can be applied to some species that are usually considered unlikely candidates for training.

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Originally posted on click-L_ABAT on June 6, 2001.

I worked with seastars and urchins and various shellfish for many years, conditioning them to come and to station etc. These animals use various sensory organs to detect potential food and potential threats in their already very violent environments to which they are adapted (Reef habitats). So while we talk about them having no brains, theoretically one could say their body IS their brain, as the ganglia are spread out in a ring in the main body and branch out the arms etc.

What became hugely apparent and intriguing, from a behavioral evolution standpoint, is the different “urchinalities” the animals showed to the same sets of stimuli.

When transferred to a different holding tank, for example, there were urchins who became stressed and responded with the typical spines drooped as in detecting a threat (and possibly ‘change in tide” where they had to brace themselves and stop foraging activity if in the wild setting), there were urchins who took advantage of the ‘new’ environment to start exploring and identify potential new food source, and those that remained neutral to the same behavior or position prior to transfer.

When conditioning the animals to come, I used a light as a marker instead of a clicker, as they are very sensitive to light and dark cues and pay little attention to noise. Certain “tactile noise” (vibrational wavelengths) can elicit a defensive response, but I was not looking to scare them, I wanted to engage them. Most urchins and stars learned VERY quickly to come to station for a tidbit of shrimp (one of their favorite foods).

So millions of years of adaptation has afforded these animals to some very clever behavior to meet their needs, even though they lack a formal brain! (Same with plants of course, who also have their own behavioral evolutionary paths determined by the environments to which they must adapt or perish.)

Perhaps just the brain itself is not actually where the answers lie to explain the origin of some behavior or responses. Maybe there is other sensory input which is critically important but we focus so much on the brain, the other gets lost.

How else to explain how the brainless animals then also condition up in what appears to be so similar to animals with brains? Their physiology affords them chemical and photo receptors and tactile, EM receptors etc and some senses we probably have not completely identified but suspect exist.

To teach the ‘come when called’ response, for instance, that was done by shaping and luring. Using a touch on the animal’s spine or tentacle to get it’s ‘attention’ and luring with a piece of food. gradually raising criteria from moving the body to moving distance over time…so the animal eventually had to move from point A to B, such as coming from the bottom of the tank to a station at the side or top, to earn the shrimp reinforcement.

Fading the lure quickly was no problem, as again, these animals are adapted to an environment that very violently shifts from high tide to low twice a day, so their response to come for the reinforcement was quick with the cue, and no reinforcement present. Or I should say, none directly in their tanks! I have no doubt they can detect the food bits in the room from the ambient molecules that then enter the water through surface contact, drift and wave movement.

They had good ‘memory’ for the cue even after as long as 12 month ‘break’ without being in the training program.

The saltwater hermit crabs of course, with brains, were much more “fun,” as they could learn mugging behaviors and to demand attention (by tapping on the side of the tank with their foreclaws or one even learned to slug his shell on the tank wall as the sound was louder and more likely to get the human’s attention) when they wanted to be worked with/reinforced or saw their keepers and learned that by ‘asking’ for attention they could train the trainers to attend to them!

Its hard to resist a sweet-faced crab banging on the tank and looking at you directly with those big black pleading eyestalks, wondering why you are being so slow forthcoming with his shrimp!

Barbara and The Symphony of Hounds

Since Connor was gone, we deemed it safe to open the gates between the back two pastures. Of course, the additional space, plus mixing the two herds together got everybody excited! They all had a nice time running around kicking up their heels.

This weekend is going to be a BUSY weekend, but it should be a lot of fun. ORCA (our graduate research group for animal training) is putting on our annual training conference. So, I’ll be busy with conference stuff from sunup to sundown all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But, it should be a great time. I always learn a lot and come away with a lot of great ideas. My notes from last year are here, I promise to post notes from this year as well. Our speakers this year are Kay Laurence, Alexandra Kurland, Steve White, Ken Ramirez, Phung Luu, Bob Bailey and Paul Andronis. You can read more about the talks and the conference on ORCA’s website.

I’m also going the following weekend to audit an horse training clinic with Alexandra Kurland in the Houston area. I decided to register toward the last minute and got lucky–I got the last auditor spot. It should be a lot of fun as well. I learned a lot at the clinic I went to with her about a year and a half ago.

But, onto the pictures. The horses all first went running toward the back of the left pasture.

Then they came running back to the front. In this picture, blossom is in front, Daisy and Apollo are together, and Rohan’s in the back.

Sometimes they were all running together, sometimes there was a bit of chase going on. At this point, I think Paden (the black and white paint) was trying to get Takoda (the bay paint) away from the mares.

Chardonnay, our big chestnut paint mare.

Takoda, with almost all four feet off the ground. Paden is in the background. This one is my favorite, I think!

Everyone going through the gate, back into the other pasture.

Daisy, with all four feet off the ground. Apollo is the chestnut paint behind her.

One hundred years ago, it was a radical notion to use scientific principles to study the behavior of people. Even today, many people are unsure if there can be a science of human behavior. Science is usually about observing, predicting and controlling events in the natural world. How can this be useful for human behavior which is infinitely subtle, complex and individual?

Actually, with careful observation and measurement, we can use scientific methods to study why people behave in certain ways. However, not only can we figure out what factors influence behavior, we can use the information to help people live happier, healthier, more productive lives.

The field of applied behavior analysis is just that. Researchers, teachers, parents and others use scientific principles to study how the physical and social environment impacts behavior. Then, they can use this information to help seemingly diverse groups of people—everyone from children with autism to disruptive fourth graders to business executives.

But what does applied behavior analysis really mean?

What does behavioral mean?

We use applied behavior analysis to study observable behavior of people and animals. Behavior analysts are interested in physical behaviors that can be counted in some way–what movements did someone make, where did the person make them, for how long, and so on.

Behavior analysts are also interested in how the environment affects behavior. They will often record what happens immediately before and after a certain behavior. This can include a person’s previous actions, physical events in the environment, or things another person said or did. Interestingly, with careful observations, very clear patterns emerge between a subject’s behavior and other environmental events.

Many people (falsely) think that behavior analysts deny that people have thoughts, feelings, emotions and dreams. This is certainly not the case! However, since another person cannot see them, they are difficult, if not impossible, to study accurately and precisely. When people report on their thoughts and feelings, these self-reports can vary from day to day and are impossible to check for accuracy. Instead, behavior analysts want to see exactly what’s going on and the relationship between people’s behavior and their environment.

In the past, many disciplines have used thoughts and feelings as explanations for behavior. For example, a parent might say that Sally hit Billy because she was angry. And she likely was! However, behavior analysts try to find how other environmental events might explain the cause of behavior and emotions. For example, perhaps Sally hits Billy because every time she does, he’ll give her the toy he is playing with. Studying the environmental consequences related to a behavior gives us much more information about what factors actually influence behavior.

What does analysis mean?

Attempts to teach, change and influence behavior aren’t new. People have been trying to change each other’s behavior for centuries. However, what behavior analysts are interested in is controlled research that demonstrates exactly what causes a new behavior to be learned or an old behavior to be changed.

For example, if we try to teach a classroom of children to recycle by showing them a video about recycling, hanging posters around the classroom, telling them to recycle, and modeling the behavior for them, which of these components (if any) will actually have an impact on their behavior?

Systematic research provides information about what specific components of procedures and teaching methods actually create long-term behavior changes. Careful data collection and observation can also alert researchers to other interesting variables or environmental factors that they might not have realized were significant. Behavior analysts are interested in demonstrating the underlying basis for why certain techniques change behavior so that these techniques can be used effectively in a variety of situations.

What does Applied mean?

What does it mean for a science to be applied? Applied means that behavior analysts are interested in studying socially relevant problems in their natural environment. Laboratory research is important for discovering basic principles in a tightly controlled environment. However, applied research leads to discovering if and how these basic principles can be useful to society. Applied behavior analysts want to help people and communities solve the real world problems that are important to them.

Behavioral principles and research methods have been used in a wide range of applications, including:

Helping parents teach children to act appropriately at restaurants
(Bauman, Reiss, Rogers, & Bailey 1983).

Using internet based programs to help people quit smoking
(Dallery & Glenn 2005).

Teaching adults with mental retardation to exit buildings when they hear a fire alarm
(Bannerman, Sheldon, & Sherman 1991)

Using clicker training to safely teach “problem” horses to load into trailers
(Ferguson & Rosales-Ruiz 2001).

Evaluating the impact of programs to promote seat belt use
(Cope, Moy, & Grossnickle 1988)

Reducing bullying behavior at elementary schools
(Ross & Horner 2009)

And many more applications!

Final Thoughts

Many times society attempts to control and influence behavior through aversive means–punishments, threats, penalties and the like. One of the strengths of applied behavior analysis is that behavior analysts have been able to demonstrate positive methods and solutions to motivate people and animals to learn and encourage people to behave in ways that are beneficial to themselves.

Behavior is incredibly individual and complex. Behavior analysts do not profess to know everything about behavior. Neither are the able to or interested in controlling all aspects of a person’s behavior.

However, the scientific study of behavior can help us discover why people and animals behave in certain ways. Behavior analysts apply what they learn to help people who want to change their own behavior and to help people be much more effective when teaching and working with others.

References

Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 91-97

Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1987). Some still-current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20, 313-327

Bannerman, D. J., Sheldon, J. B., & Sherman, J. A. (1991). Teaching adults with severe and profound retardation to exit their homes upon hearing the fire alarm. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 24, 571-577.

Bauman, K. E., Reiss, M. L., Rogers, R. W., & Bailey, J. S. (1983). Dining out with children: Effectiveness of a parent advice package on pre-meal inappropriate behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 16, 55-68.

Cope, J. G., Moy, S. S., & Grossnickle, W. F. (1988). The behavioral impact of an advertising campaign to promote safety belt use. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 21, 277-280.

Dallery, J. & Glenn, I. M. (2005). Effects of an internet-based voucher reinforcement program for smoking abstinence: A feasibility study. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38, 349-357.

Ferguson, D. L., & Rosales-Ruiz, J. (2001). Loading the problem loader: The effects of target training and shaping on trailer- loading behavior of horses. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34, 409-424.

Ross, S. W. & Horner, R. H. (2009) Bully prevention in positive behavior support. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 747-759.

I’m taking some really neat classes this semester in my Behavior Analysis program at UNT. I am hoping to blog more about my classwork–last semester was filled with neat articles and interesting discussions and I’d like to discuss some of the more interesting ideas I’m learning on the blog.

Which is really a question for you, my wonderful readers. The blog usually focuses on the hands on and applied side of training, would you be interested in reading more articles and posts about the academic side of behavior and training?

I’ll be taking three classes this semester, as well as a 2-hour research practicum with my advisor, Jesús Rosales-Ruiz. I’m taking a course on the history of behavior analysis, a class on techniques of applied behavior analysis, and an elective class on stimulus control. It should be a good semester!

As well, I have a list of seven (so far!) conferences and clinics that are happening this spring that I would like to attend…..

Obviously, seven way too much, I’d exhaust myself and my pocketbook. However, I would like to take advantage of at least a few of them. Conferences and clinics are great fun–I love being able to meet other trainers, exchange ideas, find out different ways of doing things and expand my skill set.

I’m working with ORCA right now to plan our annual training conference in February, which is going to be awesome this year. If you are anywhere near the Dallas area, I highly recommend coming. I’ll post notes of my favorite parts again this year for anyone who can’t make it.

I’ll also be traveling to Chicago over spring break to attend this year’s ClickerExpo, as well as going to a clinic with Alexandra Kurland in Houston in February. There are several other horse and dog trainers who will have clinics nearby this spring. I’d like to try to go to at least one of them. For several of them I would just be auditing, so it would be pretty inexpensive. The bigger problem will be finding the time.

However, I think I should have lots of things to blog about this semester!

The film (which I’ve linked to at the bottom of this post) features video footage from the experiments as well as B.F. Skinner and Robert Epstein, the two scientists in charge of the project, discussing their findings. (I’ve written about Epstein and his work on creativity before, after meeting him the Art and Science of Animal Training conference. Click Here to read my notes from his talk.)

The film covers the following studies by B.F. Skinner and Robert Epstein:

The Jack and Jill Experiment, where two pigeons were taught to “talk” to each other by pressing buttons. A colored light would appear behind a curtain that only pigeon 1 could see. Pigeon 1 would peck a button to tell pigeon 2 the color of the light. The second bird would then select the correct color from a set.

When the Jack and Jill Experiment was repeated with just a single bird, the bird would use the middle buttons to “take notes” to remind himself which light was correct.

The second film clip explains an experiment where pigeons imitated another pigeon, as well as the box and banana problem. The box and banana problem is a famous pyschological experiment that involved monkeys pushing a box across a room and then standing on it to reach bananas. B.F. Skinner and Robert Epstein showed that if a pigeon had the correct component skills, the bird could easily solve this dilemma.

The final experiment shown in the video involves the mirror test, which is used with young children to demonstrate that after a certain age, children have a “self concept.” Epstein and Skinner again showed that pigeons can easily solve complex tests if they have the appropriate component skills.

We often attribute behavior to intelligence, problem solving skills, or reasoning. However, much behavior is a direct result of our interactions with our environment. With the right prerequisite skills or teaching procedure, many simple behaviors can combine or expand, resulting in some highly complex behaviors.

We often use mental processes to explain highly complex behaviors, such as language, imitation, awareness of self, and problem solving. However, this still doesn’t explain what causes the behavior. As Epstein and Skinner demonstrate, by using what we know about reinforcement, shaping and basic behavioral processes, an animal as lowly as a pigeon can perform many of these highly complex skills.

So, without further ado, here are the two video clips from the 1982 film Cognition, Creativity and Behavior: The Columban Simulations. They are each about 14 minutes, if you don’t have time to watch both, I’d recommend watching the second one first. Or, bookmark them on youtube and come back to them later. However, they are definitely well worth watching!

Youtube: Drs. Robert Epstein & BF Skinner with Pigeons-Part 1

Youtube: Drs. Robert Epstein & BF Skinner with Pigeons-Part 2

Elephant Memory Tests

In 1964, Leslie Squier used operant conditioning to train several elephants at the Portland Zoo. He presented his findings that year at the meeting of the American Psychological Association. Due to policies at the zoo, his research was discontinued. However, eight years later he secured permission to conduct follow up tests with the same animals he had trained in 1964. The research team wanted to know if the elephants would correctly complete tasks that they had not been ask to do for over eight years.

Did the elephants remember their training?

Markowitz, Schmidt, Nadal and Squier (1975) tested three adult female Indian elephants for long-term memory on a visual discrimination task. Eight years earlier these elephants had been taught to distinguish between a dark colored disk and a light colored disk using the same equipment and procedures. Each elephant was tested over multiple sessions until she made 20 correct responses in a row, This was counted as success.

In the follow up tests, one elephant, Tuy Hoa, reached the success mark after a mere 6 minutes. In 43 attempts, she made only two errors. The other two elephants, however, did not seem to remember their earlier training and had great trouble re-learning the task. One reached the criteria for success after about 3.5 hours of testing, the second after almost 12 hours.

Why did the elephants “forget” their training?

At first glance, it appears that one elephant remembered her training and the other two forgot. However, further investigation by vision specialists revealed that the two “forgetful” elephants had vascular deficiencies in their retinas. (Basically, they were having a lot of trouble seeing.) It’s hard to do well on a visual task if you’re having vision problems!

Why zoo training programs are important

Most modern zoos have training programs and behavioral research programs. These programs allow keepers to learn more about exotic animals and provide more humane treatment for zoo animals. Also, if animals fail to perform routine tasks correctly, it can alert keepers to possible medical problems.

Has your animal ever “forgotten” how to do something?

Many times when a horse, dog or other pet won’t follow a cue or command, the trainer grumbles that the animal has “forgotten” the command. I know I’ve done this too before! It’s easier to blame the animal for forgetting, then to see if there’s possibly something else going on. Rather than labeling an animal as stubborn or forgetful, take the time to reevaluate your training program. As bird trainer Steve Martin says, we must take responsibility for our animal’s behavior!

What are some reasons why an animal might “forget” a task?

1. Medical or physical limitations. Like the elephants, an animal who doesn’t perform might be telling you that he hurts, he’s sore, he’s out of shape, or he has some other physical limitation that is preventing him from understanding or completing the task.

2. Conditions have changed. It might seem like you’re asking the same thing, but to the animal, it’s different. Last winter I taught Ginger to bow in the kitchen. It took her awhile to learn that she could bow on cue in the living room as well! When we change conditions and settings or add additional distractions, performance can often deteriorate until the animal adjusts to the changes. Sometimes, we might even have to re-teach all or part of a behavior.

3. Didn’t know it to begin with. Sometimes we think that we have a behavior under control or that the animal understands what we’re asking. However, when we increase criteria or tweak something a bit, the behavior falls apart. The animal might not have had a firm grasp or understanding of what was required.

4. Lack of motivation, punishment and aversives. The horse who refuses to get into the trailer hasn’t forgotten at all how to load up. Instead, he might be trying to tell you that the last four trips have been horrible for him, due to your poor driving skills. An animal who has found a task punishing, frightening or otherwise unpleasant is not going to be motivated to complete the task in the future.

Animals have remarkable memories and can be trained to do many complex and complicated behaviors. If an animal doesn’t perform a behavior when you ask, don’t immediately think that he’s forgotten! Instead, consider if there are other limitations or conditions that are keeping him from understanding your request and following through.

Reference
Markowitz, H., Schmidt, M., Nadal, L., and Squier, L (1975). Do elephants ever forget? Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 8(3), 333–335.
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