I’m back in Dallas now and am starting to recover from my whirlwind of a summer. I spent 13 fantastic weeks running the horse program at a camp for children and adults with special needs. However, the campers and horses kept me busy 24/7, so I didn’t have a whole lot of time for much [...]

We’ve been talking about different forms of negative reinforcement in class. So, I thought this might be a good week to talk about positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and different types of behavioral responses associated with negative reinforcement.

We’ve been talk about shaping in class, which is one of the neatest things about clicker training. (Actually, there are a lot of neat things about clicker training!) Shaping is teaching a new behavior through successive approximations. Basically, you start with a very low criteria and gradually increase your criteria until you reach your target [...]

Here’s how I’m putting theory from the classroom into my training sessions!
Several weeks ago in my intro behavior analysis class we talked about good reinforcers using an acronym called DISC. This is what DISC stands for:
D–deprivation
I–immediacy
S–size
C–contengency
The best reinforcers are something the animal hasn’t had in awhile (principle of deprivation), something that occurs right after the [...]