I’m off to Borneo again, but before I go, I had the pleasure of spending time training bears! This cutie is scheduled for a veterinary exam involving an injection of a sedative. Fortunately, we had advanced notice and time to get started on this behavior. There are a few factors contributing to our quick progression through the shaping plan in just one session. 1. We set up our environment to make it easy to get the bear into the position we needed 2. The use of what I call PPCC (Pairing Procedure with Calm Criteria) some call it classical conditioning, but it really doesn’t fit the definition because we do have the criteria of calm behavior. (I go into more detail at www.AnimalTrainingFundamentals.com) This approach allows for quick fear free introduction of new stimuli. We can then quickly transition to touching first and adding a delay before delivering reinforcers. 3. We also only worked on one criterion at a time. After adding time delays, we also worked on touching with different objects to create different sensations. Once we felt response to each sensation was fluent, we also added touching in slightly different areas. There are more steps to go before this bear will be ready for an injection. But with the right procedure, I often find this behavior can be accomplished faster than most realize. I am confident this team will reach their goal before the big day. #beartraining #blackbear #injectiontraining #medicalbehaviors https://www.instagram.com/p/BwopiMhF6vD/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ko9sttqd8thx
