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Well, I used to hate this dog - Oliver. He would come to my house in Somerset (and within 5 minutes, seriously!), would defecate all over my white carpet. His owner (Melissa) would state that this was due to my dog Sarina influencing him. I referred her to some basic applied behavioral textbooks and asked her to point me to which theory might explain this 'diarrhea by proxy' - especially since Sarina never did anything of the sort! Needless to say -- Oliver no longer came to my house, and Sarina stopped going over to see Oliver. Now -- that you've this history lesson on my feelings for Oliver, I've come to realize that I like him much more. A large part of this transition from the old Oliver to the new more likeable Oliver has come with the removal of his testes. It took a lot of convincing from myself and an acknowledgement from our friend the vet student(thank you Bonne!) that it would be better for him, and voila, now he's much better about inside urination/defecation. He is also more relaxed, and appears to be able to better attend to my instructions. Since this transformation, I've begun to train this 'little boy', as Melissa so lovingly coos at him. It all began after I helped Melissa install a dog door in her backdoor to the yard. Ladybug took to it almost immediately, however, Oliver wouldn't set foot through it unless a human held the flap completely open. No matter the amount of coaxing, bribing, or trying to force him through, nothing was successful! Melissa stated that he was simply never going to use this door. One weekend, I house-sat for Melissa and decided that, hey! I'm a behavior analyst. I'm supposed to be able to teach him to do anything. So I set about doing it, and two days (and about two cumulative hours of training) later, Oliver is now a more independent cocker spaniel that can go outside and return inside sans Human Intervention. My current project is teaching him to jump (high) and to lay down and then crawl. Currently, this has been very successful and I'm including some pictures to show for it! |
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Behavior Analysis:
A Behavioral
Solution to Speeding!
I highly suggest reading Walden II -- Skinner was such an awesome writer! After reading this short novel, check out the Communidad Los Horcones. |
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ABA in the News: MercyHurst gains BCBA Approval! |
