Give Me Your Paw
Have you ever seen an animal complete an action that isn’t a natural behavior for them? Chances are you have, and as social media grows, more and more videos of animal doing these unusual actions are being shared with millions of people. Some of these videos can be as simple as a dog rolling over to as sophisticated as a grizzly bear playing a trumpet. If you’re like me, after seeing a video like this you probably wonder how the animal learned to do the action. I later found out that individuals use operant conditioning to get these animals to do something. Operant conditioning doesn’t only work on animals, it can also be used on humans. Operant conditioning is a method of learning where behaviors are either rewarded or punished. Through operant conditioning, a behavior and consequence are usually associated with each other. Usually if a desired behavior is performed, the subject is rewarded but, if an undesired behavior is executed the subject is punished. While operant conditioning may take some time for certain individuals it usually ends up being a successful method in the end. Operant conditioning is a very unique and common type of conditioning in everyday life.
Until I read about operant conditioning, I didn’t realize that I have actually done it many times. Without knowing it, years ago I conditioned my dog through operant conditioning to perform different tasks. As a little kid I thought it would be cool if my dog was able to shake hands and roll over, so I tried to teach her how to do these actions. Originally it didn’t work at first, then I started bribing her with treats while trying to teach her these concepts. Eventually after about a month of consistent training and rewarding her with treats for a successful behavior she would roll over and shake hands with you. I didn’t know it, but I was slowly shaping my dog to complete these actions. By rewarding my dog with treats, it reinforced the behavior I was trying to get her to complete. This behavior didn’t go extinct later on either, throughout her whole life whenever she was about to be given a treat naturally, she would go to shake your hand which I found pretty cool. This personal experience helped me understand how easy and common operant conditioning actually is. Unfortunately, my dog is gone now but I will always have fond memories of her thanks to operant conditioning.