One of the many topics we learned in this unit is the concept of shaping. This concept can be seen in many people’s everyday lives with the example of training a pet. Shaping is the practice that reinforces guide behaviors closer towards a desired behavior. An example of this is training your dog to roll over and then rewarding them when they do the behavior.
I trained my dog to roll over through shaping. His favorite treats are bacon strips. So when I called him over I would bring the bag of bacon strips over so he could smell it. I would then have him lay down and I would hold a treat and tell him to roll over. It was very difficult to start because he did not know what I wanted. I had to physically roll him over then I would give him the treat. I worked on this with him once a day for a bout a week and we were slowly making process. It was almost two weeks when he finally listened and completed the task. I rewarded him with the treat after he did it by himself. He learned this and got better at it, the more we did it. My dog, Cornelius, was finally able to roll over on his own, as well as expecting a treat after he did it.
I did not know this at the time, but this was the shaping concept where I reward my dog for doing an action. This technique was the easiest one I found and also the fastest. This experiment was a success and the process was fun and this lesson in class helped me understand the process that I made my dog go through. I enjoyed learning this process and I want to teach my friends’ dogs to roll over, now that I know how to do it!