I have a golden retriever named Lola, yes Lola. She’s about 11 years old currently and still gets the newspaper for my family every morning, and every family in the neighborhood. Ever since she was a puppy, my dad wanted to train her to get the paper since we have such a long driveway. I guess you can say my family is pretty lazy? My dog getting the newspaper is an example of shaping. My dad was shaping her to do what he wanted her to do through series of rewards and punishments. Reinforcers (my dad) guided Lola’s behavior towards a desired behavior (getting the newspaper). I remember the day it started. Lola was about 4 years old at the time, and my dad sent her outside. On the newspaper was a small piece of peanut butter. Of course my overweight dog bit the paper. My dad signaled her inside with the paper still in her mouth. Without thinking she had the paper in her mouth she went inside. My dad held up a carrot (healthy choice for lola) and she dropped the paper. Each and every day my dad would put the peanut butter or some form of treat on the paper and she would continue to bring in the paper in exchange for another treat. Shortly, every time she would go outside she would recognize the paper and bring it in regardless of if there was a treat on it or not. My dad shaped her into bringing in the paper. Even the Sunday paper, which weighs like 20 pounds. She still receives a small treat when she comes inside with it. Now, since she has mastered the skill of bringing in our paper, she continues to get our neighbors papers and brings them back to our house in addition to ours. She does this because she knows she will get a treat regardless when she comes back in. I’m always the one bringing it back over to all of our neighbors at 8am. The concept of shaping was utilized when teaching my dog to bring in the paper every morning. Shaping is a form of operant conditioning, and my father shaped Lola to do as he pleased.