For ages, humans have used shaping procedures for training their young ones, people around them, as well as their pet animals. Shaping procedure (operant conditioning) in animals and humans uses rewards as stimulants to induce the idea and behavior while targeting the result, which is behavior change. Shaping procedure is the idea of emphasizing on the successive guesses to the final response. The procedure allows a trainer to move from an ‘it cannot be done’ situation to a ‘done’ position. In Most cases, the trainer is forced to shape a behavior pattern in an animal where it does not frequently occur or can never occur naturally.
Training of otters uses the same procedure to change and influence their behavior. However, like all animals, it takes time and requires the aid of a reward (reinforcer). For example, when training a dog to move away from the pack, even though its inborn instinct is to remain with the other dogs, the gesture persuades it to leave (Animal behavior, 2014). Shaping the behavior of the dog just as otter’s demands that the trainer rewards the animal and with frequent repetition of this finally makes the behavior as a normal occurrence (Entertainment, 2014). Therefore, shaping depends on moderating, and constant increasing the reinforcement (reward) so that animal does not stagnate (Ramirez, 1999). The only way for a trainer to attain the final positive results is by having a sense and patience of noticing improvements and rewarding them. Meaning, a behavior requires rewarding as soon as an improvement is seen (Chance, 2013). In doing so, the trainer avoids the occurrences of stagnation commonly known as ‘delay of the reinforcement effect’ (Animal behavior, 2014). Trainers should know that any delay in rewarding affects the effect of the reward because the subject (otter) gets distracted by responding to something different and by the time the reward is given it confuses it (Hearst & Jenkins, 2011).
According McKay, any stimulus could act as a conditioned stimulus provided it does not produce a very strong a response of its own (2009). In Pavlov’s research according to McKay, on dogs and the shaping procedure, he found out that even if the pain (shock) was induced to the jaws of these animals when hungry, they would still salivate if the shock was combined with a food reward (2009). After several tests using the same technique, he concluded that if the dog was conditioned to salivate to a given shock wavelength, then the animal would also salivate when it was given other tones but to a lesser degree. Therefore, the more similar the shock wavelength was, the more the dog salivated, meaning the dog generalized the effect of the shock tones (McLeod, 2014).
Like dogs and other animals, otters also generalize behavior when they are rewarded. Generalization creates a discriminatory reaction, which stops the dogs in Pavlov’s case from salivating to any shock wavelengths induced to them (McKay, 2009). Giving rewards at the right time to the animals accelerates discrimination to specific wavelength. However, the dog can be slightly punished when it salivates to the wrong wavelength commonly known as a conditioned discrimination (Humane society, 2012). Just like the police attack dogs, otters, exemplify certain words kept on reserve for special purposes. Whenever the otter is excited, it has to discriminate the feeling until the trainer attars the specific words or sign that prompt the otter to the action. The Otter also has to discriminate other voices from the crowd or other people and only act to words from their trainer (Hearst & Jenkins, 2011).
Reference
Animal behavior.net,. (2014). Animal behaviour - Resources for applied ethology. Retrieved 2 December 2014, from http://animalbehaviour.net/Shaping.htm
Chance, P. (2013). Learning and Behaviour: Cengage Advantage Books (7th ed.). Wadsworth.
Entertainment, S. (2014). Seaworld.org. Retrieved 2 December 2014, from http://seaworld.org/animal-info/animal-infobooks/animal-training/animal-behavior-and-learning/
Hearst, E., & Jenkins, H. (2011). Sign-tracking: The Stimulus-reinforcer Relation and Directed Action. Psychonomic Society, 1974.
Humanesociety.org. (2012). Dogs: Positive Reinforcement Training: The Humane Society of the United States. Retrieved 2 December 2014, from http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/dog_training_positive_reinforcement.html
Mckay, K. (2009). IUCN OSG - OZ: Otters in Zoos, Aquaria, Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Sanctuaries. Otterspecialistgroup.org. Retrieved 2 December 2014, from http://www.otterspecialistgroup.org/Library/TaskForces/OCT.html
McLeod, S. (2014). Pavlov’s Dogs Simply Psychology. Simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 2 December 2014, from http://www.simplypsychology.org/pavlov.html
Ramirez, K. (1999). Animal Training: Successful Animal Management Through Positive Reinforcement. Shedd Aquarium.
