Imagine that you are an animal trainer. Pick an imaginary client that you are employed by (e.g., a pet owner, animal shelter, zoo, aquarium, wildlife sanctuary, etc.) You have been tasked with shaping a new behavior in an animal species of your choice. You are asked to create a shaping plan detailing your training goals.
Include the following details in your shaping plan.
Chosen Species (Species & Scientific Name)
Client
Target Behavior
Possible Rewards as Reinforcers
Address this question: How do you know if the rewards you’ve picked are acting as reinforcers?
Location(s) of Training Sessions
Video or Photo
Find either a video or photo of the animal doing your target behavior.
Remember, the video you find may use different training tools (e.g., luring instead of shaping) so your plan may differ from the video.
If you cannot locate media of your species engaging in the target behavior, find media of the species engaging in another form of training.
This is to give you an idea of the behavior of the species during training sessions (however, remember that individual animals will show differences as well!)
Or, you may choose to find a video of a different species engaging in the target behavior.
This is to give you an idea of the topography behavior, or what the behavior looks like.
Include a numbered list of each behavioral goal in your shaping plan.
Remember, with shaping you gradually increase the criteria for the delivery of the reward. You start out easy and get more complex as you go. Break your behavior down into discrete steps.
A simple example of the shaping steps is below. Your shaping plan should include at least 4 steps, but you may include more steps. Remember, it is better to break the behavior down into more steps to better plan for the training session.
Reflection
End with a reflection about what you learned from creating this shaping plan. Are there any additional considerations you thought of while writing your shaping plan? Have you ever trained this animal in reality or do you plan to train the behavior in the future? Have you ever used shaping to learn a new behavior yourself (e.g., slowly learned a new skill, like shaping up your golf swing). Please write at least 5 sentences to describe your experience.
Example of a shaping plan:
Species: Domestic Cat (Felis silvestris catus)
Client: Pet Owner
Target Behavior: Ring service bell with paw
Possible Reinforcers: Cooked chicken, soft treats, social praise
I know these rewards are serving as reinforcers if…
Training Location: In cat’s home
Video or Photo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXDB-ipVmK4Links to an external site.
Shaping Steps:
Reinforce any time the cat is next to the bell.
Reinforce any time the cat touches any part of the bell with the paw.
Reinforce any time the cat touches the top of the bell with the paw.
Reinforce when the cat rings the bell with the paw.
Please note, this is a simple example! I encourage you to include more than 4 steps in your plan to make it as detailed as possible. Break down the behavior into small steps!
Reflection:
From this experience I learned that…..
