Shaping

[keiko46]

hey from one of your mass e-mails on your old forum you mentioned you just became a dolphin trainer ;D Congradulations ;D
lol, I just finished taking a class called "Animal Behavior" we had a to read a book called "Don't Shoot the dog" I was wondering if you had ever read it. It's about the traning practice called shaping.
I was wondering, now that you're an animal trainer i what is generaly refered to as "positive reinforcement" isn't somewhat of a misname. I was wondering if the term shaping couldn't be more acuratly be applied. It contains "positive reinforcement" it's not all that the term contains.

[Orcaluvur]

Thanks for asking!
Yes i have read "Dont Shoot the Dog!". I enjoyed it much and thought it was very helpful in learning the basics of training.

Postive reinforcement is just a way of rewarding the animal. Shaping is taking a behavior and changing it and adding to it to have a more complex final behavior. You could shape an animal not using positive reinforcement too, so really i see how you can question the two, but they are in very separate categories. Postive Reinforcement just helps shaping because the animal knows when it has done the correct or desired behavior.

Please feel free to ask questions, i love it!