Like water, distraction comes in all shapes and sizes and it’s powerful course can decide the pacing and predictability of our training sessions and the behavior cycles within them. In certain training sessions we’ve been arranging ourselves so that Poe is facing a window that she can see out of. Today she faced the glass sliding door leading out to the front porch. It was a beautiful spring afternoon with the sight and sounds of cars, squirrels and birds, along with the ever enticing crinkle of old dried leaves that blew in the breeze as the desiccated remananets of autumns past. These were the shapes and sizes of the distraction that we strengthened with today and the behavior of focus was a chin rest.
The overall goal was to approximate evoked responses of the chin rest on average of 3 seconds of duration and for Poe within 4 feet of and oriented towards the sliding door. The distraction can be surmised from the way Poe is still motivated to access edible reinforcers, but also motivated to be attentive to the stimuli unfolding before her eyes.
😎What approximation I achieved are we celebrating: How at 00:48 and 01:26 though Poe slightly shifts her head I follow the motion with my hand as she continues to exert a degree of counter pressure to my left index, middle finger and palm throughout. We were glad that I was a brave trainer and sustained the behavior cycle throughout the heightended distraction as it paid off for us both! (It was really awesome how Poe’s was able to shift her orientation yet remain engaged in the behavior cycle as well. Now that’s some serious multitasking!)
😼What approximation Poe achieved are we celebrating: How at 02:27 and 03:05 she was able to focus her attention and also engage without any head or neck shifts and I was appreciative that Poe had relayed to me the best position to make such responses most predictable as her adjustments seen at those earlier times in the first approximation had clarified.
🤔What approximation to work towards next time: Adding physical touch and tactile generalization of my right hand into the overall behavior cycles with the same distraction factor.
👉Poe & I would love to hear more about what you use and how you use distractors and distraction within and as a part of your overall training.
😺Feedback, comments and questions are more than welcome and Poe & I appreciate your time and engagement!
#zencats #cat #cattraining #clickertraining #animaltraining #catenrichment #positivereinforcement #positivereinforcementtraining #catlover
30 сен 2024
