INTRODUCTION TO OPERANT CONDITIONING

Most of the training done is based on operant conditioning.

Operant conditioning is when an animal learns that certain behaviors influence what happens to him. In otherwords, the action of the animal gets a reation. That action can be positive or negative.

Reinforcement is defined as anything that encourages a behavior to happen again. There are several methods of reinforcement.

Through operant conditioning, a reptile can learn learns that by obeying your request it can make something good happen to him, like a treat. Likewise, he can avoid something unpleasant , like a bad taste from biting something nasty!

We go to work because we have learned that it results in a paycheck. We avoid touching hot burners because we have learned that doing so is a painful experience. An action gets a reaction effect. This is operant conditioning.

In operant conditioning, there are four things that affect the animal’s behavior: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. These terms are often misunderstood and misused.




REINFORCEMENT
Reinforcement is defined as anything that encourages a behavior to happen again. There are several methods of reinforcement.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
Encourages a behavior to be more likely to happen again by providing something pleasant or wanted when the behavior occurs. What is provided is referred to as a reward.
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
Encourages a behavior to not likely happen again by removing or stopping something unpleasant when the behavior occurs. This is not the same as punishment! The animal learns that by performing a certain behavior, it can make something nasty go away. Some examples could be you getting out of the way of a water stream when a sprinkler is going, a baby throwing it's bottle down when it doesn't like what is in it, or the bull who bucks off its rider. All of these behaviors are likely to be repeated, because they succeeded in getting rid of something bad.
PUNISHMENT
Makes a behavior less likely to happen again by giving negative results for the behavior.
POSITIVE PUNISHMENT
This sounds like a contradiction in terms, but is simply a scientific name for something bad happening to the animal when a behavior is performed. These behaviors create bad results and are therefore less likely to be repeated. Examples of this could be a cow touches an electric fence and gets shocked, or touching a hot stove gives you a burnt finger. You might call this an education in bad decision making.
NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT
Negative punishment involves taking away something good when a behavior is performed. Some examples might be a favorite chew toy withdrawn if the dog tries to growls at you, not showing up to work causes a loss of your job, or the snake that misjudges his strike and fails to catch dinner. Doing a behavior results in the loss of good things are less likely to be repeated.
Here is a simplistic breakdown of the definitions:
Reinforcement, either positive or negative, yields a behavior and makes it more likely to happen again.
Punishment, either positive or negative, decreases the chance of a behavior from the likelihood of happening again.
Positive (+) does not mean good. This word simply means to actively do something or add something to the situation.
Negative (-) does not mean bad. This word simply means to take something away from the situation. Think of these two terms as addition or subtraction, rather than good or bad.

INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Classical conditioning is the science of associations. Probably the most famous examples of classical conditioning were Pavlov’s dogs, which learned to associate food with the ringing of a bell, and began to salivate when they heard that noise. Classical conditioning can affect reptiles much the same way, just without the drooling. Pavlov’s dogs did not have to salivate when the bell rang in order to get their dinner. Dinner always followed the bell’s ring, which induced such a state of anticipation that the dogs would salivate unconsciously. This is classical conditioning. If you refuse to put your dog’s dinner bowl down for her until she sits quietly, you are taking advantage of operant conditioning.

A simple way to distinguish classical conditioning from operant conditioning is this: If what the animal does determines what happens to him, operant conditioning is at work. If the animal's actions will not change the outcome of events, classical conditioning is taking place.

Classical conditioning is beneficial because it can be used to make dramatic changes in how your reptile feels about the situations it’s placed in. This is how responses to certain objects, events, and places are developed.


Counterconditioning involves exposing the reptile to a low level of whatever bothers it, and simultaneously presenting something positive. When done correctly, this causes the animal to like whatever nasty thing you started out with.

Desensitization involves doing that same nasty thing over and over again until the animal gets used to it. Desensitization and counterconditioning work together; if you are counterconditioning a reptile to something, he is automatically being desensitized to it in the process. This is what holding your reptile is.
And now for a bit of training trivia; studies have found that if a classically conditioned response is placed in conflict with an operantly conditioned behavior, the classically conditioned response will prevail.
You might ask how classical conditioning could be of use to you, since it cannot be used to teach an actual behavior such as “sit” or “come.” Classical conditioning is beneficial because it can be used to make profound changes in how your reptile feels about the situations it's placed in.

TYPES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

CONDITIONED EMOTIONAL RESPONSES
Classical conditioning can explain how we develop emotional responses to certain objects, events, and places.
In an infamous 1920 experiment, researcher John Watson put a rat in the playpen of a baby named Albert, who had no reason to fear the rodent. And, in a fine display of scientific experimentation, Watson made a loud noise to scare Albert. After pairing the rat and the sound several times, Watson then placed the rat in the playpen but did not make the noise. Even without the noise, Albert feared the rat. He had developed a conditioned emotional response to the rat.
Conditioned emotional responses can be developed either deliberately or (more often) accidentally and are very resistant to change. Does your reptile get excited when you open his door to feed him? That’s a conditioned emotional response.
Some fears are conditioned emotional responses; others are innate or instinctive. Fears develop as a result of traumatic experiences (an abused cat may cower at a raised hand), lack of exposure/socialization (fear of the unknown), or in some cases they simply exist (fear of heights?).
Undesirable conditioned emotional responses can often be overcome through two classical conditioning concepts: Counterconditioning and desensitization.
COUNTERCONDITIONING
Counterconditioning involves exposing the animal to a low level of whatever bothers it, and simultaneously presenting something positive. When done correctly, this causes the animal to like whatever nasty thing you started out with, such as a loud noise. You are conditioning a response that counters the reptile's current reaction. You might not like getting rained on, but if $10 bills started piling up in your hand whenever it started raining, I'll bet you'd be hunting down cloudbursts in short order!
Negative counterconditioning is also possible, although rarely useful. Conditioned taste aversion can be used when it comes to biting reptiles using a bad tasting glove(instead of your tastey hand).
DESENSITIZATION
Desensitization involves doing that same nasty thing over and over again until the animal gets used to it. Desensitization and counterconditioning work together; if you are counterconditioning a reptile to something, he is automatically being desensitized to it in the process.

TRAINING WITH CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Let’s say you want to be able to trim your reptile’s claws, but he hates having his feet handled. If you touch his feet briefly, then immediately gave him a treat, the positive aspect of that experience will outweigh any negative feelings he had about the fact that you touched his feet.
After this sequence has been repeated over and over again, that brief touch on the feet will come to signify “Oh, goody, I’m getting something good!” Then you can make the touch longer, gradually progress to holding the feet, and finally ease into actually clipping the nail. Through classical conditioning, you have transformed him from an intractable beast to a reptile that actually enjoys nail-trimming time. This is an oversimplification of the training process, but it serves as an example of what you can accomplish.
It should also be mentioned that classical and operant conditioning are not always distinct from each other. Revisiting the nail-clipping scenario, we can see that classical conditioning is changing the reptile’s associations from negative to positive: Having my feet touched is fun; It means I’m getting something good. But at the same time, the reptile is actively learning something: If I hold still while my foot is handled, I get something good. That is operant conditioning at work.