http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGazyH6fQQ4
There are many ways to train the animal, but in Chapter 6, it talks about Operant Conditioning that is used in animal training. Many people train their pets using method that was invented by B.F. Skinner. However, many people don't know who is B.F. Skinner is or why this training technique is working. He did many experiments with animals using operant conditioning procedure such as pigeon, rat or dog. B.F. Skinner's method is still using in many situation to train animals. For example, one of well used method is call method of successive approximations. On this video, it shows how train the parrot using this method. Basically, this method is when a parrot or other animal do the specific behavior that trainer asked to then they get a reward. However, using this method trainer can result to do other complex behaviors such as playing basketball or shaking hand. The animals perform at a circus, zoo, or aquarium are trained using this method of successive approximations one of the example of Operant Conditioning. It was very interesting that this simple way can make animals to do complex tricks or behave. Although, I got curious that is this is the easiest and simplest way to train the animals? Or there is no other influence using this method?
What made you decide to write about this topic? Have you ever trained an animal? What might be an alternative way of training, do you think?