Empowerment Training

by O'Heare, James

• ISBN13: 9780973836974
• ISBN10: 0973836970
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-17
• Publisher: Dogwise Pub

Summary

Empowerment Training is a guide for professional animal trainers to promoting behavioral well being in companion animals by conditioning for empowerment. It brings together a vast body of research on topics related to empowerment and general behavioral well being, summarizing the research findings and providing practical rehabilitation strategies and tactics. It presents a triadic model of empowerment, rehabilitate disempowered companion animals and contribute to allowing the best possible experience in life.

Author Biography

James O'Heare, CABC, is President of the Companion Animal Sciences Institute (www.CASInstitute.com), Director of the Association of Animal Behavior Professionals (www.AssociationofAnimalBehaviorProfessionals.com), editor of the Journal of Applied Companion Animal Behavior and owner of Behave Tech Publishing (www.Behave Tech.com). His personal web site is at www.JamesOHeare.com. James has studied the natural science and technology of behavior extensively. His books, Changing Problem Behavior, Separation Distress and Dogs, The Dog Aggression Workbook, Aggressive Behavior in Dogs, Dominance Theory and Dogs, Raw Meat Diets for Cats and Dogs?, Vegan Dog Nutrition and Canine Neuropsychology, are translated into many languages and available throughout the world. James has been helping companion animal guardians resolve problem behavior since the early 1990s.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. 1
Table of Contents	p. 5
Introduction	p. 9
Objectives and Chapter Organization	p. 9
Theoretical Orientation	p. 9
General Behavioral Wellbeing and Empowerment	p. 13
What Is General Behavioral Wellbeing?	p. 13
What Is Empowerment?	p. 16
What Is Disempowerment?	p. 22
Effects of uncontrollable and unpredictable aversive and appetitive stimulation	p. 22
Response depression and learned helplessness	p. 24
Response depression	p. 24
Learned helplessness	p. 26
Rehabilitating response depression and learned helplessness	p. 29
Inoculation against learned helplessness	p. 31
Safety signaling and its influence on empowerment	p. 31
A Triadic Model of Empowerment	p. 33
Persistence/industriousness	p. 33
Persistence	p. 34
Industriousness	p. 35
Creativity	p. 35
Resilience	p. 38
Review of Basic Principles of Behavior and Strategies for Training	p. 41
Introduction	p. 41
Behavior	p. 41
Operant Conditioning	p. 42
Contingencies	p. 42
Law of effect	p. 44
Contingencies of reinforcement	p. 46
Positive reinforcement	p. 47
Negative reinforcement	p. 47
Contingencies of punishment	p. 47
Positive punishment	p. 47
Negative punishment	p. 48
Contingencies of extinction	p. 48
Schedules of positive reinforcement	p. 49
Continuous reinforcement	p. 49
Intermittent reinforcement	p. 49
Fixed and variable ratio schedules of reinforcement	p. 49
Fixed and variable interval schedules of reinforcement	p. 50
Fixed and variable duration schedules of reinforcement	p. 50
Problematic features of using aversive stimulation	p. 50
Punishment	p. 51
Side effects of aversive stimulation	p. 53
Problematic emotional arousal and conditioning	p. 53
Escape behaviors	p. 54
General response depression and inhibition	p. 55
Respondent conditioning	p. 55
Basic Training Strategy	p. 57
Basic strategy	p. 57
Identify target behaviors and appropriate measure	p. 59
Identify conditioned and unconditioned reinforcers	p. 59
Establish, quantitatively, the baseline and training objectives	p. 60
Establish the conditioned reinforcer	p. 61
Antecedent strategies: prompting or avoiding prompts	p. 61
Postcedent strategies: differential reinforcement, shaping and chaining	p. 62
Begin thinning the schedule of reinforcement	p. 63
Discrimination training	p. 64
Work toward maintenance of behavior	p. 65
Training tips for promoting effective and efficient training sessions	p. 66
Empowerment Training: Strategies and Tactics	p. 69
Introduction to Empowerment Training	p. 69
Basic Strategy and Tactics for Promoting Empowerment	p. 69
Strategy for conditioning empowerment	p. 70
Tactics for conditioning empowerment	p. 71
Rehabilitating Disempowerment	p. 73
Guidelines for Rehabilitating Disempowerment	p. 73
Specific Empowerment Rehabilitation Tactics	p. 76
Persistence training to inoculate against and rehabilitate depressed responding	p. 76
Identification of coping behaviors	p. 78
Acquisition training with continuous reinforcement	p. 79
Training with intermittent reinforcement	p. 79
Periodic adjustment	p. 80
Industriousness training	p. 81
Creativity training: shaping creativity, persistence and resilience	p. 82
Shaping procedure	p. 85
Determine terminal target behavior	p. 86
Determine conditioned and unconditioned reinforcers	p. 86
Determine approximations	p. 87
Implement shaping program	p. 87
When target behavior is achieved, establish a cue	p. 89
Maintenance	p. 89
Troubleshooting with shaping	p. 90
Approximation steps too large	p. 90
Not reinforcing frequently enough or too many extinction trials	p. 92
Shaping tips	p. 92
Free-shaping games	p. 94
The shaping game	p. 94
Free-shaping with a box	p. 95
Creativity shaping game	p. 96
A Final Caution	p. 97
Resources	p. 99
Bibliography	p. 101
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