FR10

 Emma and I were eager to see how Q-Tip's training sessions went after getting into double digit schedules. Q-Tip still performed perfectly during FR10. We let the session go for the full 30 minutes, so Q-Tip could get her lever presses in. She pressed the lever 621 times! We are super proud of her. Something interesting did happen during her training...she tried to escape! Out of no where Q-Tip catapulted to the top of the cage and bonked her head. It surprised Emma and I, and we had to cover the hole in the top of the cage with a clipboard. We laughed about it a lot afterwards. Q-Tip is a super quirky little rat!

FR7

 

Q-Tip did great on FR7! In all, she had 521 lever presses. She is pressing it more and more during every training session. She has developed some quirky methods to press the lever. It is funny to watch for sure! I attached a video to show her unique lever pressing. As you can see, she prefers to open her mouth and use her jaw to press the lever. Sometimes, she even bites the wall for good luck. At least she's creative!

FR5

 We have not had any trouble at all as we move to higher schedules. Q-Tip continues to increase her lever presses. For FR4, she ended up pressing the lever 434 times.  I was a little worried because we had missed training the day before. I figured Q-Tip might have to become readjusted to the box. But she showed immediate interest in pressing the lever and continued that interest throughout her training session.

FR3

 It is intriguing to observe that Q-Tip's lever presses increase with each training session. She seems super motivated and easily adjusted to FR3. She ended up pressing the lever 300 times. I am so proud of little Q-Tip!

FR2

 Selfie to celebrate FR2!!! Q-Tip is moving along really well! She showed a continued strong interest in the lever. She ended up pressing it 273 times in total. She seemed to have shorter periods of distractions on FR2. She was so interested in pressing the lever that we were able to stop her training session at 25 minutes.

FR1

 After our final shaping day, we chose to have another full day of FR1. We did this just to make sure Q-Tip had learned the correct behavior. Once she was put in her training box, she went right to work! She clearly demonstrated that she knew how to press the lever to gain reinforcement. By 25 minutes, she had pressed the lever 217 times! After that, we knew she was ready to move onto FR2 on our next training day.

Final Day of Shaping!!!

 

Q-Tip FINALLY pressed the lever all by herself! I am a super proud rat mom! In the video, the third lever press is Q-Tip reinforcing herself (you can probably tell by my gasp of excitement). The third day of shaping was rewarding for me as well. I knew we had been making progress, but I was worried that we were behind. Q-Tip proved me wrong! It was a reminder that shaping is a process that requires attentiveness and patience. On the third day of shaping, the reinforcements were split. Half of them came from me and the other half from Q-Tip. After finishing shaping, I realized that Q-Tip really did learn the tasks easily. I think I expected the process to move faster, so I was worried she wasn't learning. But after overviewing the whole process, I can see how her interest in the lever increased each day. She began repeating behaviors that she knew would get reinforced until she finally figured it out. I do think the actual process of shaping is similar to how it was discussed in the book and in class. It's a process that you have to stay committed to as a trainer, and it takes more time than you might think. I can especially see the importance of Pryor's Ten Laws of Shaping after training Q-Tip. 

Continued Shaping

 On our second day of shaping, we saw improvements in Q-Tip's motivation. She was approaching the lever and investigating it more frequently. Since she was closer to the lever, we would reinforce behaviors such as putting one hand on the lever and then two hands on the lever. She still did not press the lever on her own, but we felt confident that she was almost to that point. Some tasks were learned more easily than others. For example, once we reinforced putting one hand on the lever, she would repeatedly do that. However, it took her a while after that to attempt other, new behaviors. As seen in the video, she began biting on the lever. We definitely did not want her to think that chewing the lever was the rewarding behavior, so we had to walk a fine line of when to reinforce her interest in the lever and when to wait.

Shaping

It took us a total of 1 hour, 18 minutes, and 44 seconds to finish shaping Q-Tip. On the first day, we started by reinforcing small behaviors: facing the corner where the lever was, walking towards the lever, sniffing at the lever. I attached a video to show some of the frustrations Emma and I faced while shaping her. She would get super close and get a reinforcement, and then she would completely lose interest in the task. We spent many minutes just watching her chew at the cage. But, it is important to remember that little Q-Tip had no idea what the exact goal was. I am just super proud of her for sticking with it and trying her best!

Magazine Training

 

Overall, it took a total of ten minutes to magazine train Q-Tip. Makayla helped us get started and told us what to specifically look for! We considered her fully magazine trained when she would respond to the pellet dropping within 3 seconds or less. At first, Emma and I were getting sort of nervous that Q-Tip was not making progress. Q-Tip would stay on the opposite side of the cage and chew on the floor, totally unresponsive to us at times. But, patience is really key with training your rat. Once she began to get the hang of it, she caught on very quickly. Magazine training, in my opinion, was similar to what we discussed in our class. Dr. Trench informed us that timing would vary, but if we stuck with it, our rat would eventually recognize where the pellets were coming from. It was so cool to see Q-Tip learning in action!!!

Meet Q-Tip!!!

 

   Before our first lab, I was a little nervous to work with a rat. I am used to hamsters, but something about the long rat tail really wigged me out. But, after meeting Q-Tip, I was not nervous at all. The tail is not as scary as I had always imagined it would be! I was able to hold our rat and have held her many times after the first lab. I have to admit that I get really excited to go and hold Q-Tip now. My overall impression of rats has changed since meeting our rat. I have always pictured rats as feisty, dirty little critters, but that was because I had no personal interactions with them besides house invasions. I think a lot of my ease with Q-Tip comes from her smaller frame and pretty white coloring. She does not resemble the pest that most people picture when talking about rats. I have said it a few times, but Emma and I chose to name our rat "Q-Tip." We wanted a unique name that nobody else would choose. Because of her white coloring, Q-Tip lives up to her name really well, and we are already so proud of her. I am a proud rat mom! :)