FR2 Schedule

Goal: Today we moved Despereaux up to an FR2 schedule with the goal being to have her consistently pushing the bar two times to receive her reinforcement pellet.

Procedure: We used the "FR2" program.

Observations and Discussion:

     On Tuesday, we began our session on FR1, but since she immediately began pressing the bar and continued to do so consistently, we removed her from the box after 4 minutes and reloaded the program using FR2. When we placed her back in the box, she returned to the bar and began pressing again. for the first several minutes she would press the bar once and look in the magazine, but after a few minutes she seemed to realize that it takes more than one press to receive the reward. Despereaux had two long breaks where she groomed herself and seemed to lose interest, but after about 4-5 minutes she would return to the bar and begin again. Overall she pressed the bar 37 times and received 18 pellets.

Tuesday (10/1): FR2 Schedule

Tuesday (10/1): First few minutes on FR1

    The next day we continued on the FR2 schedule. Despereaux immediately went to the bar and begin pressing. She pressed 11 times in the first minute and had 27 presses at the 3 minute mark. It was a more successful day and by the end of the 30 minute session Despereaux pressed the bar a total of 163 times. She spent less time grooming today and did not spend as much time sniffing in the corner as past days. Des continues to use both her head and her paws to press the bar, but Logan and I decided this was okay and did not go back to shaping to prevent head pressing. For some reason, the cumulative record for this day is not complete. Although we did a full 30 minute session, only 16 minutes is recorded.

Wednesday (10/2)