Operant Conditioning

by Bob Bailey
Running Time: 1 hour 12 minutes
Media: DVD

 

“Simple, but not easy”—the Bailey philosophy on animal training.

For more than half a century, Bob Bailey has been applying that philosophy while he trains animals and teaches animal trainers. As a field biologist, Bob observed that animals in the wild solved complex problems in their day-to-day lives. Bob learned to use simple applied behavior analysis, or operant conditioning, principles to analyze complex animal activities. Using the same principles, he learned how to earn his living training animals and to teach others how to use these principles to train animals themselves.

The Operant Conditioning DVD focuses on teaching simple operant conditioning principles and procedures to animal trainers. Most of the DVD is devoted to students learning how to train the common chicken. In Bob's experience, the chicken is the best teaching model for animal trainers. There are also examples of how the same principles and the procedures used with chickens may be used with other animals, including dogs, bears, horses, and even monkeys.

The DVD focuses on the behavior of the trainer. In the Bailey view of animal training, it is the trainer's precise application of simple principles, his/her skill observing the animal's behavior, and the willingness to rapidly change his/her own behavior as needed that effectively and efficiently produces the best trained behavior in an animal.