Shaping!!

We spent three days shaping Q-Tip. We spent an hour and 18 minutes and 44 seconds overall teaching her how to press the lever. We trained her to press the lever based on this sequence: 

1. We first started rewarding her for looking towards the lever until she got close to it. 

2. We then rewarded her for being in the back corner close to the lever. 

3. Third, we rewarded her for putting her face close to the top of the lever. We wanted her to be on top of the lever instead of under it.

4. We rewarded her for being on top of the lever with a hand on it. 

5. We then made sure she had two hands on top of the lever. At this point, she realized that she pressed the lever and began pressing it on her own. 

Although shaping took three days, it was fairly easy. Oddly, she never really gave up during shaping and became interested in getting her reinforcements. I thought it was easier than what we discussed in our class. She seemed to really understand what we asked of her and what we did not want. In the video, she is on step three. She is starting to understand that we want her face above the lever.