Date of Award
Spring 5-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Behavior Analysis
Department
Education and Human Services
First Advisor
Robbie Hanson
Abstract
Over one million dogs have entered shelters in 2024 alone with approximately 31% of those dogs being relinquished by their owners (Shelter Animal Count, 2024). Further, non-aggressive behavioral issues are often cited as a primary cause for owner relinquishment (Best Friends Network Partners, 2018; Howard & DiGennaro Reed, 2014). Previous research has shown the effectiveness of training methods based on positive reinforcement to reduce problematic behavior with dogs and to increase desirable behavior, such as shaping and clicker training, and there has been a growing interest in the use of imitation during training. Fugazza and Miklosi (2015) compared a shaping procedure with a “Do as I do” method to increase desirable behavior with dogs and the results showed that the “Do as I do” method was more efficient and effective for teaching object-related actions with mixed support for training body-movement actions. However, it was noted that the dogs and owners had previous histories of training, baseline data were not collected, and the reduction of problem behavior was not assessed. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to compare shaping with an imitation procedure to train a “place” response with a pet dog to examine its impact on problem behavior and to address limitations from previous research. The results showed that the imitation procedure was successful for teaching the dog to “place” in a designated location whereas the shaping procedure did not progress past the first approximation to the terminal behavior. Further, problem behavior reduced during the imitation procedure but continued during shaping.
Recommended Citation
Weir, Carlee and Hanson, Robbie, "A Comparison of Shaping and Imitation for Reducing a Dog’s Problem Behavior" (2024). Theses. 1240.
https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/theses/1240
