Here is my illustration of the trick I taught Tinkerbell!   She has her trick mastered!  We continued conditioning today and all went well. (I was unable to upload my diagram everyone.  I’ll have to draw it on the board, sorry.)

(Food weight – 20.9 grams – Body weight – 219 grams)

       Tink had a great training weekend.  She really knows her trick and performs  like a star!  We worked hard for our hour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday perfecting her conditioning.  This evening, Sunday, I shot several videos of the little cutie ringing the bell, responding to the clicker and racing to her corner to eat her morsels.  The whole conditioning process has been so enjoyable.  I never ever thought I’d love a rat, BUT I DO!!!!  I hope we can get those special training pellets from Dr. MacEwen so that I can give Tink a special treat, she certainly earned them. Next  attempt is to get those videos up through YouTube.  Wish me luck everyone!

Friday  (food weight 20.9 grams – body weight 209 grams)

Saturday (food weight 20.7 grams – body weight 210 grams)

Sunday (food weight 21. grams – body weight 210 grams) 

       Tinkerbell really shined today!  She is performing her trick very quickly that I can barely keep up with clicking and popping in the food!  She has learned that she needs to bump the bell for the jingle to ocurr, which of course is followed by the clicker and then her food.  It is a most enjoyable hour in my very hectic day at school.  My lab partner, Lauren, and I  hope to film our video tomorrow. 

(Food weight – 20.8 – Body weight – 209 grams) * Weight is back up today!

     My little lab partner, Tink, responded wonderfully today to the conditioning and the clicker!  I place her into the aquarium and she is off and running.  Today we continued shaping and I am now trying to be super patient with her and only “click” when the bell rings.  Yesterday, I clicked for each successful approximation Tink made towards the bell.  So, Tink was a little frustrated with the conditioner today.  She would nudge the bell and run to her “food corner” even if I didn’t click.  I felt badly, but it must be done.  I really think the association is getting stronger each and every trial. 

(Food weight – 20.9 grams – body weight 197 grams) *body weight is down from yesterday!

      I started training Tinkerbell today to “ring” the bell!  This week in ABA lab, we have started using the clicker as the reinforcer for training our rats.  I thought I would have to draw the imaginary line and click for each time Tink made a successful aproximation towards the bell.   I was well prepared to be patient with her during our shaping exercises.  However, to my great surprise, she rang the bell almost immediately; I clicked as fast as I possibly could and she ran to her corner for her morsel!  I just couldn’t believe how fast she learned to ring the bell and then respond to the clicker.  I actually had a hard time keeping up with her.:)  My only dilemma was that she loved “playing” with the bell and would be a little overzealous with her response.  This behavior caused the stick holding the bell to fall into the aquarium which would scare both of us!  I need to find a better way to keep the stick where I need it to be.  I can not complain about anything on this first day of shaping and conditioning using the clicker and the bell.  Hopefully she will respond just like this when it comes time to “shoot” the video!      (Food weight – 20.9 grams – Body weight 209 grams)

      Tink and I continued with more clicker training today.  I really think she is conditioned and so is the trainer!   Practice makes perfect and I’m so afraid she will forget her conditioning.  That would not be good as we begin “trick” training tomorrow.  I have my apparatus ready.  I am using a paint stick which you would use to stir a can of paint.  Attached to the paint stick is a ribbon with a bell.  I am going to “dangle” the bell in Tinkerbell’s “food corner”.  I’m not really sure “how” I’m going to accomplish this trick just yet.  I hope to find more info out in class tomorrow from Dr. MacEwen.  I will post updates of our progress.   (Food weight – 20.9  grams – body weight – 200 grams)

       I am so enjoying my ABA lab class.  I love my little lab partner to pieces and she has been very good to me.  We are “spot on” with our continued classical conditioning.  Tinkerbell has become such a good friend to me and I train her faithfully around 4pm each day of the week.  It really has been a way for me to decompress from a long day at school and I look forward to our training sessions and the solitude of the lab room.  I am still planning on teaching her to ring a bell as her trick.  I will keep you abreast of our progress once we start training.  (Food weight – 21.0 grams, body weight – 200 grams)

       Today in ABA lab, we all presented our videos of clicker training our rats.  Tink did a great job yesterday and performed like a star!  Next on our agenda is to continue classical conditioning pairing the food with the clicker and to begin operant conditioning using the clicker as a reinforcer to teach Tink a trick.  I have decided to “try” to teach Tinkerbell to ring a bell.  My idea is to suspend a bell from a string attached to a board over the aquarium and teach Tink to ring the bell operantly.  When we get organized with the apparatus, I will write more about our beginning and our progress.  Again, thank you to Charlene and Lauren, my lab partners, for helping me to upload Tink’s clicker training video.  Go Teamwork!  (Food weight – 20.8 grams - Body weight 199 grams)

A big hug to Charlene for helping me upload this video!