Question

You would be most likely to use operant conditioning to teach a dog to ____.

		fear cars in the street
		dislike the taste of dead birds
		wag its tail whenever it is excited
		retrieve sticks and balls

Answer 1

Operant Conditioning means a method in which some tricks are taught through various techniques. In these techniques, a reward is given on successful execution of a task. Punishment is also given in response to non compliance of an order.

1. Dogs are animals with a strong power of sensation. Beside having good smelling power they also have ability to learn tricks. Dogs have tendency to follow cars. They use to bark at running cars. They run behind running cars and run away after realising some danger. So, it is not necessary to teach them to fear cars in street.

2. Dogs are carnivores and they have natural tendency to eat flesh. Their digestive system is naturally designed to digest flesh of dead birds. Hence there is no need to teach them about disliking the taste of dead birds.

3. Dogs wag their tail whenever they are excited. Its a natural tendency and it keeps them active. It is a method to express their emotions like happiness, fear, excitement and dullness. There is no need to teach them this wagging of tail.

4. Retrieving sticks and balls is not a natural activity of dogs. They do not perform such activities in their normal routine. We will have to teach them for performing such actions. This can easily be taught to them by providing some prize on succesful completion of task. This prize can be a piece of meat. In form of punishment we can only show them a piece of meat but will not provide it to them in case of disobeying of orders. This will develope a natural learning inside their mind. It will compel them to accomplish the task for getting the piece of meat. Hence last option is correct.