Progressive Ratio Research Protocol 

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

Brief Overview

We will be testing dogs on how many responses they will emit for a given magnitude of reinforcement using a progressive ratio schedule.

Testing area:

Choose a small, quiet room of your house with as few distractions as possible. Definitely pick up all toys, chews, food puzzles, etc.

Keeping track/Recording Data: 

You will either need an assistant to keep you on track for what schedule the dog is working on and when 1 minute from the last response elapses, meaning the end of the session. You can either have a live assistant, or can have someone assist you while you record via Skype.

 We have provided a data sheet so that you can record the date of session, time of session, time since last meal, and record the nose emitted touches on each schedule. That way we can see the largest schedule completed and how many nose touches, if any, they emitted on the last schedule before stopping responding. 

Video recording:

Please video record all your sessions. 

You can use your phone, computer, external webcam, or other device to record. 

 You will send us the Pre-testing phase and your first Testing phase for us to review. After that is approved you can run more sessions on your own (but please continue to video record these).

 You can share these with us by uploading to YouTube and sharing the link or dropping them into a shared Google drive folder

 Reinforcers:

The reinforcer you will use will be determined by the quick preference test you will conduct

Reinforcers for Pre-testing: ½ of the reinforcer used for Testing (3 mm x 6 mm x 6 mm)

Reinforcers for Testing: The treat that the dog selected the most in the preference test (or if your dog preferred two or all treats equally, you can choose)  (6 mm x 6 mm x 6 mm)

If you have a small dog, please let us know and we can discuss adjusting the treat size accordingly 

PREFERENCE TEST 

  • Let dog sample each food item once

  • Use the data sheet provided to know the sequence of treat presentations and to record your data

  • Put the specified treat in your left hand and your right hand*

    • Present them and make sure the dog sniffs both

    • After dog sniffs both move hands slightly away from dog and open them

    • Record which item dog eats

    • Do not let dog consume other treat

    • Continue until you completed all the presentations

    • Count up how many times dog chose each item

    • For the next parts, use the item the dog selected the most

      • If two or more are tied for first, you can choose!

PRE-TESTING & TESTING 

General guidelines for Pre-Testing and Testing Phases:

If possible, stand with your back to a wall so the dog cannot maneuver behind you

Do not make direct eye contact with the dog: Instead, find a place on the floor or wall opposite you to focus on that allows you to see the dog in your peripheral vision but prevents you from making direct eye contact. 

Pre-Testing Phase:

For the dog to enter the testing phase, it needs to emit 20 nose touches on an FR 1 schedule without having more than 1 minute elapses between responses. 

Prepare the reinforcers ahead of time and place them in an easily accessible area (e.g., countertop).  

Sessions:

·      Play the tone that we sent you in a .wav file to indicate the beginning of the session. 

·      Place one of your hands at the dog’s nose level.

·      If you need to during the first five trials of this first session, you can cluck to your dog to encourage them to approach your hand. 

·      If they touch any part of your hand with any part of their muzzle, say “si” and deliver the reinforcer with the other hand. 

·      As soon as you have delivered the reinforcer, put your first hand back down at the dog’s nose level. 

·      Continue this until the dog has emitted 20 nose touches. 

·      If the dog stops for longer than 1 minute, end the session for the day and try again the next day. 

o   If this continues, let us know and we will troubleshoot this. 

 ·      If the dog successfully completes 20 nose touches on an FR 1, you can run the first Testing phase. 

·      ***After Day 1, please submit videos of the Pre-testing and first Testing session (if conducted) to us to review before continuing with more Testing sessions. 

Testing phase:

·      Prepare the reinforcers ahead of time and place them in an easily accessible area. 

·      Make sure to have plenty of reinforcers available 

o   I’d recommend having 60 reinforcers available initially just in case we get dogs working up into FR 20 and beyond. You can adjust the number you prepare based on your dog’s general behavior from prior sessions.

Sessions:

·      Play the same tone as above (we will send this to you in a .wav file) to indicate the beginning of the session. 

·      Place one of your hands at the dog’s nose level.

·      If you need to during the first trial of this session, you can cluck to your dog to encourage them to approach your hand. 

o   After that, no further encouragement is provided. 

·      As in the Pre-training phase, when the dog completes the schedule requirement, you will say “si” and deliver the reinforcer, after which you place your hand at the dog’s nose level again.

o   If the dog is working at a schedule requirement greater than FR 1, you will start the trial by presenting your hand at the dog’s nose level. 

·      If the dog emits a nose touch, briefly raise your hand up and present it again at the dog’s nose level. 

·      Continue raising and re-presenting your hand until the schedule requirement is complete and you say “si” and deliver the food, or until the dog stops responding for 1 minute. 

·      The dog will need to complete two schedule requirements at the same level before you add on another nose touch requirement. 

 

Thus, the sequence in a session will look like this:
FR 1 (nose touchà si à piece of food)

FR 1 (nose touchà si à piece of food)

FR 2 (nose touch à nose touch à si à piece of food)

FR 2 (nose touch à nose touch à si à piece of food)

FR 3 (nose touchà nose touch à nose touch à si à piece of food)

FR 3 (nose touchà nose touch à nose touch à si à piece of food)

FR 4 (nose touchà nose touchà nose touch à nose touch à si à piece of food)

FR 4 (nose touchà nose touchà nose touch à nose touch à si à piece of food)

And on and on as long as the dog continues to work. 

·      The session ends when 1 min elapses since the last nose touch. 

·      For each Testing session, start on an FR 1 and work up just as you did on Day 1 (i.e., the Testing sessions will be the same each time). Each session ends when dog stops responding for 1 minute. 

·      If you run more than one session per day, try to run sessions back to back with no more than 5 minutes between sessions.

·      You can run up to 4 Testing sessions per day. 

We would like a minimum of 3 Training sessions per dog. If there is a lot of variability in your data, we might ask you to do more. If you are interested, we have some follow-up conditions you could run (e.g., larger or smaller magnitude reinforcers).

Thanks for working with us!