The Adventures of Bella Bambina

• 1. The Adventures of Bella Bambina
  Bella Saves Dinner
  

2. One lazy summer day as Bella a cute little Shi Tzu watch her favorite showThe Dog Whisperer . The phone rang!!
3. Bella!
Bella!!
Bella!!
Bella!!
4. WOAH WOAH!! What's going on Oscar??
Sorry about that Bella I can get a little loud some times.
5. Haha!! That ok Oscar that happens to me all the time
So what can I do for you Oscar??
6. Ok, Ijust met this adorable little golden Shi Tzu.
Everything was ok until I realized that she had some issues
Well umm I dont know if your going to like this but ok, here goes BEHAVIOR ISSUES!!
Hmm.. What type of issues?
WHAT!! Oh no nono, I will help her!!
7. Tell me exactly what the problem is.
Ahhh.. Poor little dog. She has no manners. But no worries we will help her behave like a good dog.
Ok her name is Bridget and she is only two years old. Right before dinner when her human parents set the table. Bridget sneaks up on the table when no one is looking. Then she steal their food.
8. WE?? What do you mean?
I dont know anything about behavior training Bella.
Ok sounds good.
Hehehehe ahh I thought you would say that but dont worry its really not that hard. Just watch and learn.
9. Bella ran immediately to her room.
She looked for her favorite red blanket, which also doubles as a super hero cape!
10. Hello Oscar Im here.
I told you I would be fast!
Of course its me silly. Im super Bella Bambina now!!
Nowshall we?
Whoa!
Is that really you??
11. Ok so now that we are here the first thing we must do is simply observe. However we also will take down some baseline data. We will also do what is called a functional asssesment
Baseline data? Functional assesment? Whoa hang on a bit you are going to fast.
12. Its actually very simple. Here let me explain.
Baseline:

• The phase of an experiment or intervention

13. In which the behavior is measured 14. In the absence of an interventionOscar: so what your saying is that we will take data on Bridgets behavior before we start an intervention?
Bella: Right on!! Your getting this! Ok so next
Functional Assessment:

• An analysis

15. Of the contingencies responsible for 16. Behavioral problemsOk so that means that we will observe to see what is maintaining the behavior of jumping on the table. Right?
Right you are!!
17. Alright. Get ready for it here it comes.
18. Bella and Oscar observed Bridget for a week.
Ok Oscar, now that we have all the baseline data we need we can analyze what is really going on here. Lets see if there is something reinforcing the behavior
Reinforcer: A stimulus that increases the frequency of a response it follows
19. Before:
Behavior:
After:

• So we noticed a few things during the baseline stage.

First lets look at what is maintaining the behavior.
Reinforcement Contingency:

• The response-contingent

20. Presentation of 21. A reinforcer 22. Resulting in an increased frequency of that responseBridget jumps on the table and eat the food
Bridget has attention from family
Bridget has no attention from family
One of the things we noticed was that during the time that mom was cooking dinner everyone was doing their own thing and poor little Bridget was left alone to watch TV. By jumping on the dinner table she was able to get a nice treat but also the attention of the family.
23. Wow, when you put it that way its much easier to understand
Yes. I know that was called a behavioral contingency
Cool!!
24. So Bella? Where do we go from now?
Ok, so now that we know what the problem is and what is causing it we can begin
Well we need to extinguish the behavior
25. Extinction:

• Stopping the reinforcement or escape contingency

26. For a previously reinforced response 27. Causes the response frequency to decrease Waite! I have question. How well we stop reinforcement if we aren't providing the reinforcing?
Awesome! your totally getting it. We cant so we will have to train her.
28. But before we establish a procedure let look more at what is maintaining the behavior
Before:
Behavior:
After:
Before:
Behavior:
After:
This is a diagram of Bridgets behavior
No attention
Has attention
Jumps on table
This is also known as an escape contingency!
And this is Moms behavior
Mom sees aversive sight of Bridget on table
Runs pick Bridget up and lectures her
Mom has no aversive sight of Bridget on the table
29. Hold on what is an escape contingency? And why are we diagraming Moms behavior?
Well remember that mom is responsible for maintaining Bridget's behavior.
I will show you how the behavior continues to happen! But first escape contingency.
Escape contingency:

• The response-contingent

30. Removal of 31. An aversive stimulus 32. Resulting in an increased frequency of that response