101 Things to do with a Box: Rewarding Variability in Behavior

You may find this video nerdy but I find this incredibly fascinating. In a number of training sessions prior to filming this video I taught my Sheltie, Scarlett, the concept of behavior variability. To be specific, I taught her that in the presence of a cardboard box only unique behaviors will be rewarded. This is amazing to me because a single stimulus, a box, has come to signal not just one behavior like sit or down, but any behavior as long as it is purposeful and directed toward the box.

Watching the video straight through it may be difficult to see that a new behavior is showcased in each trial. To make it easier, I’ve added captions.