Constructional Approach to Animal Welfare and Training

We are back to podcasting!! In this episode, we share our recent work with one of the shelter dogs - Barry!

Barry, a 9-month-old, 100-pound puppy, was jumping and mouthing all over us to an extreme level. And he needed help to learn how to interact with people to obtain what he wanted, which was attention and interaction from people. You will hear how we applied Interaction Guidelines to effectively teach him how to ask for and rece...

In this episode, we share Sammy's journey of finding his forever home. Sammy was a dog that loved people. However, he was engaging in behaviors that prevented him from getting adopted. He would excessively jump inside his enclosure and when interacting with people. But all he wanted was affection from people. So, we used Constructional Affection to teach him how to ask for and receive affection from people and engage in desira...

In this episode, we explore the application of Constructional Affection to other species, such as equines, tortoises, birds, etc! To get us started, Sean and Maasa are discussing the conjugate reinforcement schedule and several questions to consider: When is it ideal to use Constructional Affection? How can we program our affection as a reinforcer? How can we set up the environment to ask the animal whether affection is working as ...

We have been going to our local animal shelter and working with their dogs for a while now! So, we wanted to share stories of three dogs that we got to work with: Ryder, Carmel, and Shelby. You will hear how the Constructional Approach helped them learn desirable behaviors to ask for and receive our interaction and affection, which is critical for finding their forever homes!

Watch the first session with Carmel

*We will soon be ...

In part 2 of our interview with Dr. Susan Friedman, we have a thought-provoking discussion about the contributions, similarities, and differences the Constructional Approach has with other approaches to training and other behavior analytic approaches. Please enjoy as we explore this approach from its philosophic implication to its influence on real-world procedures!

Below are the links we mentioned during the episode:

🌼 CAAWT c...

Happy New Year, everyone! We are kicking off our first episode of 2022 with an interview with Dr. Susan Friedman! In this first part of two episodes, Dr. Friedman describes her passion for behavior analysis, the contingencies that motivate people to continue learning and growing in this field, and the importance of adopting this animal training philosophy. Please enjoy this amazing interview with one of the pioneers of applications...

2021 is almost ending, and 2022 is at the corner! We are sure that you are starting to set goals and things you want to do in 2022! In this episode, we reflected on the goals we set for 2021, what we did to achieve our goals, and we also talked about our goals for 2022! We are looking forward to continuing learning and exploring the Constructional Approach and meeting our goals together in 2022! 

Thank you for listening to...

The Constructional Questionnaire (Goldiamond, 1974) is a powerful tool that can help guide our consulting and help achieve our client's meaningful goals that will sustain themselves easily in our absence. In this episode, Stuart Hoffman shares his learning journey of understanding the Constructional Approach, his first experience using the questionnaire, and its impact on the dog and their family. We hope you enjoy this wonder...

Join us for another fun and inspiring conversation with Chase Owens! Chase and Sean talked about how we can be constructional and practical for helping shelter dogs get adopted and stay adopted. Their conversation highlights the importance of how we choose a specific procedure and set our training goals. In the case of helping shelter dogs, the dogs need to learn desirable human-animal interactions that will help the dogs get adopt...

Join us for a fun and inspiring conversation with Chase Owens. Chase and Sean talked about their experience developing the procedure of Constructional Affection with the dogs they worked with in animal shelters! They shared many stories and discussed how the idea of using affection came about and how they systematized the use of affection to teach the dogs easier-to-do, less costly, and "desirable" behaviors in an errorle...

In part 2 of our interview with Barbara Heidenreich, she discusses challenges, and their solutions, to applying the Constructional Aggression Treatment with various exotic animals in zoological settings. Through sharing some amazing stories, she explains the importance of why our training procedures need to be functional. Please enjoy this wonderful episode!

Below are the links we mentioned during the episode:

• If you are int...

In this episode of part 1 of 2, Barbara Heidenreich shares her journey of becoming an animal training consultant, her introduction to the Constructional Approach, and the benefits of this approach in helping animals and the staff in a zoological setting. She also shared creative applications of the Constructional Aggression Treatment with exotic species! We hope you enjoy this amazing interview!


Below are the links we...

"It is not contingency, but it is contingencies. It is plural!"  - Dr. Israel Goldiamond

This episode will start with what we mean by "contingency" and introduce two sets of analysis: linear and nonlinear analyses. We will go beyond looking at a single contingency and begin discussing how multiple contingencies are interacting to influence behavior. When we look at behavior nonlinearly, we can make sense of why o...

It has been seven months since we shared our life with Chuu. Since then, we have accomplished quite a bit, so we want to share our progress with Chuu, mainly focusing on the separation anxiety problem discussed in episodes 7 and 10. In this episode, we talk about the application of Affection Loop to solve separation anxiety. You will hear how we can start our journey from removing our hands from Chuu when being pet for one second t...

In our everyday life, we collect data on the things that are important to us, such as health, finances, or education. This practice also applies to our animal training to solve problems. Rather than relying on our gut feeling, we can take data and assess the situation to help us understand what is going on and decide what to do next. In this episode, we share our stories and discuss easy methods of conducting assessments and collec...

Join us with Carol Novello from Mutual Rescue. During this interview, Carol shares her work of raising awareness of how rescuing animals can help people and animals, partnering with animal shelters and communities, and the relationship between human services and animal welfare. Please enjoy!

Below are the links we mentioned in the episode:
Mutual Rescue: https://mutualrescue.org
Enjoy the Mutual Rescue Film "E...

Join us in this episode as we introduce you to Morgan Katz! Morgan is the Director of Behavior Services for multiple animal shelters in the Boston area, and one of the presenters at our upcoming webinar at the end of March. In our interview, Morgan shares where her passion for helping animals comes from, her journey learning about various techniques used in animal training, and how her history shapes the way she helps the animals a...

Happy New Year from CAAWT Podcast! Here is the first episode of 2021! In this episode, we reflected on the big topics we covered in 2020 and passionately talked about our vision for 2021. We share our vision of exploring animal welfare issues from the perspective of the constructional approach in a much larger and broader context, collaborating with experts from different fields, and exchanging information to improve animal welfare...

Join us as we explore a critical concept in Constructional Affection - Conjugate Reinforcement. Our discussion focuses on what conjugate reinforcement is, how and why we use this delivery of reinforcement during Interaction Guidelines. Please enjoy this episode and visit our Patreon page for bonus material that takes a deeper dive into the research behind Conjugate Reinforcement. Thank you so much for listening to our show for a wh...