Another Reason to Deal with Coyotes Sooner Than Later

[RHRanch]

Quote:
Even if people are not actively feeding or leaving garbage out, this survival/hunting technique can be taught to young coyotes by adults who have found that these excursions to human areas can occasionally pay off with garbage, stray or unprotected livestock, pets, etc. Intermittent re-enforcement is one of the most powerful training techniques (That's why people gamble even though the odds are aginst them)

Heres a description both humans and animals are vulnerable to this: By far the number one reason that people love to gamble is the potential to win money. Why else would millions of people repeatedly buy lottery tickets when they know they are more likely to get struck by lightning than to win? While everyone hopes to hit the jackpot, for most people a small win is enough to keep them coming back. On a psychological level, this phenomenon of hope/expectation is best explained by famed psychologist B.F. Skinner's theory on operant conditioning.

Gambling falls under Skinner's category of positive reinforcement and more specifically intermittent reinforcement on a variable interval schedule. In English, that basically means that winning every once in a while (even when we lose far more frequently) is all the positive encouragement that gamblers need to keep playing. If you've ever played a slot machine, then you probably know what we're talking about. Even after you've lost $100 playing slots, you still get a little thrill when three single bars hit the payline and you get $30 back.

Source: http://www.gamblingplanet.org/editorial/Psychology-of-gambling/070209

 

[briteday]

Quote:
Even if people are not actively feeding or leaving garbage out, this survival/hunting technique can be taught to young coyotes by adults who have found that these excursions to human areas can occasionally pay off with garbage, stray or unprotected livestock, pets, etc. Intermittent re-enforcement is one of the most powerful training techniques (That's why people gamble even though the odds are aginst them)

Heres a description both humans and animals are vulnerable to this: By far the number one reason that people love to gamble is the potential to win money. Why else would millions of people repeatedly buy lottery tickets when they know they are more likely to get struck by lightning than to win? While everyone hopes to hit the jackpot, for most people a small win is enough to keep them coming back. On a psychological level, this phenomenon of hope/expectation is best explained by famed psychologist B.F. Skinner's theory on operant conditioning.

Gambling falls under Skinner's category of positive reinforcement and more specifically intermittent reinforcement on a variable interval schedule. In English, that basically means that winning every once in a while (even when we lose far more frequently) is all the positive encouragement that gamblers need to keep playing. If you've ever played a slot machine, then you probably know what we're talking about. Even after you've lost $100 playing slots, you still get a little thrill when three single bars hit the payline and you get $30 back.

Source: http://www.gamblingplanet.org/editorial/Psychology-of-gambling/070209

Yes. Living in the great state of Nevada, we are very familiar with gambling philosophy. That's why we invite people to make this a vacation destination! Most locals have learned the odds. On the other hand, any animal that we train around here, like teaching our dogs agility, we use the "slot machine technique." Start out by food rewarding the dog as soon as she performs the desired behavior correctly, each time. Then as the proper behavior becomes more routine, reduce the food rewards(and ramp up the verbal cues) until you are almost never giving a food reward. But the dog is still thinking like a person in front of the slot machine, "this thing has got to pay out soon!!!!!!" In the end you will not need to give a food reward, just the verbal cue. But my dogs keep looking at my hand and pocket hoping for the food each time. Just like pulling the handle on a slot machine and watching those wheels spin, hoping for the reward. NOT!

And the coyotes will never be without their rewards as well, in any community. Even the baby bunny they snatch from my neighbor's yard (he has lots of grassy lawn that attracts them) is perceived as belonging to that property, even if it's not my neighbor's pet. So as long as the coyote continues to get any reward, bunny/poodle/chicken , from a designated area the coyote will continue to hunt there based on good old gambling (slot machine reward) philosophy.