Psychology With Kenji

On the 12th of May, Ms. Dass’ Psychology had a visitor, Kenji the German Shepherd Dog! Ms. Dass brought her dog Kenji to help us learn about the topic of operant conditioning. The big, black, fluffy dog was a star that had the attention of everyone in the class and everyone else in the school!

To help us out with operant conditioning, Ms. Dass encouraged Kenji to do some tricks. Through the use of little treats, we saw positive reinforcement in action with the treats being used for rewarding Kenji from doing his awesome tricks like spinning, rolling over and even getting him to dance with Ms. Dass!

Also, we were able to teach Kenji a new trick! The ‘bang’ trick where Ms. Dass did a finger gun to Kenji and said bang, where he rolled over and played dead. Everyone in the class loved Kenji because he was a really good boy. 

But man, can that dog be scary when it wants to be, barking at some VCAL boys who tried to interrupt our classroom! Overall, the biggest takeaway from this lesson wasn’t the seeing operant conditioning in action, but it was being introduced to the best boy, Kenji the dog.

                                                                                                                                    – Jayden Bonner, 12A