Final Post

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This class has been one of the best and most memorable courses I have taken at BSC. I have thoroughly enjoyed the hands on aspect of the course. I have really thought of this class as a baby step into my future career as a police officer. I hope to become a K9 officer in the future and will have to train my dog and shape their behavior to do a certain task. So the entire time I was with Lil Thing I was trying to treat it like training a dog. It was a great experience and really made me realize how much more challenging training can be in real life.

The only thing I did not like about this course was the sniffy training on the computer. I think that real life experience is more beneficial than a computer. Also, we had already started training our rats to perform a trick when we did the Sniffy training.

The most surprising thing about this class was how fast my rat learned her tasks. She showed to be very bright from early on in the semester. The only thing that made her regress in training was my own shortcomings with inconsistent training days due to a hectic schedule. The biggest misconceptions that people have about rats is that they are gross and evil. They are very clean and very smart. Rats enjoy human interaction and form a bond with their humans much that of a dog. I definitely formed a bond with my rat and enjoyed seeing her work hard and enjoy being held by me.

Thank you Dr. Trench and the BSC psychology department for the opportunity to take this course and for allowing me to finish my psychology degree on such a high note!
(Lil Thing says thanks for reading!)


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