During training I definitely ran into a couple problems with Jubilee over the course of our training.
Only one of the problems had to do with the equipment, on the second day of training the hopper kept jamming, so when she pushed the lever, she would not receive immediate reward. After about the 3rd time it jammed I played around with it and figured out I could turn the knob at the top of the hopper to release the food. It only ended up getting stuck one more time so when it did I immediately turned it to administer the food. I do not think this had a major impact on training since it only occurred a few times.
I did not really experience many other problems with Jubilee. She has a very high behavior rate, but is constantly attracted to the front corner of the box, around where I sit. This among other things calls for high distraction but she does not seem to be bothered by other noises in the room or people walking around during training.
The obsession with a particular part of the floor started on the first day of training, and to solve this I tried wiping down and cleaning out the floor of the box, thinking maybe it was another rat's scent that was enthralling her with this area. I did this every day before training, and it did not help whatsoever. I guess she just really likes to nibble on that area!
One thing that I also thought would be a problem was the way she was starting to press the lever. She presses it in every way possible except the normal way. She shoves her nose in there, sometimes nibbles it.. and even sometimes turns her head upside down and gets it to press. I thought this would be an issue but it ended up not being a problem. I discussed it with Dr. Trench and she said she may have developed a "chaining" of behaviors on her own.
The final thing that may have potentially decreased Jubilee's learning was a sparratic training schedule. My day is hectic and with volleyball practices and tournaments her time to train was not always the same. It was actually more regulated towards the end, then at the beginning. During the first 6 days of training I had to take 2 days off in a row and some of her training sessions were much later than the day before.
Her weight has also been all over the place from day to day. I do not know if this is a potential problem but it is just something I have observed.
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