Do you think I can train a leopard gecko to go through a maze

[perfectpythons]

Hi I'm doing an experiment, can you train a leo to go through a maze. Can some one give some more info for my research.
Thank you

[loonunit]

Well, I think it's POSSIBLE to train a leopard gecko to go through a maze. I'm not sure if you'll be able to do it... but at least the reward schedule for leopard geckos is a little more regular than for constricting snakes.

Still, you might want to try clicker training.

[wolfy-hound]

Using operant conditioning, you can train just about anything to do a pre-determined action.

You need to find a "reward". It can be food or warmth or whatever the leo will want. When it does what you want it to do, it gets the reward.

A tip about how to train for a trick that involves several steps. Start at the end. In this case, train the leo to go into the "END" block to get it's reward. Then once it does that, start one step away from the END block, so that the leo goes to the entrance to the END, then into the END. Once it does that, move it one more step back, so it goes from there to the hallway that goes to the entrance that goes to the END.

This way, the leo is never being asked to do a established "trick" then something unknown. It's asked to do something to get to the action that leads to the reward. So the big reward starts out as "END-reward". Then it's "see the END- END-reward" and it is almost rewarded by seeing how to get the reward.

Good luck. The main thing is to be consistent and patient. Don't rush ahead if the leo hasn't gotten step one down. Once you get the first couple steps down, you should see the training speed increase greatly.