“…Given its popularity, questions about the effectiveness and efficiency of conditioned reinforcement have become some of the focal points of research in the animal training arena (e.g., [ 9 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]). Generally, studies have either investigated the effectiveness of conditioned reinforcement by teaching animals arbitrarily selected responses (e.g., sliding a lid to open a box, touching the top end of a stick or touching a cone, or spins and bows [ 20 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ]) or used conditioned reinforcement to teach an alternative behavior during a behavior change program or teaching new skills (e.g., touching a target, slipping into a head halter, or releasing a toy on cue [ 4 , 8 , 22 , 23 ]). Different methodologies are evident in this literature.…”