The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of procedures successfully used in human related applied behaviour analysis practices to the field of clinical animal behaviour. Experiment 1 involved functional analyses to identify the reinforcement contingencies maintaining jumping up behaviour in five dogs. Experiment 2 comprised teaching dog owners a noncontingent reinforcement intervention (i.e., time-based reinforcement) via behavioural skills training. Single-case experimental methods were implemented in both experiments. The results of Experiment 1 showed that access to a tangible (dogs D01, D02, D03, and D04) and owner attention (dog D05) were reliably maintaining the jumping up behaviour. Experiment 2 demonstrated that noncontingent reinforcement effectively reduced jumping in three out of four dogs (Tau −0.59, CI 90% [−1–0.15], p = 0.026, Tau −1, CI 90% [−1–−0.55], p = 0.0003, and Tau −0.32, CI 90% [−0.76–0.11], p = 0.22 for dyads D01, D02, and D05, respectively), and that behavioural skills training was successful in teaching owners to perform a dog training intervention with high fidelity. Although the results are promising, more canine-related research into functional analysis and noncontingent reinforcement, as well as implementation of behavioural skills training with animal caregivers, is needed.

Interteaching is a behavioral teaching method that departs from the traditional lecture format (Boyce & Hineline in BA 25:215–226, 2002). We updated and expanded previous interteaching reviews and conducted a meta-analysis on its effectiveness. Systematic searches identified 38 relevant studies spanning the years 2005–2018. The majority of these studies were conducted in undergraduate face-to-face courses. The most common independent variables were manipulations of the configuration of interteaching or comparisons to traditional-lecture format. The most common dependent variables were quiz or examination scores. Only 24% of all studies implemented at least five of the seven components of interteaching. Prep guides, discussions, record sheets, and frequent assessments were the most commonly implemented. Meta-analyses indicated that interteaching is more effective than traditional lecture or other control conditions, with an overall large effect size. Furthermore, variations in the configuration of the interteaching components do not seem to substantially limit its effectiveness, as long as the discussion component is included. Future research informed by the present review includes: (a) investigating the efficacy of interteaching in additional academic areas, online environments, workplace training, and continuing education, (b) testing alternative outcome measures, generalization, and procedural integrity, (c) conducting systematic component analyses, and (d) measuring social validity from the instructor’s perspective. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10864-021-09452-3.

A conditioned reinforcer is a stimulus that acquired its effectiveness to increase and maintain a target behavior on the basis of the individual’s history—e.g., pairings with other reinforcers. This systematic review synthesized findings on conditioned reinforcement in the applied animal training field. Thirty-four studies were included in the review and six studies were eligible for a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of behavioral interventions that implemented conditioned reinforcement (e.g., clicks, spoken word, or whistles paired with food). The majority of studies investigated conditioned reinforcement with dogs (47%, n = 16) and horses (30%, n = 10) implementing click–food pairings. All other species (cats, cattle, fish, goats, and monkeys) were equally distributed across types of conditioned (e.g., clicker or spoken word) and unconditioned reinforcers (e.g., food, water, or tactile). A meta-analysis on the effectiveness of conditioned reinforcement in behavioral interventions found a medium summary effect size (Tau-U 0.77; CI95% = [0.53, 0.89]), when comparing baseline, where no training was done, and treatment levels. Moderators of conditioned reinforcement effectiveness were species (e.g., horses) and research design (e.g., multiple-baseline designs). The small number of intervention-focused studies available limits the present findings and highlights the need for more systematic research into the effectiveness of conditioned reinforcement across species.

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A meta-analytic review was conducted to assess the current knowledge regarding caregiver training effectiveness for human-human and human-canine dyads. The results showed that most canine-related sources (66%; n=19) were case studies reporting a decrease of learner undesired behavior when using oral instruction/advice (21%; n=6). Most of the human-related research used singlecase designs (57%; n=26) reporting an increase in desired learner behavior (22%; n=10) when caregivers received multi-component training packages, including two or more approaches (17%, n=8). The meta-analysis of betweengroup-design studies (n=18) revealed that interventions had a large effect (Hedges' g=0.88, 95%CI [0.68-1.07]), with packages yielding a slightly larger moderate effect (Hedges' g=0.76, 95%CI [0.60-0.91]) than oral instruction/advice alone (Hedges' g=0.74, 95%CI [0.32-1,15]). Although the shown effectiveness of caregiver training is promising, the results should be interpreted cautiously. Due to the preponderance of case studies within caninerelated literature and the insufficient reporting of data across sources, only few studies could be included in the meta-analysis. Overall, more systematic and comparative research regarding the efficacy of caregivers in behavior change programs across species is needed. 174 words Keywords: systematic-review; human-dog relationship; caregiver-training; interventions qualitative nature. They often describe in great detail the assessment and/or treatment of one or more participants by integrating all information about the case into a unified and related idea or set of ideas (Sturmey, 2009; Virues-Ortega & Moreno-Rodriguez, 2008). Further, their interest is frequently related to reporting new findings that lack replication with group designs, hence, informing about new methods, novel applications of established techniques or unpredicted effects of assessments or treatments (Virues-Ortega & Moreno-Rodriguez, 2008). By contrast, SCDs are special adaptations of interrupted time-series designs and provide a strong basis for establishing causal, or functional, inference by (a) operationally defining the dependent variable; (b) conducting baseline measurements; and (c) replicating experimental conditions (e.g., A-B-A-B) with each subject (