A team started with a group of 20 Holstein dairy heifers ranging from three to six months old, who had previous experience in the cattle chute area and with human handling. The animals were randomly assigned to either a group receiving positive reinforcement training or a control group receiving standard farm handling in the chute. The study involved 28 training sessions for each animal over four days a week with one session per day. Heifers were first brought to a waiting area ("start box") and were then allowed to enter the training area, where they had access to the chute.

 

Overall, the dairy heifers trained with positive reinforcement showed more anticipatory behaviors in the start box than the control group; specifically, they transitioned between behaviors more frequently, indicating they were anticipating the start of their training sessions and the food reward. The training group also displayed more play behavior, such as jumping and running, indicating that the animals considered the training experience to be positive.