Now that the calves had learned that standing still caused a whistle to be blown and then a treat to be thrown, it was time to expand their learning. They were now taught to stand still when scared. The calves were gradually exposed to a variety of new experiences and novelty, such as noises, people in different types of clothes, rattling of squeeze chute gates and bars, and walking through the handling facility. Novelty was gradually introduced to ensure that the animals would not become overly fearful. This is the most important part of any conditioning.
First experiences are critical.
If the first experience is frightening and causes the animal to run, the animal will be harder to convince to re-enter the same situation. However, if the experience is pleasant and does not cause the animal to flee, future encounters with the situation will be relatively smooth. If the animals were about to panic, we temporarily stopped the training, and allowed them to calm down. The novelty was never so great as to cause the calves to panic and run blindly. Trainers were actively involved in shaping and desensitizing the experimental group to novelty.