Welcome to the March edition of the Clicker Carnival! Below you’ll find some great blog articles on animal training from the past month from around the web.

This edition’s a little late–the weather has been gorgeous in Texas and I’ve been outside playing with the ponies rather than tending to the blog. The horses are enjoying the weather too–such as Cricket (pictured above) sleeping in the sun.

Enjoy these articles and enjoy the coming month as the weather warms up. I wish you beautiful spring weather, whatever you are, and plenty of time outside with your animals.

Barrie presents Jellybean is a Whiz posted at Fun with Dogs. Jelly Bean is learning a few new tricks! Check them out, along with some video footage, over at Barrie’s blog.

Diana L Guerrero presents Animal Training is Like Piano Playing posted at Ark Animal Answers. Check out Ark Animals to find out how animal training is like piano playing. You might be surprised at some of the similarities!

Caitlyn presents Charging the Clicker and Targeting posted at Beebee’s Chrome Chevalier. I love stories of animals learning about clicker training. Chrome’s a smarty and caught onto clicker training in his first session.

Eileen Murphy presents Using a Muzzle posted at Companions Training Blog. Should you train your dog to wear a muzzle? You might be surprised at the answer!

Molly presents Poisoned Cues and Natural Horsemanship posted at Golden the Pony Girl. Poisoned cues can slow down our training–and often we don’t even realize they’re there! The post is a great introduction to the subject of poisoned cues.

Anne presents Prepare for the Worst posted at Pet Central. “Bad” behavior is usually just normal dog behavior! However, there are lots of ways to make dog behavior more acceptable to our human world.

Debbie presents Taking an Intermediate Dog Back to Beginners posted on her dog training blog. This is a great training story about what to do when an animal isn’t getting what you’re trying to train.

Emma presents Trick Wise posted at Star’s Blog. Star is working on a few cool new tricks. This post also has a great discussion about why trick training is awesome for horses. (The dog people who read the carnival might not realize this, but many traditional horse people are very opposed to teaching horses “tricks.”)

I attended the 2010 Art and Science of Animal Training Conference at UNT last month. The conference was awesome and I have been (slowly) posting my notes online. If you missed them, you can check them out here.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the clicker carnival. Join us next month for even more articles about positive training. To find out how to submit articles to the carnival as well as to check out the archives of past issues, check out this page.

First up, Diana L Guerrero presents Pro or Con Cesar Millan? posted at Ark Animal Answers. What can we learn from Cesar Millan? And is it worthwhile to even debate about him and his controversial TV show? This post (as well as some of the comments) brings up some really interesting points to consider, no matter how you feel about Cesar Millan.

Eileen Murphy presents Growling is Good! posted at Companions Training Blog. Why do our dogs growl and what does this mean? Eileen writes a great article about how to address growling and why we should never punish a growling dog.

Eric Goebelbecker presents How can I get my dog to calm down? Continued….. posted at Dog Spelled Forward. This is a great article about how we can teach our dogs certain behaviors to help them calm down. Check it out, it also includes a very cute video. I love how dogs trained with positive methods always seem to be wagging their tails!

KD presents Training my Horse like a Dog posted at The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague. Minnow, one of Kyley’s trick Chincoteague ponies, has been working on his rear. This great post shares some neat video footage of the training process, as well as some interesting information about how Kyley is training this behavior.

Jane Jackson presents Punishers and Reinforcers posted at Bookends Farm. This informative posts contains some great information about punishment, with some good examples of how we need to look at actual behavior before calling something a punisher (or reinforcer). Jane also does a great job discussing what to do about horses that nip, something that most horse people have to deal with at one time or another.

Robert D. Jones presents Best Dog Crate Review: Had We Only Used a Dog Crate posted at Best Dog Crate Review. Should you use a dog crate? Robert shares a thoughtful post about how crate training would have been beneficial for his dog Bud.

Donald Summers presents Enrolling in Puppy Agility Classes posted at Edogadvice. Can puppies do agility? Why not? A puppy agility class is a great way to introduce your puppy to new situations and simple behaviors. Donald covers how to start teaching a few basic obstacles, as well as a trick you might want to avoid with a puppy!

Bonus blog post

Shawn Finch presents My Rat Wuzzy posted at Omaha.net – Local Writing from the Heartland. I usually try to be pretty strict about only accepting posts related to training. However, I loved this heartwarming story about a veterinarian’s love for her hairless rat. (And Wuzzy, the rat, does help train kids about science.)

I hope you enjoyed this edition of the clicker carnival. Join us next month for even more articles about positive training. To find out how to submit articles to the carnival as well as to check out the archives of past issues, check out this page.

Happy training!

The February edition will be published Friday morning, so please submit your articles by Thursday evening at the latest.

(What’s a blog carnival? A blog carnival is a monthly collection of blog posts pertaining to a certain topic. Carnivals are a great way for bloggers to showcase their best posts and for readers to discover interesting blog articles.)

Welcome! This month, staleCheerios is hosting the February edition of the Carnival of the Horses, a blog carnival devoted to all things related to horses. Check out the submissions below, I think you’ll enjoy them!

Kerry Kelly presents Martial Arts Pony posted at Hoofbeats.

Ishtar presents Equine Expansion! posted at Esther Garvi.

Sue Steiner presents Being Brave posted at A Multi-Colored Life.

Margy Hesser presents Feeding Time posted at Homeschool Highschool, saying, “A breakdown of a rehabed thoroughbred’s diet.”

Carol Vinzant presents Are Undescended Horse Testicles Getting in the Way of a Sanctuary? posted at AnimalTourism.com.

Mary Hunter presents Halter Training Success with Daisy and Gatsby posted at staleCheerios.com.

Thanks for reading this edition of the carnival of the horses. If you blog about horses, consider submitting an article to the next edition. You can submit articles to the carnival of the horses using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

carnival of the horses, blog carnival.

Diana L Guerrero presents Good Hypothesis or Hooey? posted at Ark Animal Answers. People tend to address behavior issues only after they escalate and also anthropomorphism as to why animals act they way they do. So, is your claim a good hypothesis or hooey?

Kindred Animality presents Health First posted at Kindred Animality. After you read the first article, also be sure to check out this one! Many “behavioral problems” often stem from underlying health issues.

Angela presents Shaping: Guidelines for Success posted at fun4fido. Angela’s post does a great job of covering how to be a successful at shaping. Check it out for some excellent tips and a neat video.

Robin presents Punishment Part I posted at Living With Parrots Cage Free. This post is an excellent explanation of the types of punishment, along with great examples and discussion.

Eric Goebelbecker presents Dog Whisperer Commentary on Bella posted at Dog Spelled Forward Website and Blog. After you read Robin’s post on punishment, be sure to check out Eric’s commentary on Cesar Millan. This is a new series Eric has started–he does a wonderful job of analyzing what behavioral change techniques are used in the show, including what’s good, what’s bad, and what to think when Millan starts talking about energy!

Kyley presents The Family Business posted at The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague. Kyley’s ponies are known for their fabulous paintings. Now, she’s got another family member learning the family trade!

Barrie presents Get the door! posted at Fun with Dogs. There are many tricks we can teach our pets to make our lives easier and save us time. Here’s a cute one (with video) from Barrie of neat trick her dog Jellybean recently learned how to do.

(What’s a blog carnival? A blog carnival is a monthly collection of blog posts pertaining to a certain topic. Carnivals are a great way for bloggers to showcase their best posts and for readers to discover interesting blog articles.)

Looking for good training resources? (Or what about a present for a dog loving friend?) Eric Goebelbecker’s post,Five Dog Training Books All Dog Owners Should Have, posted on his blog Dog Spelled Forward is a great list of some top dog books. If you haven’t read these books, I encourage you to check some of them out!

So you and your dog love positive training. Great! But sometimes it can be a challenge to come up with clever tricks to teach our pets. Lisa Taylor presents 10 Best Unique and Easy Tricks to Teach Your Dog posted at Veterinary Technician Schools Online. Take a look a the list, maybe you’ll be inspired to try some of these with your own pet!

Angela Adams MSc CABC presents The Shape Of Things To Come posted at fun4fido blog – clicker training 4 dogs. Loose leash walking is one of the biggest problems dog owners have with their dogs. However leash training can be very difficult for the novice trainer, especially if they don’t have a well thought out plan. Angela discusses how to address this training task using shaping and small approximations.

KD writes an Update on Shop Dog Training posted at The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague. The trick ponies blog usually focuses on horses, but every once in awhile, Dachshund Ammo gets his own post. Kyley wrties about teaching a set of opposite cues to reduce Ammo’s barking when he goes to work with her.

Does your dog need a trainer? Some training problems can be solved on your own but sometimes professional help might be needed. But how do you decide if you can handle the problem on your own? Jake presents Does your dog need a trainer? posted at Dog Training Pet. This article gives some good tips about when it might be useful to find a professional trainer.

Can an old dog learn a new trick? Of course he can! Jody Diehl discusses working with her older dog in her post Train for Life at her blog, Dog Training with Jody Diehl. As our dogs age we might want to teach different behaviors or our criteria for other behaviors might change. The post is also a great reminder that training is a life long activity!

House training one puppy can be hard enough. But what about house training two at the same time? Debbie Davidson writes about her adventures house training her current two puppies in her post House Training 101 on her dog training blog. What I especially like about this post is it’s full of good examples of how to arrange the environment so that your dog has a high chance of being successful.

Lastly, here’s a neat video of Shimmer, one of our yearlings at the horse rescue learning to trailer load. Trailer loading can be a scary, difficult task for many horses, but as Shimmer shows in the post Shimmer Practices Trailer Loading, trailer loading is easy if you use positive reinforcement!

(What’s a blog carnival? A blog carnival is a monthly collection of blog posts pertaining to a certain topic. Carnivals are a great way for bloggers to showcase their best posts and for readers to discover interesting blog articles.)

I hope October was a wonderful month of training for you and your animals. We had 20 days of rain, so the horses got plenty of practice of walking through puddles this month! This month’s edition of the clicker carnival is full of interesting training stories and great articles with tips and advice. (If you missed the first edition last month, you can check it out here.)

Our first submission for the carnival comes from Eric Goebelbecker, of Dog Spelled Forward. His article Five Ways to Stop Your Dog From Jumping On People helps you teach an enthusiastic dog to stop jumping on people. Not only are these great tips, but Eric also includes a short video with instructions for teaching your dog an incompatible behavior.

Maybe you have a slightly different problem and your dog won’t come when called? Check out Eric’s post on training a solid recall, My Dog Won’t Come When Called. A solid recall is one of the most important cues to teach a dog. Eric gives tips and suggestions for teaching a recall and includes several great training videos starring his dog caffeine.

A dog crate can be a wonderful training tool if used right. Robert D. Jones presents Send Her to the Dog Crate posted at Best Dog Crate Review, which outlines some points to consider when buying a crate and beginning crate training.

Are you and your dog having fun yet? Barrie writes about playing some fun and positive games with her dogs in her post Silly Games on her blog, Fun With Dogs. I encourage you to read her post and then think of some ways you can make your training even more fun for your animals!

Kyley of The Trick Ponies of Chincoteague presents an article called Follow Me. She discusses how to stop her pony from biting while being led by modify a natural horsemanship technique to include clicker training. The post includes two short video clips that show how much progress Boomer is making.

What would the carnival be without a few aquatic animals? Check out Diane Rains latest video, Hoop, Please, and Make It A Double posted at The Bubble Blog. Circus star Clemmie expands his hoop skills yet again. I continue to be impressed with the super training Diane does with her fish. Her fish are better trained than a lot of dogs I know!

Is your dog 100% perfect? Even as positive trainers, we often focus a lot on the problems and negatives. Lisa-Anne Manolius presents In Search Of The Ever Elusive Perfect Dog on her blog Oh Behave! This is a very thoughtful post that will help you start thinking more positively about your dog’s behavior.

In clicker training, the behavior you get is what you click. One of the best ways to improve training is by improving our mechanical skills. Angela Adams MSc CABC writes about Clicker Mechanics on her blog fun4fido – clicker training 4 dogs. She talks about why mechanics are important and then gives instructions for a handful of fun games that trainers can play to improve their timing and mechanics. Check them out, and see if your training mechanics are really as good as you think they are!

Now that you’ve improved your timing and mechanics, what are some awesome tricks to teach your dog? Johann the Dog of The Days of Johann, an Agility Dog submitted a great post about a fun trick Gracie recently learned. Does your dog know how to turn off the lights? Read about the training process and see a great video clip by visiting the post, Fun Games and Tricks for Dogs– Turn Off the Light Switch!

Robin, of Living with Parrots Cage Free, presents an interesting article called Night Night, Curtain!. This post is a fascinating example about how our animals learn to communicate with us. Sometimes, we can tell exactly what they’re trying to say!

And finally, just for fun, check out these photos of Rosie playing with her brand new gigantic green ball in the post Rosie Meets the Big Green Ball on my blog, Stale Cheerios. Introducing your animal to strange objects can be a great way to help build confidence.

Thanks for reading the second edition of the clicker carnival. Please leave a comment and let us know which article was your favorite! I hope you’ll come back next month for another great selection of blog posts related to positive animal training. If you have a blog, consider submitting a post of your own to the next edition, we’d love to have you join us.

The October Edition was a great success. If you missed it, be sure to check it out. It’s full of training stories and advice, from painting horses to clever dogs, and even a few well trained birds and fish!

(What’s a blog carnival? A blog carnival is a monthly collection of blog posts pertaining to a certain topic. Carnivals are a great way for bloggers to showcase their best posts and for readers to discover interesting blog articles.)