Here’s a great clicker training video I found on youtube recently of a pretty cute dog trick. The dog has been trained to stick her head into a pot. I like this video because, although it is short, it shows all of the steps of the shaping process that was used to train this trick [...]
Target, lure, or free-shape? Which is best?
These are my notes from the 2012 Art and Science of Animal Training Conference. Click here for more notes from this conference. If you’ve been around enough clicker trainers and positive animal trainers, you’ll find that everyone has an opinion about shaping, luring and targeting. And, trainers often don’t agree about which of these methods [...]
Wordless Wednesday: Agility Foundation Training
My friend Eva Bertilsson, who is a dog agility trainer from Sweden, is visiting the University of North Texas for a couple of weeks and hanging out with us in the behavior analysis department. (Eva is also currently working on a Master’s in behavior analysis in Norway). We’ve been having a lot of fun this [...]
The Shape of Bow Wow — DVD review
We watched a fun DVD yesterday in the undergrad class that I am helping with as a teaching assistant. The DVD was one by dog trainer Virginia Broitman called The Shape of Bow Wow. This DVD is an intro to shaping, or training behaviors in small steps. Shaping is a very important skill for animal [...]
Creative Cues: Texture cues for blind dogs
Recently I posted about how platforms, pedestals and mats can be helpful during training new behaviors to our animals. These items give the animal a target to go to, which can reduce errors and lead to faster learning. (Click here to check out that post.) This post led to some interesting discussions on facebook with [...]
Michele Pouliot and Freestyle Training with Platforms
Last weekend was ClickerExpo, a wonderful clicker training conference that is organized by Karen Pryor Clicker Training. If you’re not familiar with ClickerExpo, check out my post about why you should go to ClickerExpo. I, sadly, am not going this year. However, this evening I found I blog post that I wrote two year ago [...]
Train One Thing at a Time!
Last week we had a woman come and give several lectures to our department about behavior analysis and autism. She helps run a large treatment center in Georgia for children with autism. The two lectures she gave in the morning were pretty interesting. In the afternoon, we had a handful of presentations so that some [...]
What’s the best way to train an animal?
Stale Cheerios will help you learn new knowledge and techniques to take your training skills to the next level. So stick around, your animals will be grateful!
I'm a graduate student studying the science of behavior and training. On this blog I share stories of my animal training adventures, as well as tips, techniques and tricks to help you improve your training. Although most of this blog centers around training rescue horses, the ideas discussed apply equally to all species. The other animals I work with, including dogs and rats, also appear occasionally on the blog.
Mary Hunter
cheeriotrainer@gmail.com
Recent Comments