Many animal trainers that use positive reinforcement and operant conditioning rely on a clicker or a certain word (such as “Good!”) to mark correct behavior. The marker sound or word functions as a secondary reinforcer. It’s paired with food over and over again until the animal associates it with good behavior. Then, when you give [...]

Here’s where Blaze and I are at after about 10 days of training.

Did you know fish can be trained to do tricks? To jump through hoops, weave poles, ring a bell or do all sorts of other things that you’d expect a dog to do? Fish are actually quite trainable, given the right motivation (i.e. yummy food, and lots of it).

We’d have goldfish every once in awhile [...]