As many of you know, I’m part of ORCA (the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals) at UNT. Much of what ORCA does is research, training and community service. However, one of our other missions is to educate the public about positive training. We do this at our big annual animal training conference and by [...]
More Fun with Mouse Training
My mice have names now! The little black and white one is Dickens, the one who is almost entirely white is Jack, and the scruffy, long-haired, gray and white mouse is Oscar. A big thanks to everyone who suggested names on facebook, by e-mail, and in person. Also, I’ve been looking into getting the mice [...]
Georgie Learns to Jump
Here’s a video of Georgie’s latest trick—jumping over a small jump! Our elegant jump is constructed out of several toilet tissue rolls. Watch on YouTube: Georgie Learns to Jump Georgie learned this trick incredibly fast. She had about 15 clicks (treats) before I took this video. I have several ideas about how to expand on [...]
Bathtub Mice (a training video)
I spent a lot of time last week hanging out with my new mice in the bathtub. All three mice were very shy when I first got them and did not want anything to do with me! In fact, two of them (the two you’ll see in the video at the end of this post) [...]
A Bearded Dragon Who Plays Video Games
Now here’s a youtube video of one cool lizard!!! This bearded dragon thinks the ants in this phone game look pretty appetizing. And, she has pretty good aim, too! I assume that this did not take any training, but I’m not sure. I just hope she got a treat for all her hard work! What [...]
Animal Training: Simple, But Not Easy
This past week in ORCA (our graduate student animal training lab at UNT) we watched Bob Bailey’s newest DVD. The DVD is called Operant Conditioning with Bob Bailey and if you haven’t seen it, you should! (Dogwise sells it on their website HERE). Here’s the trailer for the DVD, for anyone who’s interested. Below I’ll [...]
Treating Resource Guarding with CAT (video)
Resource guarding can be a serious problem for some dogs. (Resource guarding is when a dog displays aggressive behavior when another dog or a person tries to take something away from the dog, such as a toy or bone.) This spring, several of my friends at UNT used Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) to successfully treat [...]
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
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