Sebastian is a young red roan gelding who I’ve just started working with a bit. He’s pretty shy still and can be unconfident around people. He’s curious, but he’s not too sure about being caught or being touched and groomed. Last weekend, he needed a shot and I got to be the one to give […]
A Ginger Adventure
Ginger got away at dog training class tonight. Luckily, the property is fenced, so she didn’t really get away. She just got to tear wildly around the property for awhile until I cornered her and stepped on the leash. When other dogs have gotten loose in the past, they want to investigate the other people […]
What animals can’t we train?
A smart trainer can theoretically train any behavior that an animal is physically able to perform and mentally able to understand. The folks at the New England Aquarium are taking this task seriously, and they’ve been training all sorts of behaviors to some of the most unlikely species! They’ve recently been working on target training […]
An Introduction to Reinforcement
We’ve been talking about different forms of negative reinforcement in class. So, I thought this might be a good week to talk about positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement and different types of behavioral responses associated with negative reinforcement. (more…)
Strange and Wonderful Equine Hybrids
Many equine species are able to breed with each other. Although the offspring are usually not fertile, some of them can be quite interesting too see! Most people know that a mule is the cross between a horse and a donkey. (The above mule is a little fellow named Scooby. We used him for riding […]
Miniature Horse with an Attitude!
Many miniature horses are sassy, spunky little things. I think they know they’re adorable, and know that since they’re small and cute they can get away with things that people would never put up with from big horses. The camp where I’ll be working this summer has 2 miniature horses, Blossom and Midnight. The minis […]