Alright readers, here’s a challenge for you. Check out this youtube clip below of a raven, who is being trained to peck at a yellow bowling pin. He has two choices–peck yellow or peck blue. If he pecks the correct pin, he receives a bit of food as a reward. If he pecks the incorrect [...]
Steve Martin: Training Birds with Trust Accounts
I love hearing Steve Martin speak. (the bird trainer, not the actor!) He was one of my favorite speakers at the 2009 Art and Science of Animal Training conference and I enjoyed his talk at this year’s conference just as much. These are a few of my thoughts from his talk. Steve Martin is a [...]
Crate training macaws and an exciting weekend ahead
by Martin Pettitt, on Flickr I volunteer with ORCA at the Heard Museum about once a week. (ORCA is a lab in UNT’s behavior analysis department that focuses on animal training.) One project for this semester is crate training the museum’s two blue and gold macaws. During the fall and spring, Texas can have crazy [...]
Alex and Me: Our Knowledge of Animal Intelligence
I recently finished reading Irene Pepperburg’s most recent book, Alex and Me. When Irene Pepperburg first started working with Alex, many people scoffed and laughed at her. Parrots were thought of as “bird brains.” While it might be possible to teach them to repeat back answers to simple questions, the bird wasn’t actually “thinking” or [...]
The Clicker Carnival #1
Welcome to first edition the clicker carnival, a new blog carnival especially for clicker trainers and positive animal trainers. I recently heard someone ask if horse (clicker) trainers could learn anything from dog (clicker) trainers. The answer, of course, is a resounding Yes! Even when the species is different, the principles of reinforcement, shaping and [...]
ORCA: Part 1. Steve Martin
These are my notes from the ORCA Great Minds conference at UNT in March 2009. The Great Minds conference brought half a dozen top trainers together to talk about animal training, clicker training, operant conditioning and the future of training. This is my first page of thoughts and notes. To read more about the conference [...]
A Friday Foto of a Really Weird Bird
Take a close look at this bird: (photo by: Arnel B. Telesforo) Any idea what kind of bird this is? When’s the last time you saw a bird like this? For that matter, when’s the last time anyone saw a bird like this?
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