I found two wonderful youtube clips recently. I highly recommend taking the time to watch them! They are the first and second halves of a short 1980s film about the Columban Simulations. The Columban Simulations were a series of research studies where pigeons were taught to perform complicated behaviors that we usually think of as [...]
Dr. Robert Epstein: Engineering Complex and Novel Behavior in Animals
Robert Epstein was the keynote speaker for the Art and Science of Animal Training conference this year. (Be sure to read the rest of my notes from the conference as well.) Epstein, who was the last student of B.F. Skinner, researches the creativity process and how novel behavior develops. All behavior, in some sense, is [...]
Building Duration With 300 Peck Pigeons
Want your rambunctious dog to be able to sit in a down-stay for 10 minutes or walk on a loose leash for a mile? How about teaching your young horse to let you hold his foot for an extended period of time of stand still for a 20 minute grooming session? Many people have trouble [...]
B.F. Skinner and Shaping Behaviors.
We’ve been talk about shaping in class, which is one of the neatest things about clicker training. (Actually, there are a lot of neat things about clicker training!) Shaping is teaching a new behavior through successive approximations. Basically, you start with a very low criteria and gradually increase your criteria until you reach your target [...]
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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