Because of the old paint I wrote about last week and the two mares I wrote about yesterday, you might be thinking by now that all the horses at the rescue are terrified of people. Happily, this is far from the case. Many of the horses are quite friendly and would follow you around all [...]
Fish Genius!
The fish training kit I use was developed by Dr. Dean, of the R2 Fish Training School. The BBC has just produced a short clip of one of his star pupils, Comet, for it’s program Animals at Work. It’s pretty great to watch him performing all of his tricks. Blaze, the fish I’m training, is [...]
How to Praise a Fish
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 [...]
Fish Training Progress
Here’s where Blaze and I are at after about 10 days of training.
Fish Training 101
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 [...]
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