Check Your Verbal Cues

This is part of a series of several posts on cues. I wrote last week a bit about what a cue is and common stimuli that can be used as cues. Often, we try and teach our pets verbal cues. But how well does your dog (or cat, parrot or pony) recognize your verbal cue […]

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Summer Camp Time!

I’ll be working this summer at Camp Summit, a camp in North Texas for children and adults with disabilities. I’ll be running the riding program, and will have 4 horses and 2 miniature horses to play with for the summer. The camp is pretty awesome, they have horses, a ropes challenge course, swimming, fishing, arts […]

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What is a cue?

This post is part of a series of several posts on cues. I recently posted about putting cues under stimulus control. (Read that post here.) However, I realize now that perhaps I should have started with a discussion of what exactly constitutes a cue. A cue (sometimes called a discriminative stimulus, or SD) is an […]

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Do You Have a Clue about Cues?

How do we teach behaviors when training animals and how do we associate cues with these behaviors? How does a dog or horse (or cat, goldfish, parrot, roommate, child, employee, etc.) learn a cue for a behavior? What’s the best way to create a solid association between a behavior and a cue, even when distractions […]

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Laurie Luck’s Smart Dog Blog

I’ve found a new blog that I really like. It’s the blog of Laurie Luck, a Certified Pet Dog Trainer and Karen Pryor Certified Training Partner. She also has a M.A. in psychology and is the Vice President of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. She’s recently blogged about two topics that are near […]

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Free Online Clicker Training Short Course

Norwegian dog trainers Morten Egtvedt and Cecilie Koeste (of Canis Clicker Training) offer a free 7 day online class that covers the basics of clicker training. I’ve seen the course advertised online before, but didn’t know much about it. From their website, “Morten is a trained biologist with a degree in psychology and Cecilie, also […]

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