Does an elephant forget what she’s learned? Do other trained animals forget what they’ve learned? What implications does this have for training dogs, horses and other domestic animals? Elephant Memory Tests In 1964, Leslie Squier used operant conditioning to train several elephants at the Portland Zoo. He presented his findings that year at the meeting […]
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 […]
Alright, I need your help! I’ve been trying to spend more time training Ginger this fall. I have a project I’m working on with her for school, but I also want to work on more fun tricks. Two weeks ago we started on leg weaves (which are getting pretty good now!) and last weekend I […]
It’s really starting to cool off here–it’s actually fun to be outside in the afternoon with the horses! The ponies and I had a great weekend. Boomer and Apollo (the two paint horses in the picture to the left) are doing AWESOME learning how to pick up their front feet for handling and cleaning. I […]
Here’s a video of Ginger’s progress on her latest trick! I haven’t done a whole lot of clicker training with Ginger dog recently, due to a variety factors. However, Ginger loves clicker training and gets pretty excited when I pull out the clicker and treats. So, we started on a new trick this past weekend […]
Many riding instructors and horse clubs will tell you NEVER to hand feed treats to a horse. This will spoil the horse and teach him bad manners by encouraging him to be pushy, rude and to beg for treats. Even worse, you’ll encourage your horse to nip and bite. At least, that was what I […]
