I wrote this post at the beginning of January.It has taken me a few weeks to find the time to finish editing it.However, I still wanted to share it with you. My horse, Apollo, lives on a ranch about 10 minutes from our house. My drive to see him takes me down a lightly-trafficked county […]
Tag Archives | observational skills
How to think about emotions
Emotions can be a tricky subject. What is an emotion? Do animals have emotions the same way people do? Do emotions cause behavior? Is it important to pay attention to our animals’ emotions during training? We’ve had some discussion about emotions recently in the Listen and Learn online course (link). Emotions also made an appearance […]
Do you know what you just did?
As I’ve mentioned previously, I teach an undergraduate behavior analysis class during the fall and spring semesters. As part of the class, my students do an extended project that involves teaching a series of behaviors to a pet. The majority of my students have zero animal training experience before taking the class. All of the […]
Sunday Science: Listening with Your Eyes
Science Sunday posts are short posts about the science of animal behavior and training. They often feature a quote or a passage of text. Spend a moment today thinking about the ideas in the post. As always, you can share your thoughts or questions in the comments section. Recently, I’ve been reading the book Decoding […]
Understanding body language
This is part one of my notes from ORCA’s 2013 Art and Science of Animal Training Conference. For links to the rest of my notes (which will be posted over the next few weeks),please visit the Conference and Clinic Notes section of my site. Phung Luu has been training animals for over two decades and […]