Ginger got away at dog training class tonight. Luckily, the property is fenced, so she didn’t really get away. She just got to tear wildly around the property for awhile until I cornered her and stepped on the leash. When other dogs have gotten loose in the past, they want to investigate the other people […]
Tag Archives | targeting
What animals can’t we train?
A smart trainer can theoretically train any behavior that an animal is physically able to perform and mentally able to understand. The folks at the New England Aquarium are taking this task seriously, and they’ve been training all sorts of behaviors to some of the most unlikely species! They’ve recently been working on target training […]
What makes something scary?
Some horses are afraid of everything and every horse seems to be afraid of at least something! Plastic bags on the ground, a rain jacket or poncho, leaves blowing in the wind, water bottles, tarps, umbrellas, bridges, a new jump in the arena, his own shadow….the list could go on forever! This can be extremely […]
Teaching new skills using targeting
Targeting is a great way to teach a horse or a dog (or a goldfish!) new skills or tricks. The animal learns to follow a hand, a stick, or any other sort of object where ever the object might lead. (For the horses, I usually use an empty plastic water bottle duct taped on the […]
Rosie practices her figure-eights
Rosie and I have had some grooming sessions and some hang-out time, but I’ve just recently started doing some ground work with her. This is a video of our second time working on figure-eights. (This is also her third session with the clicker.) She’s doing great, and catching on quickly. In later sessions, I’ll start […]
ORCA: Part 1. Steve Martin
These are my notes from the ORCA Great Minds conference at UNT in March 2009. The Great Minds conference brought half a dozen top trainers together to talk about animal training, clicker training, operant conditioning and the future of training. This is my first page of thoughts and notes. To read more about the conference […]