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What’s the best way to train an animal? What about the best way to teach a human to train an animal? How can we use the science of behavior and learning to develop better training practices? In this section you’ll find lots of articles and information about the science of animal training, research that has been done on animal learning and behavior, and information about teaching people.

photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/beggs/6589768817/">beggs</a>

A talking elephant (Really!)

So, elephants can’t mimic human speech. Right? Actually… wrong. Koshi, an Asian elephant at a South Korean zoo can do just this. Scientists from the University of Vienna saw video clips of Koshi on YouTube. At first, they thought just what I did — this must be fake! However, they’ve been studying Koshi and his […]

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agility-training-jesus-and-ginger-cropped

Teaching animals the clicker way

I’ve just uploaded an article to my site that you need to read. It’s by behavior analyst Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, who is a professor at the University of North Texas. The article is about B.F. Skinner, shaping, trial and error learning, errorless learning, and Isreal Goldiamond’s constructional approach. Clicker training originated out of research conducted […]

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horse going through a covered bridge

Animal Training Research: Teaching trailer loading using positive reinforcement

Many horses resist loading into a horse trailer. A trailer is a strange, noisy box on wheels – it’s no wonder many horses are afraid. Unfortunately, horse trainers have traditionally resorted to negative reinforcement based methods when teaching trailer loading, tactics based out of force and discomfort. Trainers create potentially dangerous situations when they try […]

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Fading out those clicks and treats

Fading out those clicks and treats

We’ve been having a good discussion recently on one of the clicker training facebook groups about how to reduce or fade out the clicks and treats when clicker training. When people start clicker training (What is clicker training?), many are afraid that they are doomed to always carry around a clicker and a bag of […]

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