Dogs, horses, and rats. Birds, goldfish, cats. Dolphins, raccoons, and elephants. What animals can’t we train? In this section you’ll find lots of great training stories and tips. You will also get to meet many of the wonderful animals that I get to train. I hope that you’ll enjoy reading about my adventures (and misadventures) and that these articles and tales can provide you with insight that will help you with your own animals.
My friend Aimee, who blogs over at mymegaedog, does herding training with her German shepherd dog Shelby. She trains all her dogs using positive reinforcement. Unfortunately, most herding trainers still use pretty aversive training methods, including lots of punishment and other tactics designed to scare, force, and intimidate the dogs. Even more unfortunate, as Aimee […]
My four pet rats, Georgie, Amy, Izzy, and Chloe, make sure that things are always pretty interesting around here! My rats have an insatiable need to explore, so they are always getting into something. They keep me quite entertained with their acrobatics and antics. Amy especially is my little rat adventurer and she makes sure […]
Many horse clicker trainers advise using protected contact when teaching a new horse about clicker training or in situations that could be unsafe for the trainer. I’ve also met some horse clicker trainers who never use protected contact. They feel that they know their horses and they know how to keep themselves safe. However, I […]
Here is Amy’s latest “trick,” which we’ve been working on for awhile now. When I call her, she comes running! Training a rat (or any small animal) to come when called is a great behavior to teach because if you were to loose the animal in your house, you could just call the animal. Of […]
Last spring, I spent a very fun day at the Dallas Zoo. My professor and advisor, Jesus Rosales-Ruiz, spoke at a weekly lunch lecture series the zoo has for their staff, sharing information about some of his research on poisoned cues. I wrote most of this post then, but never got around to completely finishing […]
I’ve been chatting some with Joy Malin, a professional artist from New York City. Joy is both an artist, specializing in oils, and an art instructor, teaching students about painting and the fundamentals of art. She is also the owner and director of Malin Fine Art, an independent fine art brokerage firm. Joy has always […]
