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.
It seems a bit counter-intuitive. If we break a training task down into more steps, it should take longer. However, the opposite is usually true. Smaller steps can get us to our goal quicker and often result in better quality behavior. This came in handy several weeks ago when we picked up Connor from the […]
Thanks for the comments on yesterday’s post. Today is my first day of classes. I’ll make it a goal this semester to write more about what I’m learning at school. I enjoy writing about what I’m learning (whether it’s in the classroom or the barn). I think writing helps me think back through things, organize […]
Rescue horses are old and sick. They’re crippled and broken down. They’ve been hopeless abused and deserve to just be put down. These are many of the myths about rescue horses and reasons why many people still shy away from adopting. Today is Blog the Change for Animals, an online event where bloggers write about […]
My friend Miki over at Blind Dog Training recently posted a video tutorial that I really like. In the video, she explains how to teach a blind dog to target your hand. Here’s two reasons why I really like this video: 1. Clever use of cues. Miki first snaps with the target hand so that […]
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we’ve started riding Tex, one of the ponies at the rescue. This is pretty exciting because it is a huge milestone in his training. So far, I’m happy to report, he’s been brave and confident and taken everything completely in stride. Here’s a short clip from Wednesday (his second […]
A (slightly belated) happy new year! I must admit, I got quite busy with finals and then the holidays during December and, as a result, neglected my duties to this blog. But it’s a new year and I plan to get back to a fairly regular posting schedule. We’ve been busy at the rescue with […]
