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.
I’ve been watching Bob Bailey’s Fundamentals of Animal Training DVD. I’ve watched the first disc, and am really enjoying the set so far. Bob Bailey is not only an excellent trainer; he has a gift for being able to communicate ideas clearly and concisely. I plan to write a proper review after I watch the […]
Using clicker training, Ginger dog has recently learned how to bow! I’ve included a short video clip at the bottom so you can watch her practicing her bow. With clicker training, many dog trainers advise to get the behavior occurring at a high rate BEFORE trying to add a cue to it. This actually makes […]
Ginger and I have been working on Doggie Zen, which is an exercise from Sue Ailsby’s training levels. Doggie Zen is a leave it type exercise. At the early stages, you teach the dog to ignore and leave alone a piece of food in your open hand. Later on, this evolves into more complicated exercises, […]
I recently finished reading Irene Pepperburg’s most recent book, Alex and Me. When Irene Pepperburg first started working with Alex, many people scoffed and laughed at her. Parrots were thought of as “bird brains.” While it might be possible to teach them to repeat back answers to simple questions, the bird wasn’t actually “thinking” or […]
One of the most common arguments I often hear against clicker training for horses is that we “can’t use dog training methods for horses.” However, clicker training wasn’t originally invented for dogs (or dolphins either, as many people falsely claim). The principle of reinforcement, on which clicker training is based, was originally described and researched […]
