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 started volunteering at the Heard Museum with ORCA (a lab in UNT’s behavior analysis department that focuses on animal training). One of the species we worked with on my first trip to the Heard was the Patagonian cavy, a 35 pound South American rodent. I’ll admit, before going out there, I really had no […]
Want your rambunctious dog to be able to sit in a down-stay for 10 minutes or walk on a loose leash for a mile? How about teaching your young horse to let you hold his foot for an extended period of time of stand still for a 20 minute grooming session? Many people have trouble […]
This weekend was Rosie’s first encounter with a bareback pad. We’ve played with a saddle pad several times and she’s done a great job, so I felt she was ready for the next step. The bareback pad turned out to be a non-event, which was what I had hoped would happen. Even though I know […]
Rosie and I played with a saddle pad for the second time yesterday. In traditional horse training, many horses will learn to put up with saddling without truly ever accepting the process. Or, through rough handling, they later learn to resent the act of being saddled. I want Rosie to like being saddled and to […]
Zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks, sea world, nature centers, personal pets, we encounter animals around us all the time. Many of the wild animals we encounter today (especially in zoos and aquariums) are bred in captivity, rather than collected from the wild. Animals have a host of needs that must be met in captivity. If the […]
Have some reading time? Here’s a great and thorough look at the four quadrants of training (positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment) written by Katie Bartlett, an equine clicker trainer. Many of her examples deal with horses, but the theory and philosophy applies to much more than just horses. The article can be […]
