dallas zoo gorilla

Clicker training gorillas to “trade”

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 […]

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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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joy malin and charlie

Pet portraits that help pets in need

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 […]

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Many examples of animals trained with clicker training and other positive reinforcement training methods

If we can teach wild animals….

Have you seen Lili Chin’s latest poster? It’s inspired by this great quote from Ted Turner (behaviorist and head trainer at Sea World): “If you can teach a whale to pee in a cup, you can train your dog without punishment.” The illustration features twelve great examples of wild animals who have been trained to […]

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