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January Clicker Carnival Coming Soon!

Do you blog about positive animal training? Submit your favorite blog post from December to the January edition of the Clicker Carnival, the only blog carnival specifically for positive animal trainers. All submissions related to positive training are welcome, from personal training stories, to how-to articles and videos, to product and book reviews. Read more […]

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Alex and Me: Our Knowledge of Animal Intelligence

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 […]

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Fish Training Resumes

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 […]

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I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas…

Dallas got quite a bit of snow yesterday! (Well, our house got over an inch, which is a lot for Dallas.) The snow stuck around until today and Ginger has really enjoyed playing it in. Check out the photos below! click here for a larger version Below are each of the individual images that make […]

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Horse Initiated Desensitization

Here’s a simple pattern Shiloh and I were playing with at liberty on Sunday afternoon 1) Shiloh approaches me and targets an exercise ball I am holding. Once he touches it with his nose, I click and give him a treat. 2) As I feed the treat in front of him, I move to his […]

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Shiloh Jumps the Blue Barrels

Well, jump isn’t perhaps the right word, as it implies a major exertion of energy. However, he was pretty interested in them, especially once he learned I’d reward him for interacting with the barrels with a click and a treat. First, Shiloh nudged the barrel with his nose a few times. This evolved to licking […]

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