On Tuesday, I lectured about animal training to an undergraduate introductory behavior analysis course. We had great fun discussing how positive reinforcement and an understanding of behavior analysis can help make training more efficient and more enjoyable for both the animal and trainer. Most of the students were not familiar with ideas such as clicker […]
Karen Pryor passed away earlier this month. I encourage you to read this obituary that the New York Times wrote about Pryor; it is a well-written overview of her life and accomplishments. Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz hugs Karen Pryor at the 2017 ASAT Conference. I met Karen several times at conferences, and I had the great […]
Behavior multiplies. Let me explain what this means. When you have a well-designed shaping program that is appropriate for your learner, behavior change can happen exponentially. Imagine you are teaching your horse (or dog or other critter) to walk next to you without a leash or lead rope. On the first day, you may start […]
This spring, as I teach my online shaping skills class, I’ve been thinking a lot about the decisions we make during shaping. I find that many trainers don’t know quite what to do when their animal is almost, but not quite, performing a desired behavior. For example, imagine you’re working with your animal on backing […]
Have you heard the big news? Alexandra Kurland, Dominique Day and I have just released our first audio course about behavior analysis and animal training. You can find out more here. As part of our course launch, I am part of the conversation on this week’s episode of the Equiosity podcast. In the podcast episode, […]
At the end of September, Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz and I gave a two-day PORTL shaping workshop in San Diego. We had an awesome group of participants, and it was a really great weekend. Emily Larlham, who hosted the workshop, posted a video with some highlights from the event. (In the photo to the right, Emily’s […]
