I just finished reading an interesting article from The Horse about the disease strangles. I had always been told (and had read in at least several places) that the strangles bacteria, Streptococcus equi, stays in the ground for years and years and years. This is why many people are quite afraid of Strangles, not only […]
Training Stories and Tips RSS feed for this section
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.
How to Praise a Fish
Many animal trainers that use positive reinforcement and operant conditioning rely on a clicker or a certain word (such as “Good!”) to mark correct behavior. The marker sound or word functions as a secondary reinforcer. When you give the signal, the animal knows it’s performed a good behavior and will get a reward (such as […]
Time For Horses
I spent the better part of the afternoon sitting on the ground picking bunches of grass and feeding them to a big blue-eyed brown and white paint horse. He’s still not at all sure he wants to be my friend, but he started being convinced by the end of the session. I had a friend […]
Fish Training Progress
Here’s where Blaze and I are at after about 10 days of training.
Phrenology for Horses?
When’s the last time you talked to someone about phrenology? Probably not very recently. Phrenology was a 19th century scientific philosophy for determining human personality traits based on reading bumps and fissures on the skull. Although this concept has been dismissed as pseudoscience, a small number of people believe that techniques such as these can […]
Dog Whispering
Many people love Cesar Millan; there’s no doubt about that. He’s confident, well spoken, good looking, and seems to work miracles with problem dogs. However, while his techniques do seem to work, they might not be the best ones to use. Many professional dog trainers and animal behaviorists are opposed to Cesar Millan’s techniques because […]