#animal training

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Learning anything about marine mammal training will make you re-evaluate so much of your relationship with your own pets. There is so much force involved in the way we handle domestic animals. Most of it isn’t even intentional, it just stems from impatience. I’m guilty of it myself!

But with the exception of certain veterinary settings where the animal’s health is the immediate priority, why is it so important to us that animals do exactly what we want exactly when we want it? Why do we have to invent all these tools and contraptions to force them to behave?

When a whale swam away from a session, that was that. The trainer just waited for them to decide to come back. If they flat out refused to participate in behaviors, they still got their allotment of fish. Nothing bad happened. Not even when 20-30 people were assembled for a procedure, and the whale chose not to enter the medical pool. No big deal. Their choice and comfort were prioritized over human convenience.

It’s almost shocking to return to domestic animal medicine afterwards and watch owners use shock collars and chokers and whips to control their animals. It’s no wonder that positive reinforcement was pioneered by marine mammal trainers. When you literally can’t force an animal to do what you want, it changes your entire perspective.

I want to see that mindset extended to our domestic animals.

[prokopetz]

Some of y'all are clearly not teaching your cats what an appropriate level of bite force is.

[palaeoplushies]

Training the rats to target the lure and to spin. Teacake is the most enthusiastic, Roonie is quickest to learn but it has to be on her terms. Panko is ponderous but is getting the hang of it, she's held back by her lack of sight.

[fablepaint]

I've been interested in animal training since i was a kid. And with Dirac, I have an opportunity to learn from a pro. She came over yesterday and we went over a few exercises for us to practice together.

Helpful for keeping shoots fun for D and giving him tools to tell me "no. im bored/anxious, im done". And getting guidance on how to best socialize him so noises and strangers are no biggie.

Here he is learning to come towards a beeping sound. It took him no time at all for him learn that beep meant "treat here!!" despite the scary loud.

[just-troy0-0]

Rabbits in Training!!!!

[artemisblackwing]

Here is a Boring Training Video with Hugin

I don't post as much about Hugin because we're advancing through training rather slowly with him because he was 4 years old when he came to us a few months ago. He was used to taking treats from people, but was never handled. This video was taken in September. Just yesterday he voluntarily placed a foot on my arm, so things are going well. Our hope is that we can eventually take him out and about with Munin.

[blueboyluca]

At no time should our lack of skill or lack of familiarity with a less intrusive procedure give us the rationale for being more coercive or more forceful… So if you don’t know how to do it with less intrusiveness, then you find someone who does do it with less intrusiveness and they get to coach you, be the person who helps you learn how to do it. So we don’t want our lack of skill to be the reason why we’re pushing animals around.

Susan Friedman, Live from The Ranch

[clickerpunk]

Gaia went all in on her modelling job of our new target stick 😂

She definitely approves.

They can be found here!

[3liza]

HAVE YOU ACCIDENTALLY TAUGHT YOUR CAT TO SCREAM CONSTANTLY??

this happens to the best of us. the cat starts screaming one day and you reward it with food or attention and that's it, you have sealed your doom.

luckily there is a very quick and easy way to reverse this problem

you can do this training in one day. cats are extremely smart, they will pick up quickly that screaming is no longer desirable once they start getting the good stuff for NOT screaming. timing is everything. watch the video. this works with dogs too

[heu-ris-tic]

I want to follow more animal enrichment/training type blogs!! Idk how active anyone is anymore but, like this post if you see it and I'll follow you :)?

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Me: Why does no one crate train their dog anymore?

Me, scrolling the comments on a cute video of a puppy sleeping in a comfortable crate: I’m starting to understand why all the dogs at work act like they’ve never been crated in their life.

[acti-veg]

Is it bad or abusive to teach your pet tricks?

If you were teaching tricks to some animals as an entertainment event like a professional dog show or a circus then that’d be a different thing, but just teaching tricks as an exercise with your pet isn’t exploitative in and of itself. I’d actually encourage it, so long as it isn’t done in any way that would stress out the animal and that you stop when it’s clear they don’t want to be doing it. Done properly it promotes good behaviour, it’s good mental stimulation for your pet, it can be really fun for them and it’s a great bonding exercise. You should know your pet enough to be able to tell if they’re enjoying something or are not in the mood. So long as the trick isn't uncomfortable or unhealthy for them to perform, and there is no force involved or punishment for failure then I don't see the harm.

[theadventurek9]

More Rebel love. This is the third time Rebel has met Shady, a 9 months old Dutch Shepherd. Shady's owner is working hard on neutrality, it's been a lot of fun being able to work with Rebel's confidence around other dogs.

I am confident in saying that Rebel is now getting overall confident with strange dogs. Depending on their energy when they first approach, she may poof up and want a high perch. Within two minutesnsje will want down from her high perch and then within 5 minutes she will be trying to approach them or just ignoring them to explore on the ground.

I wish there were other cats I could be working around with her, but it's not like a lot of people train their cats like I do. 😅

But she may have a lot of dog friends in her life time.

[thejunglenook]

Real behavior modification with any species isn't flashy before & afters. It's slow to go fast & creating real emotional changes.

[truckman816]

Dave Salmoni 🐆🦏🐫

[artemisblackwing]

How to Get a Bird Back When it Flies Away

(This applies to corvids, parrots, and some other birds.)

I have heard people say that if your bird flies away you'll never get it back, but if you know what to do parrots and corvids are some of the easiest birds to get back.

Here are a few ideas about what to do:

Watch direction of flight so even if it flies out of sight, you know what direction to start looking in. Depending on the type of bird and how frightened it is, the bird may fly miles before landing.

If a bird is frightened, it is likely to fly in a fairly straight line away from whatever upset it.

DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BIRD even if you have waited for hours below it and it hasn't flown down to you. If night falls, and you are unable to stay with the bird, make absolutely sure you are back before dawn when the bird will wake up. The bird is very likely to fly somewhere new at dawn, or start looking for you. I can't stress this enough: you need almost unreasonable amounts of patience. It may take your bird many hours (perhaps even days) to fly down to you, but don't lose hope. (If you don't know for sure where the bird is, make sure you start looking for it again at dawn.)

Have someone else go get treats to lure the bird down, or its cage if that is available. (If the bird likes its cage, that can act as a lure.)

Things you can do to prepare for this ahead of time:

Teach your bird to come to its name.

Teach it to fly down to you. ("Stepping up" and flying upwards to you are not equivalent to flying down. Flying down takes different skills.)

Record its calls, so you can replay them for it when it flies off. If you can't see the bird or the bird can't see you, you can replay the recordings to help call it to you.

If your bird has unclipped wings, but never flies because its wings were clipped so young that it doesn't know how, either keep its wings clipped or teach it to fly. Otherwise it may spontaneously fly off your shoulder when its outside and not know how to fly back to you.