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#animal training
prokopetz · 2 months
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Some of y'all are clearly not teaching your cats what an appropriate level of bite force is.
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palaeoplushies · 1 month
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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.
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Well everyone, I performed my first ever cetacean ultrasound today!
My “patient” is in excellent health, and this session was meant merely as practice both for me and for her—ensuring she remains comfortable holding still for scans. Because whales and dolphins are too big for manual palpation or x-rays, ultrasound is how veterinarians visualize their internal organs and ensure they remain healthy. Cetaceans in human care routinely receive ultrasound scans to monitor their health, even if they are not ill or pregnant.
And it’s a great example of cooperative care! Unlike dogs and cats, which have to be sedated or manually restrained by humans in order to get diagnostic ultrasound images, cetaceans in human care are trained to float in place while the veterinarian places the ultrasound probe on them. They are free to leave the session at any time. And there’s no need for ultrasound gel, because the water acts in its place!
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(Photo not of me… published by Georgia Aquarium when their beluga Whisper was pregnant with her calf Shila)
All in all, a great end to my externship!
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wild-raven-and-crow · 4 months
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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.
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farm-paws · 9 months
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Speaking of podcasts, I was listening to the Canine Ed Aus episode “Setting your Livestock up for Success” recently and I found it really fascinating. As someone who came from livestock to dog training, and as someone who doesn’t really ‘believe’ (I guess) in the r+/force free training movement for herd animals, it was really interesting to listen to a group of people that came from r+ dog sports training to livestock ownership.
The main discussion about was cooperative care/low stress handling for their sheep, and how several of them attempted to handle the sheep the same way you would cooperative care train a dog for things like medication and vaccinations. Including zero restraints, opt-ins, and start buttons, and of course lots of food rewards. But they all found that it actually made the sheep more uncomfortable and avoidant, and eventually added more stress when they finally had to ‘give in’ and just get it over and done with.
What actually worked for them was a series of predictable process (always having the yards/set up be the same), restraint (by halter or bale), and minimal handling time. A pattern by which the animal knew exactly what it had to do, and what the eventual outcome would be.
Herd animals learn patterns extremely well, it’s one of those things that helps keep the group together. And I think this is where these trainers ‘went wrong’ so to speak; because of their lack of knowledge, watching their animals learn the patterns of handling (in one example it was shearing) was very distressing. Coming from animal training backgrounds, they were well versed in reading stress signals, and in this example the stress signals were loud. They were barely handled sheep, being shorn for the first time on a new farm, by a new shearer, with new owners. Making the learn curve very steep, and souring their new owners to what they saw, likely through a lens of dog training, to be harsh and traditional type handling.
Listening to the story of their realisation in how actively different these animals worked compared to previous training experiences was really fascinating, even though its something I already knew really well. It was nice to see that they came to the same conclusion many, many people in the livestock industry have held for a long time; there’s improvements to be made, but there’s a reason we do it this way.
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clickerpunk · 1 year
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Gaia went all in on her modelling job of our new target stick 😂
She definitely approves.
They can be found here!
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3liza · 1 year
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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
youtube
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
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heu-ris-tic · 3 months
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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 :)?
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acti-veg · 1 month
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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.
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theadventurek9 · 1 year
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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.
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truckman816 · 5 months
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Dave Salmoni 🐆🦏🐫
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spoonful116 · 6 months
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There are 3 main types of assistive animals: therapy animals, service dogs, and emotional support animals. I'm taking a look at each type and some of the similarities and differences
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big-boy-noodle · 7 months
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Had a big breakthrough the other day with Sophie! This is the closest she's gotten to me for treats and she wasn't being drive-y or defensive
(Ignore her disheveled tail she's molting)
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Do you think it's too late to try and get into the field of working with cetaceans, specifically orcas, in the US? What with the phasing out of cetacean captivity I feel like there's no point in my trying to pursue the field since by the time I finish my years of required schooling and training there probably won't be anything for me to apply to
I wouldn’t say it’s too late. Even though orcas are being phased out, it’s going to be many decades before they’re all gone, due to their long lifespans. You’ll have to be a realistic about it, but I know people who have been hired in the past year or so as killer whale trainers.
It’s overwhelming, but you just have to take it one step at a time and recognize you’re not going to get a job at Shamu Stadium right away. There have never been that many places housing killer whales, and it’s always been extremely competitive (perhaps even more so in the past)! I don’t know what stage of your education you’re currently at, but focus on getting experience with any animals, particularly non-domestics, no matter the species! That will be the first and most fundamental steppingstone into working with cetaceans, and maybe, eventually, killer whales.
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wild-raven-and-crow · 2 months
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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.
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woodsfae · 6 months
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My friend has a cat called Kiwi who loves the outdoors, but has no recall (hasn't been trained to come when called), so whenever she manages to bum-rush the door and get outside, she gets really hyped and runs around and it takes forever to catch her.
But, when I have been visiting my friend the last few weeks, I've been demonstrating very basic clicker training/positive reinforcement for training recall, for cooperative putting-a-harness-on, and general handler attention. I've only given this kitty about four, very short training sessions (less than 5 minutes...ideal length! But really, very beginning stages). Today when a maintenance person for the apartment came in carelessly, Kiwi got out. My friend had a hysterectomy 3 weeks ago tomorrow and isn't allowed to bend at the waist for weeks yet, so I went to catch the cat.
When I went outside with the clicker and some treats and called Kiwi, she came running! My heart was so warmed! Then, since she was overaroused, she bolted past me and went and crouched by the outside of her favorite window. I clicked the clicker, and she froze. The unconscious response and attention to the click, which always heralds a treat, worked a charm. I went over, picked her and up put her inside with a treat jackpot to reinforce all of those great behaviors she exhibited: handler attention, recall, and emotional self-regulation.
Any amount of positive reinfrocement training is SO helpful. It's enrichment and helps them be happier, more interested, and engaged kitties. It helps in emergencies. It let me catch her in two mintues instead of two hours. And when we went inside and I initiated some training games, she was so interested in them, and in interacting with me and cooperatively communicating about the training game.
My heart is overflowing with happiness today. It was lovely to be reminded so clearly that any amount of training is beneficial to the animal and their human friends. Kiwi's person was delighted to see how much our tiny bit of training helped the situation. More positive reinforcement at work!
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