After visiting the vet recently (for Fibi-dog’s annual health check), I realised her & I hadn’t worked on an open mouth behaviour together! And this paired with – many of our current ATA members currently working on the same behaviour – got me excited to give this a go. Here are a number of our sessions from the last wee while where you can see us working on this behaviour.

Video one – February 19th 2021

One thing I really like to do anytime I start training anything new is just jump in & see where we are at. I call this a baseline session. Consequently without giving it to much thought I decided to see if I could get Fibi to target her top lip to my finger! See below ⬇️

Video two – March 07th 2021

When sharing this training with the amazing Sarah owings – one of the challenges she pointed out to me was that part of Fibi’s target behaviour was a very tightly closed mouth. So seemingly a different approach might be beneficial! We tried numerous different things including thinking about times where FIbi offered an open mouth behaviour and we might be able to capture it! One such time is when we are playing – Fibi would open her mouth and chase my hand!

Consequently I just started to capture this behaviour (with a click and some food) and then incorporated the top lip target into this … see the beginnings of this here ⬇️

Video three – March 16th 2021

I started to notice that after feeding – Fibi would often chomp her lips a bit. I decided to therefore add some food tosses in to give her more time to fully consumer her Kibble. One other thing I really like about this approach is that it also allowed me to gather more data and consequently hypothesise how Fibi was feeling about everything. I.e. quick latency to get back to the station could suggest she was enjoying the training… however if that latency increased (and at times it did) it might suggest she is not enjoying it as much.

I also added a foot stool to bring Fibi more up to my eye level.

Video four – March 23rd 2021

One thing I really struggled with in this training was my timing and capturing a certain sized gape as well as a still mouth for duration.

I am a big fan of using antecedent arrangements in ways that help measure certain components of what we do – so I purchased a compass (used for drawing circles) & modified it. I was hoping this might help me ensure I am clicking the same gape every-time, (approximating wider & wider) by having something more visual to click, i.e. chin on bottom target/part of compass.

Video five – April 06th 2021

One of the highlights of visiting – Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park – is the ability to get up-close and personal with our Koalas. We run daily encounter sessions where visitors can enter a pod and cuddle up to one of our trained Koalas as they sit comfortably on their perch and busily snack on their favourite eucalyptus tips.

This blog post shares some behaviour management and training done with two of our parks Koalas, Mallee and Victor. Mallee (a beautiful 2-year-old female koala) arrived in December 2016 and our keeping team couldn’t be more excited. She was very shy but fitted into her new home very quickly. Additionally, two years ago, Moonlit was blessed by the arrival of Victor – a two-year-old male, all the way from South Australia. Victor came to us as a very friendly boy who could not get enough cuddles from his keepers, and he fitted into our encounter koala team almost seamlessly.

Fast-forward to 2020, Moonlit has been thrown some curveballs, dealing with our first-ever closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Whilst we were faced with new challenges in maintaining our animals’ daily routines and keeping them fluent in their trained behaviours, we were also granted some time to really focus on their training plans, get creative and try some new things!

VICTOR (written by Caitlin Ondracek)

Victor has always had a habit of leaping onto the ground in his enclosure and running over to his gate in anticipation of interactions with his keepers or visitors. In the video below you can see what this looked like with keeper Britt Beckett entering Victor’s habitat.

This behaviour had the potential of becoming a hazard for staff attempting to enter his enclosure to service or feed, with a koala waiting just behind the gate. With changes to staffing and everyone pitching in to help with the morning cleaning rounds in new departments, I set out to make our keepers’ lives easier by station training him on a perch in his enclosure. This would hopefully reduce his activity on the ground and make entering his enclosure safer for all staff.

With a 5-week plan ready to go, we began setting up his environment for success, changing some perches in his enclosure to create a distinct station perch as well as a ‘ramp’ perch for easy climbing up from the ground. However, as we were just getting started on his training, another curveball was thrown, as I (Caitlin Ondracek) became part of a ‘work-from-home’ team, working away from the sanctuary for two months. During this time, Koala Coordinator Britt Bishop continued his station training according to the plan, performing repetitions of picking him up from his station perch and reinforcing him with vigorous cuddles (which he often loves more than food!). From afar, I got to work supporting Britt by devising a way to break Victor’s association between sitting on the ground and keepers entering to lure him up, a situation that was doubly reinforcing, with keeper attention and food attained through this behaviour.

While I was at home, the planning process began with finding a way to deliver tippy leaf to Victor’s station from outside his enclosure. The position of the perch made it a challenge. We considered a pulley system or a swinging rope. Ideas were thrown around and the product of all this brainstorming was something simple but life-changing; the SnackStick! This contraption utilizes a flexible piece of PVC pipe on the end of a long pole, which can grab onto a small leaf pot sitting in a holder affixed to Victor’s station. The keeper can grasp and retrieve the leaf pot, fill the pot with tippy leaf, and return the pot to his station, all without stepping foot into his enclosure. I couldn’t be certain it would work until I could return to on-site work and try it out. After 8 weeks away, I installed the snack delivery system and it immediately removed any circumstance where a keeper could open a gate to find a koala in front of them or the awkward dance of raking an enclosure with a koala underfoot.

We started collecting data to see how his behaviour was affected by our new system, and we have found not only that his ground activity has reduced drastically, but also that in anticipation of keeper cuddles, he tends to go and sit at his station rather than leaping to the ground. This is a massive win!

MALLEE (written by Brittanie Bishop)

Mallee was always a trusting and friendly little individual and we were ecstatic to see her confidence grow over the years. She was a part of our breeding program in previous years but was unsuccessful in each attempt. With such a patient and interactive personality, we decided to trial training her to participate in encounters.

Prior to the first COVID-19 outbreak and following lockdown in March 2020, Mallee was at the stage where she was ready to meet the public after weeks of training in the encounter area. The first few weeks of lockdown meant her fluent behaviours became non-existent and we found ourselves starting from scratch.

As Victoria (Australia) went into a second lockdown, we decided to put our time and resources into training Mallee. We began with a simple 5-week plan focusing on getting the environment set up for success. This included adding a horizontal perch close to the door leading to the encounter area. We also installed a flat, stable station point where the crate could be placed, allowing us to have our hands free whilst crate training. Once these were in place, Mallee’s crate behaviour became fluent, especially when we collected data to discover what her highest reinforcing eucalyptus species was.

The easing of COVID-19 restrictions saw keepers coming back to Moonlit and the extra hands meant Mallee’s training took leaps and bounds. With Caitlin back on the ground, we were able to train Mallee every day rather than most days and she was crating perfectly within a few days. She would even wait at her station for us to come and train her.

Our most exciting 5-week plan involved starting the process of introducing Mallee to her encounter pod. This included noise desensitization, getting used to the surrounding area, pats in a different environment, and crating in a different area. She flew through her small approximations and before we knew it, she was sitting in her encounter pod, happily eating whilst receiving pats from both Caitlin and myself. Her biggest hurdle was noise. We set lots of small approximations to help with this including the sound of rain, of crunching stones underfoot as people walked by and gates opening and closing to her pod. All of which she took in her stride over time. We are so ecstatic by her development and she is now officially meeting the public for encounters! In the future, we hope to work on crating her when we are going home after encounters (she often wants to stay for more food and pats). This may involve setting up our environment better or collecting data on which behaviours Mallee chooses to do when crating. Wish us luck!

Two more crating video examples with Banjo the Koala

About the Authors – ATA member – Brittanie Beckett

Brittanie Beckett is the Koala Coordinator at Moonlit Sanctuary, in Victoria, Australia. She grew up on a small farm and loved animals all her life. She realized she wanted to pursue her passion for zoology when she did a ‘zookeeper for a day’ experience at Werribee Zoo when she was 10.

Her career at Moonlit Sanctuary started straight out of high school in the park’s cafe. This helped her appreciate all the aspects of the business. A few years of volunteering weekly, birthday parties, and night tours saw Britt enthusiastically accepting a job as a keeper when her 3-year university degree was over. She feels so honored to work with such amazing ‘humanimals’ and incredible rare species every day.

About the Authors – ATA member – Caitlin Ondracek

Caitlin Ondracek is a wildlife keeper and records officer at Moonlit Sanctuary, in Victoria, Australia. Many zookeepers dream of their career from a young age, however, Caitlin changed paths a couple of times during tertiary study before finally landing in the wildlife conservation field. Initially leaning towards working in Entomology, she did a work placement at Moonlit and immediately fell in love with the park, the people, and the animals.

Caitlin has taken on many roles as her career has progressed, contributing to the park as an education officer and records officer alongside her keeping role. With a family background in teaching, she has found a love of educating the public on native species and the conservation efforts being undertaken on a large scale and at a community level. She has also begun a journey to learn more about animal behaviour and training, specifically the challenge of discovering the strengths, abilities, and reinforcers for Moonlit’s Koalas.

In this blog post we will examine a concept that we all know as animal trainers and contemplate its applicability to us as human learners! And this concept is ‘The trust account’. (Note this blog is a segment taken from a presentation called “Ten things training birds can teach you about working with people” & that I presented at the IAATE {The International Association of Avian Trainers & Educators} conference at the start of March). You can see a video version of this blog below ⬇️

The trust account is a term I first heard from Steve Martin & Susan Friedman. And you can read more from them and about this concept in an article they co-wrote called “The power of trust” (See on the behaviour works website HERE. And on the NEI website HERE).

In my paraphrased version the concept is basically that; every interaction you have with your animal/learner is either putting a deposit in your trust account or making a withdrawal. Much like putting money in an actual bank account. To have a healthy account you want to make as many deposits as possible and have as few withdrawals as possible… But if you do have lots of money in there (or positive interactions in your trust account) when you do have to make a withdrawal there is still plenty left, and you are not going to go bankrupt

In that article I mentioned earlier Susan & Steve write…

{EXTRA LEARNING}  ➡️ want to LEARN even more about how to build trust! See this previous ATA blog post written by Carol Milner about building it with her dog Odie

I learned this lesson really well when thinking waaaaay back to my university days… before I had any idea about positive reinforcement or anything to do with Animal Training.

The photo below is not me… It’s actually my best man from my wedding Vincent Bennet! Who I met in university, who still lives 15 minutes down the road from me & it still one of my closest friends! And in university we lived in the same student flat @ # 68 Raroa Road, Kelburn, Wellington New Zealand.

And , this photo was taken after Vicent had laser eye surgery… Hence why you might be able to see a patch over one of his eyes – its one of the few photos I have (we still had the Nokia’s back then – you know the one’s with that game snake on them – no camera), of Harry! Right there sitting on Vincent’s shoulder you might be able to see Him – He is an Australian Rainbow lorikeet who lived with me during university! Harry the lorikeet is still alive and now lives with a group of other lorikeets here in a private collection in New Zealand!

Now If I knew then what I know now – there’s no way I would have ever acquired harry back then! My life and our student flat wasn’t the best place for him, I had no idea what I was doing and so I did do things sometimes like towel him to get him back in his cage. Obviously if I could go back in time, I would do things very differently. And I do feel really sorry for Harry that he had to experience young me but acknowledge that many of us worked with animals before we knew what we were doing and we can’t change our past & what we did, but we can be grateful for the lessons that we learned & that these animals taught us!…

And I will never forget that when Harry and I moved into the same student flat as Vince, (so we lived somewhere else before that) when all the humans living in the house would go and spend time in our lounge area together, Harry started to choose to go and sit with Vincent instead of me. Vincent was much more organised then young I, and came pre-prepared for couch time with slices of apple and various other fruits and would non-stop engage and play with Harry – more then I! would.

If Vincent wasn’t there, Harry would be by me. If Vince was there Harry would be by Vince! I will never forget this! It kinda upset me at the time but, now I obviously understand that behaviour goes where reinforcement flows… And in the context of the lounge , Vince was “The provider of predictable and pleasant events” … Over time and in this context, he was putting more deposits in the trust account than I! And remember I did occasionally take significant withdrawals!

Steven Covey – the author of “the seven habits of highly effective people” has a similar term he calls the emotional bank account when thinking about these ideas with people!

And I think Harry’s lessons way back then in the living room dynamics of 68 Raroa Road remind me of the importance and value of considering these lessons to the best of our abilities with each other in how any/every interaction we have is hypothetically putting deposits in our trust account or taking them out. Some examples in the human world, might be;

• Keeping commitments, vs breaking commitments.
• Listening, vs interrupting someone
• Apologize for your mistake vs being defensive.
• And the list goes on and on…

And I think back to Harry… And I think about Vince… And suddenly it all makes sense why he was my best man

There’s us at my wedding in Thailand in 2017! ⬆️ Nearly 15 years later

You know I didn’t even pack a bow tie… That one you see me wearing Vince brought that one for me – just in case I forgot – he knows me too well! – Another deposit in the trust account​!

What about you – what does trust mean to you? Do you have any stories? I would love to hear them, you can leave a comment below and let us know!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

Last spring, someone threw lit firecrackers at me and my dog.

It was a lovely afternoon. The weather had just started to get warm, and I needed to do some training with Jack in a different environment. We usually practice in the backyard, so I put his leash on and headed out the front door to do a little training in the front yard for a change. We were both so focused on our training that I barely noticed the sound of a car driving up then slowing to a stop. My back was turned to the car as I worked to keep Jack engaged through this new distraction. I remember hearing a hissing noise before the car sped off and firecrackers started exploding just inches from where Jack and I were standing.

The Limitations of Counterconditioning

Needless to say, both Jack and I were scarred from the experience. There was a period of time where Jack wouldn’t even walk toward the front door. I was already working full time as a training assistant, so I knew about counterconditioning – the process through which we change a negative association with something by pairing that thing with something positive. By providing Jack with tasty food for each step he took toward the door, I was able to eventually convince Jack that the front door was safe, and then that going out the front door and getting in the car was safe. But for the next year and then some, I was never able to convince him that the sidewalk on our block was safe. Even with anti-anxiety medications, input from my training mentor, and the most high value reinforcers known to Jack, I could not step out my front door and take my dog for a walk. Occasionally I could coax him to take a few steps, but he would immediately pull desperately back toward the house.

For a long while, I gave up. We both preferred to go to the woods and walk on hiking trails, so that’s what we did exclusively. But as I progressed in my career and education as a trainer, I started to learn about different ways to apply the principles of counterconditioning: start buttons and pattern games.

For those who aren’t familiar, a start button is a behavior that an animal performs to communicate consent or opting in to a procedure or experience. It’s a way for the animal to say, “okay, I’m ready!” Traditionally, we look for body language clues (tail carriage, ear position, body posture, etc) to make educated guesses about whether an animal is feeling okay about an experience. Start buttons take away the guesswork and put the learner in control. Along with a clear way to opt in – offer the behavior – there is a clear way to opt out – don’t offer the behavior. I don’t like needles, but I cope with getting a shot much better when I’m able to tell the nurse that I’m ready. This element of choice and control, I have found, speeds up traditional counterconditioning processes.

Pattern games, popularized by the wonderful Leslie McDevitt, author of Control Unleashed, are “a repetitive, predictable framework of cues and behaviors that helps the learner process the environment by weaving the unexpected into the safety net of the expected.” They provide a familiar and comfortable context from which to experience uncomfortable things. As a person with anxiety, I can wholly relate to how predictability eases that distress. I cope better with going to a new place if I have clear directions on how to get there and what to do when I arrive. The same is true for our dogs.

Want to learn more about pattern games and their creator Leslie McDevitt? You can do so in a previous ATA podcast episode with her here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/leslie-mcdevitt/

So after learning about these amazing developments in the world of dog training and seeing success using them with my clients’ dogs, what kind of trainer would I be if I didn’t apply them to improve the life of my own dog? Jack and I used two of Leslie McDevitt’s pattern games, start buttons included, to get him back to walking in our neighborhood.

Superbowls – Well, SuperCones

Superbowls is a pattern game in which the dog controls movement down a line of bowls. He eats a treat from one bowl, then offers a start button behavior that causes the handler to move to the next bowl, eats a treat from there, and so on and so forth. At the end of the line, the handler goes directly back to the starting point. I first taught Jack the concept of this game in our driveway behind the house, so that he could focus on learning the pattern and not on being in a scary environment. I used cones instead of bowls, and Jack’s start button was making eye contact with me.

Want access to the whole kit & caboodle of Animal Training Academy resources… CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer via your very own Animal Training Academy membership.

Once Jack had learned the game, we used it for walking out the front door and onto the sidewalk, up to and just past the spot where the firecracker incident happened.

I began to decrease the number of cones when I saw low latency (lag time) between eating the treat and looking back up at me. This told me that Jack needed less time to prepare for moving forward, and I read that to mean he was feeling more comfortable.

1-2-3 Treat Walking

Fantastic! Now I just need to set cones all around my neighborhood and Jack and I can go for a nice walk. Hah! I successfully decreased the number of cones to just one at the furthest point – Jack would happily walk out the front door and all the way to that cone!

But when I tried to continue walking much beyond the cone, Jack reverted to his old behavior – panicking and pulling back toward the house. That’s totally fair, I pulled the rug out from under him and left him floating in the abyss with no pattern to hold on to. Time for 1-2-3 Treat!

1-2-3 treat walking is another pattern game created by Leslie McDevitt. It’s a mobile game that doesn’t require any equipment. Count out loud – “one, two, three” – and give the dog a treat on three. Then add movement – take three steps while counting out loud, treat on three. Again, I taught this to Jack out of the scary environment and incorporated a start button. On three, I placed the treat on the ground and stopped. Before starting the pattern again, I waited for Jack to offer eye contact. Just like in SuperCones, his voluntary offering of eye contact dictated if/when we moved forward.

It’s difficult to hear me in the video, but this is an example of what 1-2-3 Treat looks like with relatively low latency.

I also want to include this as an example of how Jack’s behavior changes when he becomes uncomfortable. Much longer latency, scanning and looking around at the environment. I believe this change was because we were getting further away from the house and closer to a busy road. I do not prompt Jack to look at me – it’s important to me that he remains in control of when we move and when we don’t.

Fading Out the Pattern

Within just a couple of walks with the 1-2-3 Treat game, Jack stopped needing me as much. We still started our walks with the pattern, but after a few repetitions he wouldn’t look back up at me after eating the treat. Instead, he would continue walking all on his own! He no longer relied on me as a constant source of reinforcement, but began discovering that there is reinforcement available in the environment in the form of forward motion, smells to sniff, and sometimes even squirrels and cats to look at! Basically, he’s re-learned that walks in the neighborhood can actually be enjoyable, and most importantly, safe.

In this video you see a great mix of Jack choosing to move forward on his own, as well as periodically initiating the 1-2-3 pattern by looking up at me.

Looking Ahead

Jack can now walk in the neighborhood again. He can also choose not to. It’s started snowing in Michigan, and I had the idea that a neighborhood walk in the first snow of the season would be lovely. Jack disagreed, and he told me that by not engaging in his pattern when we left the house. In order for all my efforts to work, I have to be okay with that. If we are going to give our dogs a way to say yes, it is essential that we respect their option to say no.

We will still primarily walk on trails in the woods because it’s something that we both love. But we also have the option to walk in our neighborhood, and above all, we have a deeper relationship and understanding, a whole new way to communicate with one another.

Want access to the whole kit & caboodle of Animal Training Academy resources… CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer via your very own Animal Training Academy membership.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – ATA member Jill Hassevoort

Jill Hassevoort is  a graduate and Certified Training Partner of Karen Pryor Academy (KPA CTP) and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA). Pretty much any time she’s not training dogs, she’s out hiking with Jack.  Jack and Jill also enjoy cooperative care training and snuggling on the couch. Before starting her career in dog training, Jill graduated from the University of Michigan and then spent four years teaching Spanish in Detroit high schools. That experience prepared her to teach her clients how to live and work harmoniously with their dogs. She loves helping her clients understand the “why” behind their dogs’ behavior and come up with the best solutions for their unique situation. Jill is the owner and trainer at Jack and Jill Professional Dog Training. She offers in-home and day training to Detroit and the Metro area, and provides virtual training anywhere with an internet connection.

• CLICK HERE for Jill’s website
• CLICK HERE to find Jill on FaceBook
• CLICK HERE to find Jill on Instagram

Systematically adding distractions to help our animals be successful in a variety of contexts & with a variety of external stimuli can be a time consuming endeavour – but the results are TOTALLY worth the effort! Plus it’s a whole lot of fun to build this aspect of our learners behavioural fluency and is something I have been working on recently with Fibi doing – desirable behaviours in her crate.

Desirable behaviour = still vocal chords, sitting or lying down.

Below ⬇️ is some of the training we have done so far.

Firstly you can see us building some duration in the crate in the calm environment of my office. BTW… Fibi knows food is available when the snuffle mat & pet tutor are present. This same crate has also been used by her to sleep for long durations – so different cues in the environment help communicate different reinforcers are on offer.

We then added the office door being open… this instantly increased the stimuli in the environment. Mainly bird sounds.

Next steps was start to do the training in a variety of different rooms!

Then back to the office but with me doing a variety of weird things lol

Then up to our lounge adding my wife, dancing, cats, & vacuums!

And then external sounds. This next video we had bird sounds, dogs barking, neighbours voices and garden power tools all within the space of 60 seconds! WAHAAT!

​What about you? How do you add distractions in to your trained behaviours? I would love to know – and you can share by leaving a comment below

Ryan Cartlidge – Animal Training Academy Founder/Director/Facilitator

This week’s blog is all about the value of practicing mechanics with either yourself and/your human learners before we/they are in front of their animals. This is something that I personally do a lot! I feel like watching someone do something (i.e. the mechanical behaviours involved in training an animal) &/or having it explained is a very different thing then actually doing it oneself. ​

Recently I posted some of the video’s in this blog post on FaceBook & Theresa Mckeon (co-founder of TAG teach international) commented that when our animals are in front of us there is a whole new skill involved – observe/decide! I.e. we have to make decisions in real time based on what our learner does. Therefore even where we can do what’s required without our animal when we add the animal into the picture it can sometimes quickly fall apart. ​

P.s if you haven’t learned from Theresa McKeon before I highly recommend doing so! You can listen to a past ATA podcast episode with her here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/theresa-mckeon/​

To help demonstrate how I do this with clients I have included some videos below:​

Firstly though, we have been training Finn-dog to have his face groomed. Up until recently we had been practicing with two people. But it came time to fade me out and have Helen (Finn’s owner) do the training on her own… ​

So… I practiced how it would feel to do this by myself before pretending to be Finn and having Helen practice the mechanics first with me & then with Finn. See below:​

​We then added the grooming tools and added this to Helen’s mechanical repertoire:​

This is where we are currently up to. Next we will add Finn into this equation! As mentioned above this will add that component for Helen where she will have to observe/decide! And then there will be another whole set of mechanical skills required! I.e. What does Helen do if Finn offers something other than a chin rest? I am excited to be continuing to work with Helen & Finn on this over the coming weeks or so! Therefore, this blog post is – To be continued… 🙂 ​

What about you, is this something you do? How do you practice your mechanics both for yourself and any human learners you might train? I would love to know & please feel free to leave a comment below & share your approach & stories!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy​​

As we all already know, learning is just as important to our pets as having a cozy corner, good food, affection, and exercise.

Training – based on positive reinforcement – is an integral part of my daily life with my animals and those of my clients. I don’t want my training to be something I do to animals, I want to train with animals.

Ken Ramirez rightly reminds us that training is not a luxury but an essential part of good care provided to our animals. Training is therefore of paramount importance on a daily basis because it brings, among other things, enrichment, as well as mental and physical stimulation to the animal.

The word “training” encompasses a variety of learning experiences all of which have value. Each training session improves our relationship with our animals because it allows us to have a two-way communication, to « talk » adequately to our learners, without force, without punishment and above all, by offering the animal as much choice and control as possible.

Objective #1) Teach the children! They are the guarantors of tomorrow’s animal welfare!

When possible, I love to include children from families I visit as part of my work as a behavior consultant because I am convinced that they are the guarantors of tomorrow’s animal welfare. Hugo is a young boy passionate about parrots but who could not approach his companions unless he was bitten. We set up a simple target training, with a stick. This allowed Hugo to learn to respect the personal space of his birds, to put a lot of money in his trust account (CLICK HERE to see an article from Susan Friedman & Steve Martin on trust accounts) and subsequently, to teach them to station. Doing this allowed him to enter the aviary with his feathered friends and to start training other behaviors.

Objective #2) Most positive, less intrusive! We can do so much without ever having to even touch our learners

We often think that teaching a parrot to step-up on our hands or arms is essential and that it should be the very first training to implement when adopting a parrot.  However, we can teach our parrots great behaviors without even touching them and thanks to offering them this respect it can help develop a strong relationship.

Want access to the whole kit & caboodle of Animal Training Academy resources… CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer via your very own Animal Training Academy membership.

Training can also replace unwanted behavior – the animal cannot emit a behavior we might label as undesirable and at the same time perform a desirable behavior during a training session. In addition, thanks to training, we can let our animal know which behavior is the most “profitable” for them. Training can also teach our pets to participate in their own care – Working in a force free way allows us to employ, advocate and always promote practices that protect the physical and emotional well-being of our animals (with all species).

Objective #3) Use curiosity & creativity to facilitate even greater choice for our animals (Grisha)

I have spent most of my last training sessions wondering how to increase the notion of choice for animals under my care. Grisha is one of my client’s macaw that I train. She voluntarily steps-up on me & has a very good recall. We also worked together on a lot of useful behaviors, such as taking medication or going into her transport crate voluntarily. But Grisha could never be touched (never wanted to be touched). It would turn out to be a very big problem if she needed special care.

So I decided to work on a whole new behavior with her. I chose to work with a head target.  Positioning her head in my hand will become a form of consent to be touched while removing the head will indicate a “no thanks”.  I have the opportunity to work with Grisha once a week and our sessions last between 3 and 5 minutes on average. This is our ninth session ⬇️ – 9 sessions of about 5 minutes, this means that after only 45 minutes of training, I am now able to touch Grisha’s keel, touch her paws, her wing and even her face.

Objective #4) Use curiosity & creativity to facilitate even greater consent for our animals (Luna)

Luna is my blue & gold macaw. I touch her all over her body, we’ve been training for years together in cooperative care, she’s used to learning new behaviors and I think we can tell she trusts me.  So I could have told myself that in order to put drops in her nose I could have “simply” grabbed her and put them inside her nostril (drops in the nose are a fairly common treatment in parrots).  But I want to always differentiate between “my parrot accepts to …” and “my parrot decides to …”.

The purpose of this new training is to optimize Luna’s consent before any intervention and to promote our success in case of a “serious need”. I don’t want her to accept that I touch her no matter the costs. I want to give her as much power as possible. Here, I consider that Luna gives me her consent to be touched when she passes her upper mandible in a dial hole. By withdrawing her beak, she withdraws her consent and, as a consequence, I withdraw my hands immediately.  The structure was designed so that Luna can perch there comfortably and that she can pass her beak in one of the three holes scattered on the dial. Three holes to give her more choice, more movement.  I always try to make sure that Luna wants to do this training with me. She systematically has the opportunity to obtain a reinforcer (usually the same) by:

• Passing her beak in the hole furthest from me on the dial (in which case, I do not touch her but she is still rewarded)
• Reaching out and climbing on my hand (this is a signal for me to stop the session)
• Flying on the perch just behind her and enjoying the food scattered in foraging

At 1:25, on this video, I release the first “real” nose drops. This session is not perfect but I still love it because we can observe what can be considered “a mistake” or “a failure” and how Luna and I work after a “bad behavior”.

Objective #5) Have fun! 

Of course, training to voluntarily cut or file the claws, to come back to the recall or to enter voluntarily in a transport crate is of capital importance, but that does not mean that it is necessary to deprive ourself and our animals to learn behaviors that are apparently less useful. Training also allows us to spend quality time, a moment of harmony, with our animal and to smile! Whether by shaping, luring or like in the example below ⬇️ by capturing a behavior.

To capture this behavior, I took a few simple steps:

1. Identify the behavior you want to capture, the place and / or time where it occurs most often
2. Choose what will be the cue for this behavior (here it is to sneeze myself)
3. Mark and reinforce the behavior as soon as it appears spontaneously
4. Integrate the cue while the behavior was occurring
5. Integrate the cue before the behavior occurs
6. Mark and reinforce the behavior only when the cue is presented
7. Integrate the behavior into the midst of other fluent behaviors

(“A tes souhaits” means “bless you” and it is the reinforcer for this behavior)

Whether it is to work on the natural behaviors of our animal, on cooperative care or on tricks behaviors, good training, based on positive reinforcement, is never useless. I hope you have find some inspiration in the videos shown.

With that, ciao-ciao!

Like what you see here? And want more amazing resources from Animal Training Academy. CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer for you within the ATA Membership.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – ATA member Lisa Longo

Lisa Longo is a french animal behavior consultant, & founder of Animal Académie. After adopting her first parrot in 2011, she began to learn about ABA. She took the Leaving & Learning with Animals and Living & Learning with Parrots courses, offered by Dr. Susan Friedman. Wanting to improve her technique, she also attended the professional workshops at the Natural Encounters Center, alongside Steve Martin in Florida, USA.

Lisa is also a Certified Professional Bird Trainer and her particular passion for parrots led her to publish a book called « Guide du perroquet de compagnie » (pet’s parrot guide). Lisa is also an animal trainer “Fear Free Certified Professional”. She has a commitment to use, recommend and always promote practices that protect the physical AND emotional well-being of her pets and those of her clients, (with all species). Her thirst for knowledge and her desire to always offer the best advices and services to her clients and students keep her in constant learning. She shares her house with a Czechoslovakian wolf dog, a red-lored Amazon, a blue & gold macaw and a Gottingen pig.

CLICK HERE to visit Lisa’s website

Note: This blog was originally shared as a post in the ATA members only FB group on August 22nd, 2020

During her senior annual check-up, my 9-year old hound, Molly, was diagnosed with cancer. That was a little less than four weeks ago. She is scheduled for surgery tomorrow. When the vet gave me the diagnosis, I thought, “What do I need to do to get her ready? What skills will she need? What training can I do? (And how can I focus my energy so I don’t spend the next month worrying?)”

I made a small list of training tasks. Then I checked-in with the training goddess, Sue Ailsby, for her guidance and wisdom. She fleshed out a more comprehensive training list for me and Molly, to include:

• Ds/cc to cone
• Ds/cc to shirt (Molly will have a long suture on her side.)
• Crate training (we don’t use crates.)
• Visits to vet parking lot = good things
• Hire vet tech to work with me on handling/practice the switch off in parking lot
• Ds/cc to the table
• Ds/cc to the muzzle
• Handling while in the crate (more specifically, having the pressure of someone come into her crate, leashing her up and moving her out of the crate.)

Want access to the whole kit & caboodle of Animal Training Academy resources… CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer via your very own Animal Training Academy membership.

I then talked to my vet again, who is simply wonderful and walked me through the process and the day literally step-by-step. I suspect because we are trying to be responsible, my vet, who is insanely busy, seemed more than happy to spend time on the phone describing everything to me in detail and answering all of my questions. She mentioned Molly would be brought down narrow stairs to the crates. I told her that might be an issue as we have few stairs in our home. So instead, they will walk her outside the front door and through the basement door.

She also reviewed my training list with me. She told me that Molly will not need a muzzle. She said they can do all the pre-op work on the floor. But she did tell me that one of the hardest things for dogs is having a leg shaved in preparation for the IV. Based on our conversation, I:

• Crossed off the table and muzzle
• Avoided the narrow stairs
• Added ds/cc to razor/shave leg ahead of time

Next, I hired one of the vet techs to work with me to simulate the hand-off (our vet does curb-side because of Covid) in the parking lot and to review and work on handling. As the vet tech ran through the handling, she showed me how Molly will be put in a restraint hold where her head is immobilized. She taught me how to do it.

To my surprise, the morning I took Molly to work with the vet tech, as I was getting her ready, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I had been focusing on training and being practical. Molly looked very concerned!

I then revised my list again:

• Added ds/cc to restraint hold
• Work through my feelings

It has been so cool because we have made quick progress on everything. Molly has a strong mat behavior, so I was able to throw the mat in the crate and cue the mat. I only needed to change the cue.  To my surprise, she has twice chosen to go to the crate on her own during thunderstorms.  (I guess the crate is a keeper.) The rest of the training felt like going through the motions, as I suspect it all felt familiar to Molly. Because she has a learning history, when we need new behaviors, it’s really not all that hard to train them. Because I have a learning history as a trainer, I know how to teach her new behaviors and skills. While I don’t think Molly will enjoy any aspect of the day, I think, I hope, she will feel prepared, or at least like she has the skills to handle the challenges.

The feeling, the thought, that is sticking with me is ‘THIS is why I train’. I want her to feel confident and competent. I want her to feel like the world is a safe place and she can handle herself. When she does face challenges (because she will) – she will be okay. This is not the way Molly started out in life. I’m so proud of how far she has come – how far we have come together. Is it possible that the day, instead of being traumatic, might further teach her that she can handle tough challenges? Training IS quality of life. This moment is hitting home in a big way.

Postscript: It has been exactly one week since the surgery. I keep reflecting on how Molly’s surgery and recovery could have been a stressful event for her and everyone in our house, but instead it has been surprisingly wonderful. I guess we can always find the good if we try. We can never know what our dogs are thinking, but Molly seems happier and more relaxed after her surgery. Our other dog is a barometer for Molly’s feelings. I expected our little dog would be giving Molly lots of space. But the two of them have been playing and having fun every day. I have to imagine that the tumor was causing her discomfort. It must have been painful. She doesn’t mind the inflatable cone at all, nor the shirt, nor any of the limitations she must contend with. She hasn’t even tried to mess with her stitches, all 8” of them. I feel like the humans have made a big deposit into Molly’s trust bank.

Like what you see here? And want more amazing resources from Animal Training Academy. CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer for you within the ATA Membership.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: – ATA member Tessa Romita Herron

Tessa Romita Herron, MSBA, CCUI, ADT with the IAABC, is a professional dog trainer in Stone Ridge, New York. She unwittingly took her first steps into the profession when she adopted Molly, a coonhound pup with behavioral challenges. In her quest to bring Molly and their household some peace, she grew to love Molly so deeply, maybe not despite her struggle, but because of it. As they slowly put the pieces together, Tessa realized that being and working with Molly brought her tremendous joy. She decided to do what she loves for a living. In terms of Molly’s surgery experience, to see Molly not only cope, but thrive in a challenging situation makes Tessa’s heart explode with pride and love. She operates Hudson Valley Hounds (HVH) Dog Training and serves pet dog owners and their families.  Tessa is also a graduate of Susan Friedman’s Living and Learning with Animals (LLA) and a perpetual student when it comes to learning about all things dogs and behavior. Tessa is a proud member of the Animal Training Academy community and grateful to be a part of such an amazing and supportive group of trainers.

CLICK HERE for Tessa’s Hudson Valley Hounds website 

I am so excited that your animal training goals are about to be supercharged soon when we launch the brand new Animal Training Academy membership website (coming in the next few months)! A huge part of this project has entailed migrating our vast collection (of five years worth) of Animal Training content from our current website to the new platform. And buried deep in our archive areas are SO many free hidden treasures that you absolute must get access to!

Including the following five videos & corresponding content – originally released in February 2018! It was in this month that we celebrated Sweden and the amazing trainers that live there! So grab some popcorn & a drink, sit back & enjoy this awesomeness!

Video #1 – Cooperative care/husbandry dog training with Josefin Linderstöm. See the full write up HERE

Video #2 – Match to Sample training penguins with Anna Svensson. See the full write up HERE

Video #3 – Cooperative parrot care with Stephanie Edlund. See the full write up HERE

Video #4 – Positive reinforcement horse riding with Angelica Hesselius. See the full write up HERE

Video #5 – Choice, Control & ABC contingencies with Eva Bertilsson. See the full write up HERE

I hope you enjoyed this blast from the past! And I am looking forward to seeing what other treasures we have buried deep within the ATA archives! We will also be releasing more information very soon about our brand new ATA members only website! It is going to be AMAZING!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

2020 has been an intense year for all of us & I hope that for you – considering all that is going on – things are as good as they can be!

One significant challenge that many have faced is scheduled events having to be cancelled and/or postponed! In my case one significant event being a five day in person workshop to complete the Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Professional Dog Training Certification!

Although we couldn’t do this in person – KPA pivoted their approach and offered us a three day virtual workshop (followed by a 2 day in person assessment – at a yet to be determined date) to gain our KPA CPT.

Note: You can hear Ken Ramirez talk about some of the changes they had to make in this bonus ATA podcast episode here >>> https://bit.ly/ATA_Ken-Ramirez

And although this email is a wee bit late in coming – I am thrilled to announce that in April Fibi-dog and I successfully passed our 10 part behavior chain and our teaching assessment (where we had to teach our fellow peers/workshop attendees something new) & consequently we can now officially call ourselves KPA-CPT’s ?

I remember back to when I originally decided to do this certification many people were asking me why? And so to answer that question I wrote a blog post – sharing 3 reasons why I decided to register! You can see that post here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA-KPA

And now that I have finished I’ve had many more people asking me how I found the experience? – As they themselves are curious if it’s a good fit for them. And so I thought I would do a follow up on that original post and share three of my biggest takeaways from having completed the certification. 

* 1) How pressure can provide BIG opportunities for growth.

Running Animal Training Academy, working on numerous other projects, being a good husband, friend, pet owner, family member and doing other non animal training activities meant that my life was already jam-packed!

People would ask me beforehand how I planned to fit in the KPA certification on top of this. I didn’t have a plan, I knew it would be challenging but I was just willing to jump in the deep end of the swimming pool and splash around until I learned how to swim (which is basically how I approach everything in life lol).

Consequently doing the certification, I learned A LOT about how I operate under pressure. And working closely with my peers during my time doing the certification, I learned A LOT about how others operate under pressure as well.

The pressure being that of maintaining everything else in life and doing the certification on top of this. For me this was REALLY stepping outside of my comfort zone. And in all honesty it wasn’t necessarily enjoyable to have that much pressure…

Although in hindsight it was of course totally worth it … I do feel like I have become a more knowledgeable, skilful trainer and a better, more educated & tactful teacher as a result of this certification. And I built on these skill areas quickly! I.e. over the space of 6-7 months.

So now having completed the certification I find myself very curious! Does it take stepping outside of your comfort zone for you to be able to achieve your greatest periods of growth… ?

* 2) Confidence!

The bulk of my experience base is working within zoological settings with exotics! And I then created an online platform to cater to all learners! Immediately working with dogs, cats, horses and other animals in domestic contexts.

My belief that I could do this was grounded in my trusting of the science! I.e. that the rules of behaviour govern all learners/earthlings. Consequently I just needed to apply what I knew to this new context.

Whilst I don’t feel I was/am wrong about trusting the science – I did quickly realise that the more I learned the less I appreciated I knew! EEEP!

ATA is now 5 years old. And each year I reflect on how much I have learned over the preceding 12 months and it blows my mind. One thing was missing though to really help give my confidence a needed boost & I feel like this was accountability. Somebody else that was guided by an organisation & set of training best practices to say “Hey Ryan you are doing okay”

For me to have my training assessed and have someone communicate to me it was of a high quality & standard makes me feel like I’m actually doing alright & now I can proudly share this through my KPA CTP letters (behind my name).

* 3) A greater appreciation for what goes into certification

By this I mean the time and effort the students put in. The knowledge you gain, the time management you must show and the practical skills you must demonstrate are significant (in my opinion).

And with this appreciation (gained through practical experience) I can now understand how this credential can and should be used to not only promote ourselves but can also be leveraged to quickly evaluate other trainers’ knowledge & skills.

For example, I recently discovered a KPA certified trainer and groomer living within our local area. Which was awesome because I had a client with a dog in need of a groomer. We traveled there together and the experience was awesome! I now have some where I can take and recommend clients to get their dogs groomed and that I know align with my ethics and values on technique choice. And it all started with acknowledging their KPA certification.

Well there you have it three of my top take-aways from my experience doing KPA.

What about you? Have you been through a certification process with regards to Animal Training? Whether it be KPA? IAABC? CASI? Something else? And if so what were some of your biggest takeaways?

I would absolutely love to know and you can let me know by leaving a comment below.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge KPA CTP
Animal Training Academy

P.s Can’t afford KPA? Well how about a learning opportunity where you will get live access to training from the world’s most proficient animal training & behaviour experts as well as a community to support you at every step of the way! And all of this for just $1

What are you waiting for?

Grab your trial membership today (Trial offers are only designed to be used once per person – we value your honesty) >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2020-membership-trial/

We look forward to seeing you on the inside!

Recently we ran a poll in the Animal Training Academy (ATA) members only Facebook group asking our members if they film every training session they do? And what their reasons for filming or not filming were?

The benefits of filming your sessions being that you can review your training, pick up on things you might have missed, share with your peers/mentors & gather data to help plan your next approximations. Additionally very helpful if you’re working in a team environment where multiple people are working with an individual learners/animals behaviour.

Learn more about the benefits of filming your training in this previous ATA blog post HERE

Photo Credit: ATA member Talia Duell, Discover Canine (see the Discover Canine FB page here).

​Appreciating of course that our animals are always learning & therefore we can do a training session at any time – the question surrounded what I would label as a ‘formal training session.” A formal training session defined as one planned/scheduled in advance & where you intend to spend a specific slot of time modifying antecedents & consequences to help shape, maintain, build fluency and/or build stimulus control of your learners behaviour.

Although I feel like (i.e. in my personal opinion) people understand why you would film your sessions, the results of the poll suggested that a very small percentage of people were actually filming every session. And there were a large amount of reasons why this was the case which included some re-occurring challenges people were facing. So I thought I would list some of these potential challenges & additionally suggest some possible solutions/ideas to help remedy them.

Note: Most importantly you have to find the solution that works best for you and the resources/time you have available.

Challenge #1 Not enough time to review the video

Explanation. Is there any point in filming if you don’t have the time to review?

Solution/ideas:

If your behaviour of reviewing your videos is not happening at a high frequency experiment wth your own antecedents & consequences.

• What is the location where you do the reviews? A comfy couch vs an uncomfortable bar stool?
• Have a cold beer, Glass of wine, Cocktail, Coffee, Tea, crisps etc etc.. I.e. add some favourite food/drinks
• See the FB post below of where ATA member JR Henderson (www.ZenCatsRoc.com​) does his reviews.

Photo/post credit: ATA member JR Henderson, Zen Cats Roc.

Challenge #2 Equipment related (cameras, smart phones, tripods & accessories)

Explanation. You might plan a training session away from your home and forget some of your filming equipment. Your gear might be broken or the area you might train in could be outside and SUPER hot and your equipment can’t deal with the temperatures, or maybe to dark and wet? Additionally some say that having equipment set up can really distract them during a training session.

Solution/ideas:

• Make setting up the camera/tripod etc part of your pre session routine!
  • For some people this into can be an important antecedent that actually helps them train!
  • You can use this time to think about your session. & I know some people who even talk out loud to themselves at this time about exactly what they plan to do.
  • Oh and not to mention, if this routine is done regularly it will likely also be something your animal uses (i.e an important antecedent) to help it predict a session is about to start.
• Have a tripod set up in your normal training area – & leave it set up between sessions. This way you only need to come & clip your camera/phone in place.

Challenge #3 Bandwidth/internet challenges

Explanation. For a significant amount of people having the ability to put their videos online is an important motivator for them to film in the first place. For you this could enable you to share your video with peers for feedback and/or so that you can can store the videos online for future reference.

For super fast internet (for example my office internet speed is roughly 1000 mb/s download & 500 mb/s download) you can upload a 2 minute video in about 60 seconds! However with some members they were reporting to me it would literally take about 5-6 hours to upload one video! I can totally see why this would be unmotivating in this case.

Unsure of your internet speed? You can test it here >>> https://www.speedtest.net/

Solution/ideas:

• Use video editing software first to make your videos smaller before uploading (for example iMovie’s for apple, or movie maker for windows)
• Plug your computer (if this is what you are using to upload videos) into your modem rather then using wifi. This is called using a Ethernet connection.
• Buy a new modem. Often the modems we have at home are the free ones provided by our internet service providers (ISP) & these often pail in comparison to what you can buy in your local electronics store.
• Upload straight from your phone to the internet (assuming you are using your phone to film?)

Challenge #4 Videoing/creating/sharing video is a task which places you in a space of vulnerability.

Explanation: Videoing one’s training and either sharing it or even watching it back yourself does mean you open yourself up for feedback and sometimes that feedback doesn’t always feel great! Consequently I am under no illusion that for a lot of people filming takes courage and can for that reason be quite a challenging endeavour!

Solutions/ideas:

• There are numerous ways I have managed to film in the past that means the main bulk of myself is not included in the frame! This can possible be a great first approximation for some!
  • To achieve this you might strap a go-pro to your head so it’s only filming your animal
  • You might set a tripod up low to the ground so it only films your legs and your animal (assuming the species you are training & the behaviour you are working on are ones that this particular strategy might work for)!
• It can help to know even thought leaders in our industry have to manage venerability & courage. Hear Ken Ramirez talk about this on a recent ATA podcast episode here >>> https://bit.ly/ATA_Ken-Ramirez​

Of course filming your training isn’t the only way of reviewing your training & some would rather take notes instead. As mentioned above you have to find the solution that best works for you as an individual.

I hope this has been beneficial to you? I would love to hear form you and you can leave your comments below

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s. For me training is SO much more then just being in front of our learners with our reinforcers! In fact this is just a very small part of what I would label as being a successful trainer. In my personal opinion what’s even more important is developing processes for both reviewing & planning your sessions!

This is where the ATA membership can really help take your animal training to the next level! Our content library dating back 3.5 years of monthly live class replays paired with our community areas means you will get all of the support you will ever need!

Don’t believe me? Check out what our members are saying below…

​What are you waiting for?

Grab your trial membership today (Trial offers are only designed to be used once per person – we value your honesty) >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2020-membership-trial/​

Having our animals offer behaviours with duration is an important skill to learn and also one Fibi & I worked hard on together (with the Fibi-Flop/lie on her side Behaviour). However, I often hear people mention that they find it significantly challenging to train! Consequently, I thought I would share some of my own thoughts, some ideas from my mentors & also ones ATA members have been discussing within the ATA membership community areas (private FB group & website forums).

P.s …want to learn more about me training Fibi to do the “Fibi-Flop” … check out this earlier blog post here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/fibi-flop/

Below are 10 ideas to help you build duration behaviour.

1) Remember that each animal is a individual

I feel like this tip is just an important reminder to mention at the start of anything to do with training. There’s no recipe to how you train duration (& the speed at which you progress through your approximations). Rather, I believe that the skills comes in observing our learners & learning (ourselves) to go at their pace.

2) Train ‘easy’ behaviours to duration first

In my experience I have found that once we have taught what I would label as “the concept” of duration to our animals – it then can become easier for them to generalize it to other behaviours. Consequently I feel there can be benefit in training the concept with what one might think of as “easy behaviours” first & then using the concept for more challenging behaviours.

Of course as mentioned above every animal is an individual so “easy” is not defined by us but rather by the individual animal/learner in front of us. However, there are some common behaviours that I feel might fall into this category. For example a nose touch to a hand, a station or a paw offer (with it ending up resting in your hand). And the cool thing is that after you have these behaviours on duration they can be used for SO many different situations. The “Fibi-flop” behavior for example below one could argue is just Fibi targeting the side of her body to the ground.

3) Split split split

I feel a big temptation many trainers have (including myself) when training anything, let alone duration, is to push forward before the animal is ready. Training duration in small increments I find has been something that has been super helpful for me!

One way to do this might be to keep your sessions nice & short, have an idea on what approximation you would like to achieve before you start & also ensure these approximations are based on how your animal did in your last session/s. We can often get there (i.e. our end goal) faster if we go slower (& at the animals pace).

4) Ping ponging

Also as we increase duration we can also throw in reinforcement for smaller durations. One way I like to think about this, is via doing something I learned whilst doing Sarah Owings & Helix Fairweather’s cyber scent course last year. This is called ping ponging around a certain duration.

So for example I might be working on a 4 second duration target. And rather then only reinforce 4 seconds I might Ping pong around this number… So I might first reinforce 2 seconds… then 5 seconds, then 4 seconds, then 2 seconds, then 6 seconds, then 3 seconds.

The idea is the average should be about 4 seconds. And in the above example I went 2 seconds higher/lower on either side. Logically this means the behaviour isn’t just getting harder and harder – there are also reinforceable opportunities at easier approximations.

5) Relax criteria on other elements of the behavior

As we make the criteria of maintain (&/or repeat) behaviour for longer and longer durations we might choose (& often there is huge value in) to lower the criteria of other aspects of the behaviour.

For example with the “Fibi-Flop” behaviour the ideal criteria is Fibi lies on her side with her head resting on the ground. However as I started to go past 10 seconds I relaxed the criteria of head on the ground & started to count my duration as soon as she had finished eating her last piece of food. I can tidy the rest up later.

6) Up the value of the reinforcer

As what we ask gets harder and harder one consideration we might make is increasing the value of the reinforcer. In the past I have switched to a specific high value food item. In this instance (I.e. with the Fibi-Flop) I increased the number of pieces of food I was offering.

As always though, observe your animals body language at all times throughout everything mentioned here so far to assess how comfortable they are with what we are asking & if you are unsure seek the opinion of trusted & experienced peers.

7) Mix with fun easy behaviors

As doing a single behaviour for long durations might not be SUPER fun – for example lying on your side for 20 seconds. Mix asking for this in amongst other behaviours with long reinforcement histories for our animals. Behaviours that we might label as ‘fun’! You can see me doing this with the “Fibi-Flop” in this recent video.

8) Always work on improving your observation skills

Another challenge people sometimes have is knowing when to move from one approximation to another. Trainers might describe knowing when to do this as a gut feeling, but I  feel in reality this comes from being great observers of minute changes in body language. For example… what are the eyes doing, what are the muscles doing? Ears? Legs? Tail?

Watch this video and look at Fibi’s tail… What do you notice?

Also, listen to the latest ATA podcast episode with professional animal training Steve Martin to hear some of his thoughts on how to improve our observation skills (listen specifically at~ 12:43) >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/steve-martin/

9) Aim for nice clean loops 

Another strategy to assess when/if both you and your learner are ready to move to the next approximation – is to do so when both you and your learner have accomplished three clean loops in a row (at a certain approximation)! When chatting with Alexandra Kurland about clean loops in an ATA podcast episode she mentioned that if you can do three clean loops in a row this can signal not only are you ready to move on but you should move on.

Listen to the podcast episode with Alexandra Kurland here (start listening @ roughly 30 minutes) >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/alexandra-kurland/

Watch the results of my using this strategy with Fibi dog below;

10) Build duration within a chain! 

One of the most exciting techniques recently shared within Animal Training Academy was an offering by the amazing Mary Hunter! Mary joined us live in an ATA members only web-class to share how you can build duration within a chain (using PORTL to help demonstrate this)! In the class we also had a live training demonstration of how this works! The replay of this class is now available within the ATA members only areas! You can access it today – via your $1 ten day ATA trial membership here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/trial-2021/

I hope that these tips are useful to you! And I would love to learn more about what you have found helpful to help teach duration? You can leave your comments below & let me know.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s want help with your personal animal training projects? Feedback on your videos? Answer to your burning questions? The ATA membership exists for you! To help you with your personal animal training & behavior goals! Join now and get the answers/feedback you have been looking for…

Grab your trial membership today (Trial offers are only designed to be used once per person – we value your honesty) >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/trial-2021/

Check out what one of our member Lee Stone recently posted on FaceBook about her membership experience!

My boy Odie was born to a dog we were fostering for a rescue in November 2011. My heart was in the right place, but I knew nothing about socialisation, training and behaviour back then.  As Odie got older, he showed “fear” related behaviours to so many things, for example, loud noises, fireworks, dogs, small children, the grooming comb or brush, the nail clippers etc etc.

I did a tiny amount of clicker training with him and saw a definite growth in his confidence.  He showed increased eye contact with me, asked for cuddles and wanted to spend a lot more time around me.  I then joined the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Professional programme in 2016 in the hope that I could really learn how I could help him with his fears. He wasn’t my “KPA dog”, because he couldn’t go to the face to face part of the course due to his dislike of other dogs, so I did minimal training with him over that 9 months. This was mainly because me and my KPA dog Sweep (Odie’s brother) were beginners so the course work was time consuming for us, but also because, man, Odie was challenging!  Shaping with him was so slowwwww.  I would get literally 2 or 3 clicks in teaching any behaviour before he would just lie down or walk off. I’m ashamed to say I pretty much gave up with him.  I just didn’t have the experience to get the most out of our training sessions.

I changed veterinary practice a couple of years ago from one the dogs had been to their whole lives.  The first visit at the new vets was awful.  Both dogs were shrinking away from the vets, Odie even growled, something we’d never seen from him during a vet visit before.  It took 15 minutes of constant feeding to get each of them through their annual vaccination and even then, I shudder at what they went through.  Our vets are amazing and so patient, they even provided more food when I ran out.  I was mortified.  I realised that I really needed to use my new skills to make my dogs more comfortable in the surgery environment.

I started to investigate husbandry training online and listen to animal training podcasts and then I discovered Animal Training Academy.  I joined ATA not long after that horrific vet experience.  I really wanted more help with husbandry training and in my opinion, you don’t get much more impressive than exotic animal trainers for that! Once I got access to all the amazing ATA resources, especially the forums, our husbandry training really got a kick start.

I think the game changer for Odie was combining clicker training with giving him the ability to say no.  I used a chin target to a towel for much of the husbandry training I did with him at the start.  If he lifted his head then I stopped what I was doing.  It appeared to me that as soon as he realised he could say “no” by just lifting his head he then said “yes” pretty much all of the time!  That’s when we started to really fill our trust account.

I managed to capture the first moment of real achievement in our husbandry training.  It is the first time I got real duration with the grooming comb, the thing he used to run away from and no amount of counter-conditioning seemed to help.  I’m crying at the end of this video and watching it still brings me to tears. It’s one of my proudest moments.

Want access to the whole kit & caboodle of Animal Training Academy resources… CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer via your very own Animal Training Academy membership.

The video below shows how he likes to have a good look at the equipment before I work with it but once he’s seen it, he’s happy for me to go ahead with the exercise but at his pace. His chin target is so deliberate, I love it.  It’s mostly unedited and just shows how long he will happily sit for training sessions now!

I’m not going to lie, the process of building our trust account has taken about 18 months of regular practice with lots of different things, for example, body tactile, stethoscopes, eye drop bottles, grooming equipment, foot baths, nail clippers, nail boards, toothbrushes, scruff grabs.  During that time we managed to train for a hip x-ray that on the day seemed to me to be totally stress free for Odie (not so much for me!). It’s been hard but immensely rewarding work and it has changed our lives.

Now I use a variety of methods as well as the chin rest to achieve results and Odie just goes with it.  I always make sure now that I show him whatever equipment I’m working with before approaching him.  I notice that this has stopped any flinching when I touch him with the equipment. I always keep a close eye on his body language. If he shrinks away from the equipment I lower my criteria and click and reinforce for that a few times before pushing on.

The biggest compliment I’ve had was from Ryan Cartlidge. After watching my ear cleaning video with Odie he said that I inspired him “with a new benchmark of how pet dog relationships ‘should’ look!”  I cried! I can’t tell you much that means to me.

The ear care clip below is our most recent video and I think it’s where I finally realised that Odie is comfortable with just about anything and he trusts me.  Our trust account is pretty full!

Clicker training really has been a game changer with Odie. It has given him confidence to try things, made him a problem solver and helped him communicate. For example, he stares at you when he wants something and if you ask him “what do you want?” he will go to the water bowl to tell you he wants water (he will only drink from the bowl if no-one else has drunk from it!), or the door if he wants to go out.  If you’re playing with a ball in the garden he will choose which of the several balls he wants you to throw/kick and bring it to you!  We love our confident, “chatty” boy!

Since I joined ATA, I’ve had so much help and feedback on my training, plus access to all the resources, that I now have two pretty husbandry savvy dogs.  As well as Ryan and the amazing Animal Training Academy tribe, I need to also thank Hannah Branigan, Eva Bertilsson and Emelie Johnson-Vegh for a spectacular workshop on Start Buttons in June 2018 which changed a lot of my thinking on husbandry, and also Laura Monaco-Torelli and Linda Ryan (the husbandry queens) for the workshop that I attended in April 2019 which BLEW.MY.MIND!  My dogs (and cats) and I thank you all from the bottom of our hearts ?

Like what you see here? And want more amazing resources from Animal Training Academy. CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer for you within the ATA Membership.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – ATA member Carol Milner

Carol Milner (KPA CTP) is a marine biologist and part-time dog trainer (with a passion for cooperative care) living in Weymouth, UK.  After a life with ‘perfect’ dog Jack she spent two years fostering dogs for a local charity and as a result became guardian to Odie and Sweep.  They had various behavioural issues and after a consultation with a veterinary behaviourist Carol realised that positive reinforcement based training was the way to help them.  With a little bit of experience, she signed up for the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Trainer Professional Programme in 2015, completed it in 2016 and hasn’t looked back since!  She is the owner of Just Click Pet Training and although she doesn’t currently take paying clients, she shares training videos regularly on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.  Her three cats Martin, Rhum and Harris also occasionally feature!

SO … Oh My GAWD! Training this behaviour was going perfectly UNTIL it wasn’t! lol – After a seamless start, our training completely fell apart & I had to switch to brainstorming mode HARD!​​ You can watch my original session from May the 11th below;

What happened after this was that Fibi increased her latency in offering me the “lie on your side behaviour” & sometimes didn’t even want to come & participate! Here’s how I problem solved this below;

1. I was worried she had injured herself & maybe the behavior was painful! So I observed her in all kinds of locomotion & I couldn’t see anything wrong.
2. I thought maybe the kibble I was using was not a strong enough motivator… so I switched to big chunks of chicken! To no avail.
3. I thoughts maybe we had to take some steps back… so I went back to the start – to no avail.
4. I thought maybe it was where I was positioned or how I was delivering the food. So I changed where I was, I threw the food each time, I used my manners minder (remote feeding device) & tried to change these aspects – to no avail (although I was on the right track somewhat here)!
5. So I thought I would do a session just getting her to sit and go into a (sphinx) down! But she didn’t even want to do this!
6. I did flowcharts and mapped out the whole session! Was great for upping the rate of reinforcement in the sessions but she still had significant latency on some of her behaviors. (You can learn more about flow charts in this past ATA blog post here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Flowcharts)

One thing I did notice though was that frequently throughout the last 1-2 days she was actually offering me the “on your side behavior“ randomly throughout the day … AND when she did I quickly offered her ziwi peak (as I always have some ziwi peak on me).

So I thought… Hmmm… maybe it is something to do with the antecedent picture of the training session after all. So I changed into a different position. A position I was in earlier in the day & where she had walked up to me and just offered the behavior – AND BOOM we got this! (watch specifically at 0:35 – for what we have now aptly named this the “Fibi-flop” lol).

I don’t know what it was about the other antecedent arrangement that changed her behaviour… but seemingly it did! WOW what a huge learning opportunity Fibi has provided me over this week to work on my troubleshooting skills! – Thank you little dog! SO SO grateful ?

How do you problem solve when you hit challenges in your training? I would love to know & you can leave your comments below – we look forward to hearing from you.

Ryan Cartlidge – ATA Founder/Connector/Facilitator

We acknowledge that current world events demand some of us are spending more than average hours at home! If this is you, Animal Training Academy (ATA) has the perfect solution to help you get through these challenging times! Will not just one but 10 Hehehe…

Below are 10 Reasons to join the ATA membership over the coming months (paired with personal testimonials from actual & current ATA members);

1) Contribute & seek advice without judgement

2) There’s always something NEW to learn

3) Relevant for wherever you are on your Animal Training Journey

4) A piece of content for pretty much any topic you want to learn about

5) Get fast response times to your animal training questions

6) Connect with some of the best minds in the industry

7) Enlightening training related brainstorming

8) Make friends from all around the world & all from the comfort of your own home

9) Grow your confidence as a Animal Trainer

10) A dedicated ATA founder who is invested in your success

Want to find out if the ATA membership and tribe are right for you? Grab your $1 ten day trail now (Trial offers are only designed to be used once per person – we value your honesty) >>>

https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2020-membership-trial/

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

This blog post contains one small/simple idea you can implement to help build your training skills today!

Your animal’s behaviour is affected by a significant variety of factors in any one training session. Additionally, we can only effectively focus on one thing at a time. What you need is a second pair of eyes watching and analysing the session – so video it and watch it back yourself. Videoing can help identify nuances of behaviour that are sometimes missed. Watching back your training allows you to identify what’s important for your animal. It can also help you develop elements of your training, such as your timing.

For example see how much we learned by filming trainer Bonnie whilst working with Devey the Brushtail possum. We used the video to slow the content down and this allowed us to analyse Devey’s focus.

Slowing the content down allowed us to analyse Devey’s focus and utilise this information in future training endeavours. We were able to understand how our hand movement acted as a bridge (It played the same role as the click sound in clicker training). Two options we considered were to either add a clicker or keep our hand movement consistent across all of our training.

If you would like an opportunity to learn all about how important timing is, as well as all the basics of clicker training you can take our full clicker training fundamentals course for just $1!

Learn more about the course here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/new-behavior/clicker-training-fundamentals/

To access this full course vis the ATA – membership register for your $1 ten day trial today! (limited to be used, once per person);

https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2020-membership-trial/

I would love to hear how you use filming to your advantage? You can leave a comment below and let me know!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge,
Animal Training Academy.

We were ridiculously lucky in New Zealand/Australasia within 2019 – not only with the amount but also the quality of amazing Animal Training learning opportunities available to us. I got to hang out with Dr. Susan Friedman, Ken Ramirez, Steve White, Peta Clarke, Sarah Stremming & an AMAZING opportunity with Veronica Boutelle from Dog Biz (the dog pro industry’s leading business consultancy).

If you don’t know Veronica and the great work her and the team are doing at Dog Biz … you can listen to a couple of previous ATA podcast episodes with her below >>>

And to build on learning from Veronica at her NZ workshop – I’ve also been super fortunate to watch roughly 8 hours of lessons with her and business partner Gina Phairas (as part of the Karen Pryor professional dog training certification). Every time I learn from Veronica, I leave refreshed and full of inspiration about new ideas, ways of thinking and practical tips that I can implement in my business.​

Here are the top 5 animal-training business-building lessons I’ve learned from a combination of the content we have created together, her NZ workshops and my time doing the KPA certification.​

* Business Lesson #1 A different kind of business card

One of the biggest things Veronica has taught me over the years is about using content marketing, especially alternatives to business cards. Veronica suggested  providing some content about something cool to do with animal training along with your contact information, instead of a regular business card.

For example you might have a handout showing how to train your dog to go in it’s crate. And instead of leaving your business card at your local vet, you might have this helpful hand out with your business/contact information on it. ​

I would totally love to know if you have implemented something like this in your business. You can reply directly to the email and let me know how (bonus points for photos).​

* Business Lesson #2 Setting your prices (higher than they are right now)

Another HUGE takeaway for me has been about pricing. I’ve learned numerous reasons why we should be raising our pricing, and how to price based on the market you are operating in. Part of our pricing strategy is paying attention to what your competitors are charging and noticing how different prices affect clients’ decision of who to choose.

This is a totally scary concept and so to help build on this make sure to listen to the first podcast episode above. Specifically at around the 20 minute mark where we dive into this topic! Here’s the link again >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Boutelle​

* Business Lesson #3 You’re better than you think you are (even though there’s always more to learn) 

I also have learned more about the role imposter syndrome has when we take on clients. If you don’t know what imposter syndrome is you can learn more about it in this short video with myself and past ATA podcast guest Stephanie Edlund >>>

​When working with clients we might have stress & anxiety that we can’t achieve the things our clients want us to. There’s always more for us to learn and skills for us to develop … However if you are following this blog/email list chances are you are heavily subscribed to the R+ way of training. Consequently your implementation of training with your clients animals is highly likely going to be significantly better then they will ever achieve on their own.​

* Business Lesson #4 Building trust by conversing with confidence

At the live workshops, Veronica walked us through some scripts to help us talk with clients and make sure we are both effective with our time and focused on our goals. Sometimes in conversing with clients I find I can get stuck in super long phone and/or in person conversation (which can actually do more harm than good). There’s value in us being confident in what we offer and when we offer it.

A possible and undesirable consequence of not being confident and clear is the client eventually ends up thinking positive reinforcement doesn’t work. This could happen for example if the clients dictates how many sessions they want vs how many they might actually need. If we don’t give enough resources to our clients challenges and because of this we don’t solve their problems the blame might be placed on the technique rather than the lack of resources. ​

This is one of numerous reasons how a client might end up thinking they have tried positive reinforcement but it doesn’t work. Therefore being strategic about how we work with our clients is SUPER important! ​

* Business Lesson #5 Do the challenge for them

And number five is the value of training the clients animals for them as opposed to teaching the clients how to do the training themselves! Veronica offered the example of a tradesman – You wouldn’t want a mechanic for example to say to you; I am going to show you what is wrong with your car, show you how to fix it and then come back in a week and see how you are getting on!

Often though we do the animal training equivalent with our clients and their animals. Consequently, I have completely re-evaluated how I approach helping clients out. ​To help your understanding of this idea – listen to the second podcast episode listed above at roughly the 26 minute mark! Here’s the link again >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/veronica/

I hope you have enjoyed this Blog! And If you want to learn more from Veronica – we also have a 90 minute web-class on marketing your animal training business available within the ATA membership areas. In this class Veronica dives deep into strategies to help you get more customers so that ultimately you can help more dogs/animals. ​​

To see the class; register for your $1 ten day ATA trial membership today! >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2020-membership-trial/

We look forward to having you in the tribe!​

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s you can head directly to the Dog Biz website by clicking HERE

Recently I was super fortunate to head back to Moonlit Sanctuary in Melbourne Australia for my fourth visit. I’ve been working with this organization for just under 2 years helping to develop their animal training programs and I visit every 6 months or so (it’s one of my favourite times of the year!).

You can see part 1  of the – Behind the scenes ? Exotic animal training – Consulting @ a wildlife sanctuary – blog post here https://animaltrainingacademy.com/moonlit/

One thing that gets me really excited about doing this work is how I get to leverage all of the amazing things I have learned since starting ATA. Consequently, I thought I would share with you five exercises we did with the team on my last visit – and pair this with corresponding content from within ATA for you to learn more.

1) Leslie McDevitt’s’ pattern games with Cinder the Dingo and his trainer Sian.

A HUGE take away for me from this trip was the value of repetition and patterns when working with animals that might be displaying behaviors we label as fearful (or avoiding certain situations & stimuli)! During this recent trip, we implemented Leslie McDevitt’s pattern games with Scorch the dingo to build upon his confidence. In the video below you can see us doing Leslie’s 123 treat pattern (I’m the one dancing in the background lol).

Listen to the Leslie McDevitt podcast episode here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Leslie_McDevitt

Want to see/learn even more? Register for your own ATA premium membership and gain access to a 90 minute web-class replay – Pattern Games in Control Unleashed: The Power of the Pattern – with Leslie McDevitt … Grab your $1 ATA trial membership today >>> CLICK HERE

2) Sarah Owings and Helix Fairweather’s Cyber scent training with Scorch the dingo and her trainer Kiandra.

With permission from Sarah and Helix we have been SUPER lucky to be able to leverage the cyber scent curriculum to work with Scorch the Dingo. In this video you can see Scorch’s carer Kiandra using classical conditioning to pair the smell of lavender with delicious chicken (one of Scorch’s favourite food items)

Learn more about cyber scent with some of the training I have done with my own dog Fibi here >>> http://bit.ly/Fibi_scent

3) Eva Bertillon’s & Emelie Johnson Vegh’s flow charts

The Moonlit team have really been taking the flow chart idea on board with their training. One of the animals we have been working with is Banjo the Koala and his routine around being picked up! Working with the team on consistency – specifically in areas where behavior was breaking down – has really helped set everyone up for success! Humans and Koalas alike. See an example below.

See a previous ATA blog post on how to do your own Animal Training flow charts here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Flowchart

And if you want to see a full members only ATA web-class replay where behavior nerd extraordinaire Eva Bertilsson teaches about flow charts you – register for your $1 ATA trial membership now >>> CLICK HERE

4) Mary Hunter and Jesus Rosales-Ruiz’s PORTL game

This was actually the first time I had played this! And I think to say the team enjoyed this would be a MASSIVE understatement! The reinforcing value of it being confirmed by the team requesting we bring it the pub with us! lol (see photo below).

CLICK HERE to listen to a podcast about PORTL with Mary Hunter >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Mary_Hunter

5) Susan Friedman’s FAID (Functional assessment & intervention design).

It had been twelve months since I originally went through the first full FAID with the Moonlit team. I’m thinking I can now pretty much call them seasoned pros, hehehe. The reason I am so passionate about this problem-solving tool is that it helps us devise an intervention tailored to the unique animal in front of us. This intervention is based on the animals individual behaviors and the functions these behaviors serve.

To learn more about FAID listen to Susan Friedman talk about it in greater detail in this podcast episode here (specifically listen @ 18:29) >>> http://bit.ly/Friedmanpodcast

Well there you have it just some of the ways we learn from and implement strategies taught by the amazing ATA content creators! What about you? I would be super keen to hear (and if possible see) how you have implemented what you have learned from ATA with your animals.

Ryan Cartlidge – ATA Founder/Connector/Facilitator

Happy 2020!

The start of a new year is a time of contemplation about what we would ideally like to achieve over the next 12 months. Consequently, I thought I would create this practical exercise to help you work through splitting down larger, more lofty goals, into smaller more achievable approximations – using the following 5 step process…

Step 1:
Imagine you have unlimited time, money and resources and can do anything you want!

On a blank piece of paper write down all of the things you would like to do with your animals (training & behavior related)!

Step 2:
Then split this list into the things that you think you would like/are most likely to achieve in the next 3 months! Place these items under a heading short term goals … & everything else can go under the heading long term goals.

Step 3:
Then when you have your short term goals, the next approximation is to do a five week plan. When I say five week plan – what I mean is … look at your list of short term goals and write down what you will achieve towards working on these goals over the next five weeks, like this;

* Week 1) What will you aim to achieve?
* Week 2) What will you aim to achieve?
* Week 3) What will you aim to achieve?
* Week 4) What will you aim to achieve?
* Week 5) What will you aim to achieve?

Step 4:
After five weeks is up, review and do the next five weeks.

Step 5:
Once 3 months has gone by review your list. Cross of the things you have achieved from your short term goals and move over new items from the long term list to the short term list. (And feel free to also add new items to the long term goals list).

Doing this exercise is an attempt to do what we do with our animals and that is split our goals into smaller & smaller approximations. Generally, I find the first time we do this – that our goals over the 5 weeks are much larger than we can achieve with the resources we have available. Therefore, using this process can potentially help us teach ourselves to concentrate on smaller approximations.

And then another benefit of this exercise is valuing the importance of looking at all the things we achieve and celebrating them ALL – no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. I say this because all of the time and energy we put into our goals – is in my personal opinion – approximations towards our larger goals!

Even if we haven’t necessarily achieved what we set out to … my thoughts are that (more than likely) you will be in a position to move forward with more information then you had before and consequently make smarter decisions. #Celebrateapproximations

I feel sometimes we spend a lot of time putting mental energy on things in that long term list – & there can potentially be value in focusing on the smaller approximations and celebrating them as we go …

I hope this makes sense, let me know what you think and/or if you have any questions and I look forward to seeing your lists (and am grateful for your feedback on this idea).

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s Want even more help with your animal training goals? ATA members have shared how the ATA membership has helped them achieve theirs (see below) >>>

https://www.facebook.com/pg/animaltrainingacademy/reviews/

Start your $1 ten day ATA trial membership NOW >>> https://www.animaltrainingacademy.com/2020-membership-trial/

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend AZA’s (Association of Zoo’s & Aquarium’s – America) Animal Welfare: Evidence Based Management professional course earlier this year. I thought you all might be interested in hearing my top 5 take-aways from it.

1). AZA has assembled a dream-team of instructors. Every single one of them is an amazing person. If you don’t know them, you should!

The course was hosted at the beautiful Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, Illinois; whose dedication to science-based animal wellness is inspiring. The instructor team consisted of some of the most passionate and empowering people I have ever met. Each one of them is pushing the zoological community forward in enormous ways. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from this group! They were:

• Lance Miller- Vice President of Conservation Science & Animal Welfare Research, Brookfield Zoo
• Greg Vicino- Curator of Applied Animal Welfare, San Diego Zoo
  • (Together, Greg and Lance created the “Five Opportunities to Thrive” animal welfare model. Check out the podcast Ryan just did with Greg!)

• Don Janssen- Cooperate Director of Animal Health DVM (retired), San Diego Zoo Global
  • (Don authored Upside-Down leadership: A Zoo Vet’s Journey to Becoming a Servant Leader)
• Jill Mellen- Education & Science Director (retired), Disney’s Animal Kingdom
  • (Jill is one of the original masterminds behind the SPIDER enrichment framework)
• Sharon Joseph- Director of Animal Welfare & Research, Denver Zoo
  • (Sharon has created a progressive animal wellness program at Denver zoo)
• Beth Posta- Curator of Behavioral Husbandry & Research, Toledo Zoo
  • (Beth has been a mentor of mine for a long time, so it was great to see her again. I actually did one of my first internships with Beth’s department in 2012 which very much influenced my career path!!)
  • As an added bonus… Tim Sullivan is the Curator of Behavioral Husbandry at Brookfield so you might even get to chat with him in between classes! Check out Ryan’s podcast with Tim;

2). The way we look at welfare has evolved a lot over time. (HINT: it even involves choice and control!!)

They emphasized that we have moved beyond the “The Five Freedoms” model of animal welfare, which advocated freedom from negative experiences. We now feel that the absence of negative experiences doesn’t necessarily mean an animal is thriving. AZA has combined WAZA’s, “Five Domains” model with the “Five Opportunities to Thrive” model (Miller and Vicino), to create their suggested animal welfare framework, shown below.

• Nutrition-a suitable, species-specific diet will be provided in a way that ensures full health and vigor, both behaviorally and physically.
• Environment– animals will experience an appropriate environment that encouraged opportunities to self-maintain and promotes ongoing comfort and safety.
• Health-animals will have opportunity to experience good physical health including access to preventative health care and rapid diagnosis, treatment of injury/disease to ensure ongoing robustness and vitality through all life stages.
• Behavior-quality spaces and appropriate social groupings provided that encourage species specific behaviors at natural frequencies and appropriate diversities while meeting the social and developmental needs of each individual in the collection.
• Choice and Control- animals have the opportunity for choice and control to seek out and achieve a positive welfare state while able to avoid suffering and distress.
• Affective/Mental State- conditions provided in which animals have opportunity to experience a predominance of positive emotional states and minimize negative survival related experiences and emotional states.

3). Welfare is everyone’s job.

Every single person that works at an animal care facility impacts animal welfare in some way. Even if you work in operations, horticulture, or guest service departments. Animal wellness programs are most successful when staff training occurs at every level and welfare is integrated into the institutions core values, so that employees understand how their role can impact welfare from day one.

4). It’s all about inputs and outputs.

Thinking about your animal welfare program in terms of inputs and outputs is a great way to start wrapping your brain around this multifaceted topic.

• Inputs are resource based. These are the things YOU do for the animals under your care. Think- training and enrichment programs, management strategies, nutrition, environment. All of our inputs can contribute to animal wellness either positively or negatively. Think of inputs as the ingredients for your animal wellness program.
• Outputs are animal based measures. These are how the animal is actually impacted. Activity level, body condition, fur/feather quality, and behavior are all examples of outputs. These things can be identified as indicators and used to monitor animal wellness over time.

5). Communication is key.

These five take-aways were just a tiny bit of the information that I took away from the course. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to anyone that works in an animal care facility.  But wait, there’s more! AZA’s Animal Welfare Committee has partnered with San Diego Zoo Global to put together a comprehensive FREE course that is available to anyone. So if you want more information, check out the links below:

FREE COURSE: https://sdzglobalacademy.org/courseAnimalWelfare.html

Don’s Book https://shopzoo.com/products/upside-down-leadership-a-zoo-veterinarians-journey-to-becoming-a-servant-leader

Like what you see here? And want more amazing resources from Animal Training Academy. CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer for you within the ATA Membership.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR – ATA member Kaitlyn Wiktor

Kaitlyn Wiktor grew up in Massachusetts & always wanted to become a zookeeper, volunteering at local zoos from a young age. She received a B.S in Wildlife Care and Education from Unity College, interning and seasonal zoo keeping in a variety of areas at Omaha Zoo during the summers (bird dept, desert dome, apes). After graduation Kaitlyn secured an internship in the Behavioral Husbandry Department at Toledo Zoo where she got to plan, implement, and evaluate enrichment, and collect behavioural data on their collection of polar bears. She also got to participate in training sessions with their harbor seals and grey seals. This is where her interest in behavior management was established.

This is me coming clean to anyone reading this. Although, it’s not something I’ve necessarily kept a secret from absolutely everyone – I’ve openly told some people about it, although It’s kind of embarrassing to be honest. And I feel it’s definitely contributed to one of my weaknesses as an animal trainer … something that lately I have become more and more aware of. ​

So here’s the confession … I think I kind of, might have “cheated” at University to get my degree. Here’s what I mean … I currently hold a Bachelors of Science from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. Being a science degree I obviously had to produce scientific reports – part of which was collecting and displaying data. ​

When it came to writing these reports I wrote amazing abstracts & introductions, followed by really well articulated discussions and conclusions. Sandwiched in the middle of all of these things though was the data collection and analysis component. ​

I did this component. But I found it really challenging and confusing. I didn’t like the computer software we were required to use and I also knew something about how to get a degree … & that was I didn’t really need to worry about the data section to get good grad​es.​

The Data section was only worth a small component of the entire marks for the paper. So as mentioned I just aced the abstract, intro, discussion and conclusion and normally scored about 75%. Boom I have a degree! (I was between the ages of 18-21 when I did this, now obviously I would make different decisions)​

Now bringing us up to 2019 – recently we created some content here at ATA with an amazing human being by the name of Eduardo Fernandez. First was a podcast which we named “Everyone can shape with data” You can see this here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Eduardo​

This was then followed up by an even more amazing ATA premium members only web-class where Eduardo went in depth, sharing how to do specific animal training related data collection, for example preference testing. As mentioned the web-class is for ATA premium members only. however you can access it today, with a 10 day $1 ATA trial membership here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Trial_Membership​

When I was at uni, I thought I was pretty clever to do as little data collection and analysis as possible. Now I realise that it’s a skill I need to develop to become the best trainer I can be. As Eduardo reminded us, to call ourselves behaviour analysts, we need to actually analyse behavior (I.e collect data, analyse it & then make our decisions based on what the data tells us). ​

Additionally, to build on this I am currently enrolled and practically applying myself within the Karen Pryor professional dog training certification! Part of what I am learning about is how to collect and understand your data (and they also provide amazing data sheets on how to do this). It seems potentially the universe is trying to tell me something, hehehe 😉 ​

So I am setting myself a challenge. And to be honest with you – I am shaking my head as I write this because I have been avoiding this since I finished my degree nearly 15 years ago! I need accountability and am going to challenge myself here in front of the whole ATA audience to do more data collection. ​

My first approximation is admitting I have a problem, hence this post! What about you – do you systematically collect data from your animal training? Do you think this is important? Please feel free to share your thoughts, feelings, questions and ideas with me by leaving your comments below – I look forward to hearing from you.​

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

A while back I had the absolute pleasure of putting together and presenting a webinar for the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums (CAZA) on crate/trailer loading.

So, I thought I would share with you some of the videos we covered in this class! With the three main topics being:

1. Benefits to training your animal to willingly go into their crate/trailer
2. Suggested steps to increase success
3. Problem solving tools.

There are many benefits to crate/trailer loading your animals and for me this is a foundation behavior. Watch the video below to learn about foundational behaviors and their benefits.

You can help set yourself up for success by maximising your reinforcers when training your animal to load into a crate/trailer! This includes giving your animal increased control with the ability to leave when/if it wants and as possible. You can see how this is implemented in the video example below with Molly the owl.

It’s also really valuable to have a shaping plan in place tailored to suit your individual animal. Watch this in action below with Devey the brush tail possum.

The above video is actually a paid lesson out of the Clicker Training Fundamentals course available within the ATA premium membership.

NOTE: If you want to get access to the entire Clicker Training Fundamentals course work you can do so via the ATA membership. Follow the link to get your exclusive trial membership and gain access today! >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2019-membership-trial/

Finally when it comes to problem solving – creativity is really important!

Check out this video of Kim Archer – at the time working at Brooklands Zoo, Taranaki, New Zealand. Kim trains 3 meerkats at the same time in a super creative way.

Training your animal to voluntarily enter a crate is just one part of the training program, there are many more steps to get the animal comfortable with the crate/trailer. One of the biggest approximations is them being transported between locations.

See this blog post of voluntarily trailer loading a horse that includes video of the animals first bit of movement in the trailer >>> bit.ly/ATA_Trailor_loading

What ideas could we potentially add to this great training in this blog post to set the horse up for success even more?

I’m looking forward to everyone’s thoughts and feelings and please feel free to leave them all in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy 

P.s Currently I am working on some duration training in a crate with my dog Fibi as she is going to need this when her and I do our practical examination for the Karen Pryor professional dog training certification that I started this week.

To do this I have utilised a manners minders remote feeder and a Wyze brand digital camera so I can watch Fibi on my phone whilst I leave the room. See below.

I’ve been working really hard on my never-ending Catio project over the last wee while and thought an update was long overdue, as the last one was in May >>> bit.ly/Cat_blog1 (& video from FaceBook here … http://bit.ly/Finally_lol)

One of the BIG projects has been building ‘the first’ of the new outdoor climbing structures which is now fully painted and complete with fake grass (see below)!

As we move into Summer in New Zealand we really want to use our beautiful front balcony as it gets all of the afternoon sun. Consequently the idea of Catio Version 2.0 was born! 

I brainstormed a lot about how to do Version 2.0 and decided for a modified approach. What I have come up with is assembling panels beforehand and then fitting them all together like a giant Catio jigsaw puzzle! See my first test panel below.

More cat net arrived this week and the posts for an experimental larger sized frame are all cut to size and painted – ready to be pieced together (will update again soon).

Aside from playing carpenter, we have been SUPER busy with content creation for ATA! Below are 15 of our most recent pieces of content. You can find everything from Monitor Lizards, Dogs, Parrots, horses & more – as well as offerings from amazing content contributors like Dr. Susan Friedman, Sarah Owings, Peggy Hogan, Patricia McConnell and the list goes on and on…

Have you been keeping up with the Blog posts?

• My animal is not food motivated – AT ALL! (your 9-point motivational checklist)
• Does your animal training flow(chart)? 
• Nice hat. Ugly face. Nice top – 2 essential skills for animal trainers (giving/receiving feedback & Self evaluation)
• Do you lie down when you train? If not – you totally should! (Scent work training with Fibi-dog #2).
• Training a Lace Monitor Lizard at Moonlit Sanctuary, Melbourne Australia – A video case study. By ATA member, Hannah Wiggs.

Here’s what’s been happening with the ATA podcast show;

• (Episode 101] Veronica Boutelle – 8 Biggest Dog Training Business Myths
• (Episode 100) – Dr. Susan Friedman & Ryan Cartlidge; Off the perch
• (Episode 99) Pamela Clark – 10 things parrot consultants need to know in 2019
• (Episode 98) Tim Sullivan – Brookfield Zoo; Curator of behavioural husbandry
• (Episode 97) Dr. Patricia McConnell – The human-animal relationship

And check out what LIVE training in the ATA premium membership; (if you’re not already a member, you can start your $1 trial  and get instant access to the full library of content, including these).

• A humanistic learning approach to canine training (a web-class about training people); with very special guest Dr. Robert Hewings
• Being Evidence-Based with your Animals: Using Data to Optimize Animal Training & Welfare; with very special guest Dr. Eduardo Fernandez
• Peggy Hogan & Sarah Owings – Two Species, one journey! – Teaching animals to wait for cues without extinction!
• An Animal Training Content Creation Conversation – With very special guest host Malena DeMartini and presented by Ryan Cartlidge
• Shaping – from basic to advance with very special guest Agnieszka Janarek

There is so much more sensational content lined up for the rest of the year – so keep an eye on this website for our next piece of amazingness!

AND if there’s anything you really want to learn more about and/or people you would like to see on the ATA podcast show please let me know! You can do so by leaving a comment below.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy