ryan cartlidge, Author at Animal Training Academy Page

My animal is not food motivated – AT ALL! [your 9-point motivational checklist]. By Ryan Cartlidge

September 12, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 4 Comments

Have you ever wanted to train an animal that was ‘not food motivated’?

This challenge is something I have often heard people tell me over the years! And I always think to myself “does your animal eat?” If the answer is ‘yes’ then I’m curious if we are able to say it’s not food motivated. An alternative way to describe these animals could be to say ‘they’re potentially not motivated by the kind of food you are offering and/or the context you are offering it under!’

Huh ?!? ?- “Ryan what the heck does that mean?” lol … Below are some offerings for you to ‘chew’ over & I would love to hear what you think about them.

1) Is there an underlying medical issue you don’t know about!

Regardless of what behavioural intervention and/or training we might be doing for our animal, checking that they are in good health is always step number one. Book an appointment with your vet to get their expert opinion.

Also, consider specific veterinarian subject matter experts that might focus on certain physiological areas of our animals health – for example a gastro expert (it could be possible for health issues to be missed, especially if you consider rarer conditions)

2) Is your animal just not eating in your presence?

What happens if you leave the food there and walk away? Does the animal eventually eat it? Does the latency (time it takes) of the animal to come and get the food decrease over time?

This might happen if we are working with a fearful, nervous, aroused or anxious animal. (Note: what the observable behaviors are that aid us in hypothesising how our animals are feeling can vary significantly between animals and contexts).

You can learn how to work with an animal that might not eat in your presence in this podcast episode here (Listen in around the 34 minute mark) >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/erin-davidson/

In this situation you could also potentially try a remote feeder such as a manners minder or put tutor. Or present the food on a long stick and/or pair of tongs?

3) Have you tried to use food in different contexts?

There are always competing reinforcers on offer in our animals environment. Consequently, trying to use food for training in a less distracting environment could be a great place to start.

For example your dog might readily take food at home but not out at the dog park!

If this is a situation you are experiencing – implementing a training plan that slowly increases more and more distractions over time is something to consider.

4) Have you reached out and asked your network for their thoughts and input?

This can often lead to new ideas and thoughts. My recommendation is to ensure that you find a tribe of people that you trust and you know share the same values and ethics as you. Whenever I have a problem I always ask ATA members in the ATA premium membership community areas ? (members only FB group and website forums).

5) How are you presenting the food?

I’ve heard some people tell me that their animal won’t eat if they try to hand feed them – however if they throw the food and the animal gets to chase it then it will eat it!

Maybe offering the food in a different way might yield different results? ?

6) Can you use not food reinforcers to motivate your animal?

Maybe you don’t even need to worry about motivating your animal with food and they will readily work for other non food related reinforcers. What have you tried so far?

7) Are you leveraging motivation operatives to your advantage?

Examine your animals diet, daily routine and eating habits.

Regarding the food item you are attempting to use as a reinforcer; Does your animal have access to this at other times of the day? If so, how much and how often? Possibly by examining your animals daily access to specific high valued food items, (for example only making them available during training and/or select periods of time) we can make these items seem more valuable & consequently increase motivation to work for them.

I’m not saying you have to give your animals less of a particular item just suggesting a possible review of where and for how long your animals have access to specific high valued items.

8) Offer variability.

How many different food items are you offering your animal? Maybe by adding a lot more variability to what you are trying to offer you will see an increase in motivation? Or you might just find a food item that your animal goes nuts for!

You can even get your animal to choose what reinforcer they want by teaching them to pick! I have seen this done really well with animals being able to point to food items they wanted – from a selection offered in front of them.

9) Have you collected actual data on your animals?

It’s possible that sometimes we tell ourselves stories that are more based on how we feel about our animals and situations then raw hard facts! This is something I learned recently in an amazing ATA members only web-class where we were super lucky to have Dr. Eduardo Fernandez join us to talk about Being Evidence-Based with your Animals: Using Data to Optimize Animal Training & Welfare.

If you want access to the full web-class replay click here for your exclusive ATA trial membership >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2019-membership-trial/

You can also listen to a free podcast about using data to make decisions with Dr Fernandez here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/eduardo-fernandez/

This is by no means an exhaustive list of options and ideas that cover every situation but hopefully it can help you brainstorm if this is a challenge you come across. And if you think I can build on this list please post your ideas and suggestions in the comment section below – I can’t wait to hear them!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

[Episode 100] – Dr. Susan Friedman & Ryan Cartlidge; Off the perch

September 3, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

A letter from the desk of Ryan Cartlidge

This isn’t just any old episode of the ATA podcast, we are celebrating approximations on this one; because this is episode 100 of the show!

I remember when I first started recording this podcast. At that time I thought to myself 100 episodes seemed like a nice number to try and achieve and 3 and a half years later – here we are!

Via the guests on the show we have travelled around the world – speaking to the world’s most proficient animal training & behaviour professionals from a large number of different industries and working with an extensive amount of different species. But most importantly all of our guests have been singing the same song – striving to work with our learners in the most positive and less intrusive ways!

So I am absolutely thrilled that the special guest for episode 100 is the person who first taught me about the concept ‘most positive, least intrusive’. Someone who has helped guide me for a decade as well as help guide so many others from around the glove – Dr Susan Friedman herself.

Thank you for listening to this show and playing your part in changing the world one episode at a time!

Enjoy
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy – Founder/Connector/Facilitator

I also invite everyone to go back as well and listen to episode 36 (you can see Susan’s Bio here as well)

Does your animal training flow[chart]? ?

August 30, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

Flow charts are amazing! Do you include them in your training?

It was back in November of 2017 in an ATA podcast episode with Swedish trainer Eva Bertilsson that I first heard of this idea (Eva sharing the concept on behalf of her & ‘her training partner in crime’ – Emelie Johnson Vegh). Listen to the episode HERE (Specifically at around the 20 minute mark for our flowchart conversation)

Since that time I have been fortunate enough (with Eva’s blessing) to teach flowcharts to others! To help demonstrate how they work I put together a little video using audio from that podcast! You can watch it below;

I can’t recall a single time where I have been stuck & flowcharting didn’t help my training move forward. As Emelie Johnson Vegh and Eva Bertilsson say, it’s the only time you can erase mistakes in your training.

These two tips will help you get started with flow charts (if you fancy giving them a go).

I like making it simple. Focus on one of your learners behaviours you are challenged with. Then have two options – Either your learner did what you want OR they did something else. This is opposed to all of the options I gave myself in the video above.
Figuring out what to do when your animal doesn’t do what you want – doesn’t mean you need to add in the perfect consequence (you can always change this up later). Instead – and to begin with – do something, you are well practised at (obviously using ethical animal training techniques).

Hopefully from the above you can get started with some flow charts of your own. However, if you want to take your learning even further – Eva was SUPER kind and joined us for a LIVE ATA members only web-class specifically on this topic. She covered how flowcharts work, gave some examples and even went through a live demonstration with an ATA member and their Agility dog.

ATA premium members can watch the full web-class by clicking the image below >>>

Not an ATA premium member? Not to worry … Access your exclusive $1 ATA trial membership here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2019-membership-trial/

Are you already using flowcharts? Or maybe you use some other system to plan out your sessions in advance! If so I would love to hear about your experiences! You can leave your comments below!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s One aspect I absolutely love about the ATA premium community areas is when members share their notes/doodling that they quickly put together whilst simultaneously consuming content from the ATA library! Here’s some from this web-class with talented ATA premium member Lili Chin.

See more of Lili’s professional/polished artwork here >>> https://www.doggiedrawings.net/

Nice hat. Ugly face. Nice top – 2 essential skills for animal trainers ✌️

August 21, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

Two important skills for you to develop as a professional animal trainer are 1) giving & receiving feedback & 2) self evaluation. Consequently here are 3 pieces of content from the ATA library to help build on you knowledge and skill-set in this area.

1) From Dr. Robert Hewings (Four three feedback)

The first piece of content comes from a LIVE ATA members only web-class that we did recently called ‘A humanistic learning approach to canine training’ and was presented by Dr. Robert Hewings. Here is a 5 minute extract from this web-class talking about an alternative to the traditional “feedback sandwich.’

To view this web-class in it’s entirety you can register for your exclusive $1 ATA trial membership here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2019-membership-trial/

2) From Arianna Bailey (The art & skill of learning as humans in the animal field)

The second piece of content is a podcast episode we recorded last year with the amazing Arianna Bailey (Natural Encounters, Inc. USA). In this podcast episode Arianna and I talk about an article she wrote called ‘The art & skill of learning as humans in the animal field’ (Listen in at around 27:27).

LISTEN – (link to article found here as well) >>> http://bit.ly/Arianna-Bailey

Arianna’s article includes a list of – 10 amazing tips when giving, getting and applying feedback – (written by Dr. Susan Friedman).

3) From Sarah Owings (brave learning)

In this podcast episode Sarah Owings shares her offering of what it means to be a ‘brave learner‘ (listen in at 20:48) >>> http://bit.ly/SarahOwings

Sarah talks about focusing on specific observable behaviors that we & our learners have done well & consequently what we want to see more of in the future. Then to build on this considering ONE small possible criteria/approximation change for our next training session.

Specific observable behavior that you (or the person you are giving feedback to) did well
Specific observable behaviors that the animal/learner did well
A possible approximation to build on you & your learners awesomeness for next time.

For ATA premium members see a blog post Sarah wrote on this topic in the ATA members only FB group here >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/ATAengage/permalink/457105088109372/

What about you? What have you found works well for you and your learners when giving/receiving feedback & when self evaluating? We would love to hear from you – please leave your comments, thoughts, feeling and questions below!

[Episode 99] Pamela Clark – 10 things parrot consultants need to know in 2019

August 20, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

Pamela Clark Bio

Pamela Clark is a certified parrot behavior consultant, through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. She has a uniquely successful approach to helping clients. Using most positive, least intrusive behavior change strategies, coupled with a compassionate nature, excellent communication skills, and a first-rate knowledge of what parrots need for both good physical and psychological health which help her lead caregivers into a successful resolution of behavior problems.

She has lived with birds for 50 years. Her background of experience includes 16 years of work as an avian veterinary technician, the breeding of African Greys, training free-flight and other behaviours, and many years of informal hands-on rehabilitation of surrendered parrots with behavior problems. Organizations in the United States, Australia and Canada have hosted her for seminars and workshops. Her contributions to parrot-related magazines have been translated into several foreign languages and her popular blog can be found at www.blogpamelaclarkonline.com

Podcast outline

1:40 – Introduction
3:41 – Pamela talks about when she first learned about positive reinforcement training and some stories from that time.
11:00 – What Pamela is currently up to
14:43 – Some pivotal moments that have shaped Pamela’s thinking over the last fifteen years.
24:34 – Pamela Clark’s “Ten Things Parrot Consultants Need to Know in 2019”.
56:42- Pamela’s final words for the listeners on changes she would like to see in the pet parrot world.
59:03 – Pamela can be found online at

For Miko

August 16, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

What is your – Animal Training Why?

August 14, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

Have you ever been asked – What is your WHY?

If so – what did you say? If not – what do you think you might say?

Recently, I was interviewed for an event here in New Zealand organised by a colleague of mine & NZ based Positive Reinforcement Horse trainer – Bex Tasker! In this interview, I was asked what is the WHY of Animal Training Academy?

I didn’t articulate it so well in the interview but here is an offering (prepared when I have much more time to carefully choose my words lol) about the why of ATA.

* The WHY of Animal Training Academy

ATA exists to help improve the lives of animals and their human companions through ethical animal training and behavior management principles (with the main focus being on Applied Behavior Analysis). World leading professionals share their knowledge through our podcasts, blog, web-classes and the ATA membership.And then we build a tribe around that knowledge to help develop trainers competencies, orientation & growth. Our online communities help support and encourage our members as they put this knowledge into practise.

You can see my ACTUAL answer (basically the same thing just not as succinct lol) and the entire rest of the interview in the following video …

Once again I’m curious what your WHY is? Leave your comments below & let me know.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s a MASSIVE thank you to Lisa Whiteman who recorded the actual interview and whose voice you can hear asking the questions.

Do you lie down when you train? If not – you totally should [Fibi ??]!

August 8, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 8 Comments

Towards the end of June I wrote a blog post containing some of the scent work training I had been doing with my dog Fibi. If you missed that post you can see it here >>> http://bit.ly/Fibi-scent

Since that time we have been flat out proofing her indication behavior and adding all sorts of variation into our training (including me lying down)! Consequently, I wanted to provide you with an update on some of this training – with 5 more short videos to share;

And as always, many thanks to my amazing teachers Sarah Owings & Helix Fairweather and the fantastic Cyber Scent community where I am learning all about the wonderful world of nose work!

Video 1 – Lying down

We are enjoying the process of adding as much variety to our indication behavior as possible. This is both with what I am doing and the containers the scent article is concealed within.

Note: this is potentially the first time I have lied down intentionally to cue a behavior lol … & you will see on the first one I couldn’t get up fast enough to reinforce Feebs!

Video 2 – Different rooms

We had a go at doing some indications in different rooms of our house and practising timing of our ‘eyes on” cue to the moment Fibi surged ahead of me helping to build her independence in the search.

Video 3 – Adding chatter to the background

Here we added in different words – whilst Fibi was targeting and additionally when she was on her way to the odour. She shifted her body weight slightly in response to some of the words but you can see her stay on target.

Video 4 – Leash pressure

In this video you can see me staring to add pressure to the leash whilst Fibi is targeting and Fibi hardly even flinches;

Video 5 – Discrimination training

Now we are working on discrimination and fibi learning it really is all about the scent. She is starting to quickly pass over the containers with no scent in them and indicate on the “hot one”.

We have one month left of our cyber scent journey before our next adventure! Fibi and I will be starting on our Karen Pryor professional dog training professional program and we couldn’t be more excited!

What about you? What training are you up to at the moment? I would love to hear about it, you can leave your comments at the bottom of this page.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

[Episode 98] Tim Sullivan – Brookfield Zoo; Curator of behavioural husbandry

August 6, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE to download the podcast outline

Tim Sullivan Bio

Tim has been employed by the Chicago Zoological Society at Brookfield Zoo for the last 39 years. He spent 16 years as a keeper/trainer in the marine mammal department training and caring for the Zoo’s dolphins, walrus, sea lions and seals. In 1997, Tim was asked to assist in the implementation of an elephant protected-contact behavior management program in the Pachyderm department & then in 1998, he was offered his present position as the Zoo’s Curator of Behavioural Husbandry. Tim’s primary responsibilities are to manage the Zoo’s animal training and environmental enrichment programs, oversee the behavior of the Zoo’s large and diverse animal collection- from aardvarks to zebras and is responsible for developing the skills of over 100 animal keepers who care for them.

Tim consults on animal training and environmental enrichment at other zoological institutions and conducts international training workshops. Tim is currently on the Instructor teams of the Association of Zoo and Aquariums (AZA) annual Animal Training Applications and Environmental Enrichment in Zoos and Aquariums courses. He is active in international training organisations and has been an officer on the board of directors of both the International Marine Animal Trainers Association and the Animal Behavior Management Alliance; an organization he cofounded.

[Episode 97] Dr. Patricia McConnell – The human-animal relationship

July 23, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

Patrica McConnell Bio

Patricia is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviourist Emeritus (CAAB) who has made a lifelong commitment to improving the relationship between people and animals. She is known worldwide as an expert on canine and feline behavior and dog training, and for her engaging and knowledgeable dog training books, DVDs and seminars. Patricia has seen clients for serious behavioural problems since 1988, and taught “The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships” at the University of Wisconsin for 25 years.

A highly-sought after speaker on dog behavior and training, McConnell has presented seminars all over the United States, and in Canada, Germany, Australia, Sweden, Belgium, Scotland and New Zealand. She is the author of the much-acclaimed books The Other End of the Leash (which is now published in 13 languages), For the Love of A Dog: Understanding Emotions in You and Your Best Friend and her memoir, about trauma in people and dogs, The Education of Will.

Patricia and her husband Jim have two dogs, one confident cat and a very spoiled flock of sheep on a small farm in Southwestern Wisconsin. Her Border Collie, Maggie, along with Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Tootsie, keep her outside and active, and the love for her beloved Border Collie Willie will never die.

Podcast outline

1:40 – Introduction
4:06 – Patricia’s behavior odyssey
24:13 – A discussion on the human animal relationship
52:57 – What the word “communication” means to Patricia
58:25 – Patricia’s hopes for the animal training and behavior world in the next five to ten years
1:03 – Find out more about Patricia and her work at www.patriciamcconnell.com

The biggest failure of Animal Training Academy [so far] …

July 13, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

What was your biggest ever failure in your career? … OR … In other words your biggest ever opportunity to learn?

I’m busy getting ready for tomorrow’s live, premium-members only, Animal Training Academy (ATA) web-class – An Animal Training Content Creation Conversation – where I will be sharing my story about how and why ATA got started!

If you think back to all of your highs and lows in your career and then imagine you had to showcase them for everyone else to learn! That’s exactly what I will be doing tomorrow… and I think my failures are what I am most excited to talk about.

Although, calling them failures isn’t personally how I believe you should view these events. I’m curious if our minds automatically go to that word because that’s how society has trained us? What do you think? When things haven’t gone as you expected, have you let that get you down … OR … risen up through the ashes to move on to bigger and better things?

Do you view these events as failures … OR … potential opportunities to learn? Opportunities to move forward with more information and make better decisions next time.

Anyway … on to one of the biggest failures/”opportunities to learn” ATA has afforded me thus far – It all come after reading this book (see the picture below), have you seen it before?

This book explains how to launch your Animal Training courses etc online. And you can use it to become very successful! In fact I know numerous animal trainers and behavior experts who have done just that!

And the truth is after I read the book for the first time, I applied what I had learned & did really well – using it to sell one of my first ever online courses clicker training fundamentals! I was so happy! I thought well that’s great all I have to do is repeat this process – but to more people!

So six months later … I launched my second course – The RECIPE for animal training success.

Using what I had learned from the book – I sent out information about the RECIPE course to an email list of people – 7 times larger than when I launched clicker training fundamentals! I was ready for the success to start flooding in!

… however all I got was crickets! Nothing! Nada! Due to overlooking a large number of factors – my implementation of what I had learned resulted in ZERO sales.

This was a very hard pill to swallow. It seemed like no one was interested in what I had to say & resulted in me having no money (Embarrassingly I had to go to my mum and ask her to support me financially). I struggled to get out of bed in the morning and everyone was telling me I had to get a job! It destroyed my confidence and left me with a lot of questions;

However I got up every morning and pushed on! Over time I actually became extremely grateful that I was given this opportunity to grow.

One of the big lessons that this taught me is that putting content out into the world is not just about having an email list or a FaceBook page – but about the relationships you have with the people in these lists/groups. I would rather have a group of 100 highly engaged people then 10,000 that couldn’t care less about what I had to say! My main focus now with every piece of content I make is to build a relationship with my audience based on trust & create content they is relevant to them and helps them out with their goals.

This has resulted in the Animal Training Academy membership and podcast show which helps 1000’s of animals and their people on a monthly basis and around the globe! Tomorrow’s web-class is all about me sharing my story and everything else that I have learned which has helped my become a successful creator of online Animal Training content and make a living out of it!

Are you making online animal training content yourself? Are you wondering how you can use what you are doing to create a living for yourself? Then you are not going to want to miss this class.

Actual class time will be 7:30 am New Zealand time Sunday 14th July 2019. Convert to your time here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Content_creation

As mentioned this event is for ATA premium members only. However, we don’t want you to miss out, so we’re giving you the chance to join us for just $1!

Grab your trial premium membership trial link here to gain access >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/2019-membership

Get ready for me to open the lock on Animal Training Academy’s story! We hope to see you there!

P.s. this class will be presented by ATA founder Ryan Cartlidge and will have a special guest host – Separation anxiety subject matter expert & Animal Training Academy premium member Malena DeMartini. You can listen to a past podcast episode with Malena here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Malena

[Episode 96] Erin Davidson – Ten steps to train a wild bird of prey

July 9, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

Erin Davidson bio

Erin has been working within zoo’s and wildlife parks for the last 20 years, currently
working at Sydney’s Taronga Zoo’s Free Flight Bird Show, training a variety of birds from Andean Condors, Eagles to parrots and chickens.

During this time she has also created a Pet Show, educating visitors on responsible pet ownership and has had the opportunity to train dogs in the musical Annie.

Erin has spent time learning from trainers overseas including Bob Bailey, Ken Ramirez and Steve Martin, working on “The Symphony of Flight” Bird Show at San Diego Zoo and “Birds of The World” Show at the Dallas State Fair.

Erin’s passion has always been learning new techniques in building trust within the animals she works with, in her words giving them the confidence to soar.

Podcast outline:

1:40 – Introduction of Erin
3:33 – Erin’s behavioural journey
16:11 – Changes in the bird training world over the last ten to twenty years
31:00 – Visit www.torongazoo.org to find out more about Erin’s work including the shows at the zoo
34:06 – Ten steps to train a wild bird of prey
1:02 – Erin’s hopes for the animal training world in the next five to ten years

Watch me scent train my dog [Fibi ??]!

June 28, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 15 Comments

When I decided I wanted to learn more about nose/scent work – I was thrilled to learn that past ATA podcast guest Sarah Owings was running an online learning opportunity called Cyber Scent with her colleague Helix Fairweather!

Cyber Scent is set up as a – learn at your own pace – (perfect for me) monthly subscription service, for people who already have clicker training skills and where you get drip fed course instructions based on your progress!

I am not quite at the end of my cyber scent journey yet … however, this week we had my dog – Fibi – doing her first little mini searches! And I got so excited I just had to share some of the awesomeness from my Cyber Scent experience so far!

So here are 5 of my favourite training videos of mine and Fibi’s scent work adventure.

Video 1 – Classical conditioning!

In this video you can see Fibi and I pairing the odour we will be using with high valued food items. The odour is located in the bottom of the bowl under a Colander. We did MANY repetitions of this so that when Fibi smelled the odour it would be associated with good things/feelings.

Video 2 – Adding movement with Fibi targeting the odour

Here we have added a verbal “eyes on” cue to the behaviour of Fibi targeting her nose over the odour (Still in the bowl under he Colander). And you can see I am starting to add the distraction of – me moving- whilst – reinforcing her for keeping her head in the bowl.

Video 3 – Different containers & Me in different positions

By this stage Fibi is offering a small duration nose target with the odour hidden in different containers! And she is also doing this with me being positioned in lots of different places around the room!

Video 4 – Fibi targeting odour up high.

In this video we have moved the odour up of the ground with a few distractions in place! Fibi is showing some of her first signs of actively sniffing out the odour!

Video 5 – Fibi does her first little mini search

In this video we have moved the odour onto objects in the room! The first time I put it up on the heater is one of the biggest searches Fibi had done up until that point! LOVING this so much!

This is fast becoming one of my favourite things to do with Fibi and I am just totally in love with everything I am learning at the moment from so many amazing trainers and instructors!

I highly recommend the Cyber Scent course if you already have clicker training experience and are looking to learn more about getting started in scent work yourself. I know I have absolutely loved my experience with it and am looking forward to learning even more over the coming whilst form other great minds in the industry! Especially Steve White who will be in New Zealand later this year! EEEEEP!

We were also totally lucky to have Steve join us at ATA a few months ago to present an amazing web-class called “Reading dogs scenting behavior” where he taught us – MacKenzie’s eight scent-work indicators (with video examples for all 8):

Pull
Nose Height
Tail Carriage
Breathing
Cadence
Circling
Crabbing
Head swing (Nose anchor)

If you missed this class when we did it live and are interested in seeing the replay you can do so in the members area on the ATA website! To gain access here is your exclusive $1 14 day ATA trail membership >>> https://atamember.com/14-day-trial/

What about your nose/scent work journey? Leave a comment below to share with us your experiences!

Nancy Tucker – The good enough dog

June 25, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE to see the podcast outline

Nancy Tucker Bio

Nancy is a certified trainer with the CCPDT, and a fully certified behavior consultant with the IAABC. She teaches seminars, webinars, and workshops on dog training, dog behavior, and the business end of training throughout Canada, the US, and Europe. She has presented at conferences for the Pet Professional Guild, the IAABC, the Dog Event in France, and the WOOF! conference in the UK.

She is also an instructor for Fenzi Dog Sports Academy, where she teaches popular courses focusing on various topics including how to treat separation anxiety, how to use desensitisation and counter-conditioning to treat fearful behaviours, and how to tackle other common behaviour issues like over-zealous greetings.

Nancy has written numerous articles on dog behaviour and is a regular contributor to the Whole Dog Journal.

She shares her home in Quebec, Canada with her husband Tom and their Border Terrier, Bennigan.

Why I’m getting certified as a professional dog trainer! ? ?

June 20, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

The Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) professional dog training certification is coming to New Zealand! And when this was mentioned at a four day Ken Ramirez workshop I was attending, I very excitedly ran around telling everyone I was already registered to do it and had paid my deposit!

People were excited for me, but what really surprised me was how many people wanted to know why?

* “You’re already a trainer, recognised in our industry, why would you want to become certified?”

And

* “You’re are an exotic animal trainer, why would you want to do a professional dog training certification?”

As a behavior nerd who goes around with an obsession of behavior geekiness all of the time – I will be honest – I was a bit taken aback by this. I thought “hang on – isn’t everyone a massive behavior nerd that just wants to do all of the behavior things all of the time? Isn’t it obvious why I would want to it?”

Apparently not! Consequently, I thought I would write this blog post outlining the three main reasons why I want to (and additionally think it’s very important that I do) do my KPA certification.

1) Sharpening my saw! I have always been someone who just loves learning! Pure and simple! And I want to know the best way to do the things that I love to do! Could I continue on with my career and be successful with Animal Training Academy without doing this certification? Certainly, but that’s not the point.

I’m reminded of when I was just beginning to work in zoo’s and I was doing my certificate in captive animal management! This was a certificate that was required in Australia (where I was living at the time) to get a job in a zoo.

At the same time to do the certificate, you needed to be working full time in a zoo keeper position! lol, it totally didn’t make sense! I however managed to get a full time job and yet I still chose to do the certificate – and was a better keeper because of it!

In a similar vein – currently, I run what I’m going to label as a successful animal training business, yet I still want to get certified. And I think I will be a better animal trainer because of it.

2) I want to stay up to date with the tribe (i.e. Animal Training Academy members)

One thing we like to do within the Animal Training Academy is toot our own horn and celebrate any/all approximations towards our animal training goals! In fact I give a free ATA membership to someone just for managing what we call the “toot your own horn” thread in the ATA members only facebook group!

Because of this I am very aware of what ATA members are doing and what learning opportunities are most popular!

The certification that I feel I see the most ATA members doing is KPA! Hence to stay updated and relevant I want to know what this is all about! Hence I’m doing the certification myself.

3) I believe regulation and certification will help more animals and people.

From my understanding, the sad reality is that in many places just about anyone can call themselves an animal trainer. That means anyone can grab an electric shock collar and/or a choke chain and charge someone money to tell them to use it on their dogs! I am not okay with this.

I am lucky that ATA has grown over the years and has an audience of beautiful like-minded people from around the globe! As someone who has the privilege of creating content that reaches an audience of 15-20,000 hungry behaviour nerds on a monthly basis I want to share my story with the ATA audience (with you) to discuss something I think is really important! This is Certification!

This is something that is highlighted by the Animal Training Academy podcast show! Watch the video below to see a 12 minute mash-up highlighting the podcast guests’ visions for the future (which includes the need for certification and regulation).

And that’s it. This is what I told people at the Ken Ramirez workshops why I am doing this! And it made me realise you might be interested in why I’m doing it too.! Hence this blog post.

What about you? Have you done certification? Do you think it’s important? Why? (Leave your comments in the comments section below)

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

Dr. Eduardo Fernandez – Everyone can shape with data!

June 11, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr. Eduardo Fernandez Bio

Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez received his Ph.D. in Psychology (minors in Neuroscience and Animal Behavior) from Indiana University, where he worked with the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Zoo. He received his M.S. in Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas, where he founded and was President of the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals (ORCA). Most of his past and current work involves conducting research on the behavioral welfare of captive exotic animals found in zoos and aquariums. He has worked with close to 50 species of animals, with a focus on marine animals, carnivores, and primates. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the School of Behavior Analysis at Florida Institute of Technology. His past positions include an Affiliate Professorship in the Psychology Department at University of Washington, Research Fellowship with Woodland Park Zoo, and National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. While working with UW and Woodland Park Zoo, he started the Behavioural Enrichment Animal Research (BEAR) group, which conducted welfare research with the African and Asian elephants, hippos, Humboldt penguins, grizzly bears, sun bears, sloth bears, Sumatran tigers, jaguars, African wild dogs, meerkats, golden lion tamarins, and ostriches located at the zoo. Eduardo also continues to run the Animal Reinforcement Forum (ARF), a former list serve and now Facebook group which is dedicated to group discussions on animal training and behavior from a scientific perspective.

Examples of data sheets

Dinner with Ken Ramirez – [You’re invited] … by Ryan Cartlidge

June 10, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

If you could have dinner with absolutely anyone in the world – who would it be?

Someone at the top of my list would definitely be Ken Ramirez! Well last week, I had this specific opportunity, spending three and a half hours having dinner with Ken, and – amazing past ATA podcast guest – Laura Ryder.

We talked about SO many things – the conversations were MEGA insightful, emotional (at times) & hilarious!

And if this wasn’t enough, we additionally got four whole days of workshops from Ken – talking about non-food reinforcers, concept training, problem solving, aggressive animals, medical training, training the trainers and conservation training! (VIA the fantastic NZ Association of pet dog trainers, APDT conference) The learning was amazing! So I wanted to sit down and share with you some of the things I learned! Here are my top five take aways;

1) At the risk of sounding like a broken record lol – the ATA tribe is AMAZING! I got to see so many of our NZ/Australian members as well as meet some for the very first time!

2) The importance of teamwork, brainstorming and making sure we have all the information!

Ken shared with us many stories where creative solutions were required to solve training challenges. One of these stories will stick with me forever!

This story was about some conservation work Ken did with wild Stella Sea Lions! Ken and his team were stuck on one aspect of the training plan and were sat in a room with many subject matter experts/professionals brainstorming solutions! They were having a really challenging time until eventually an intern – who was sat in the corner observing – stuck their hand up and suggested a really simple idea! This idea was implemented and proved to be a fundamental component of this projects success!

Sometimes we can’t see what’s right in front of us! It might take someone a little bit removed from the situation and seeing things from a different perspective to provide an idea and/or insight that can change everything!

3) Techniques for training aversive procedures!

Ken shared with us stories about his experience training blood draws and injections with animals! He talked about how we might approximate an animal accepting a needle being pushed through their skin! One technique I learned was where an animal presents a body part and then accepts an object interacting with this body part. One day it might be a blunt pencil, the next a dish brush followed but a scrunched up piece of paper, then a tennis ball, then a cloth and so on and so forth. Consequently what the animals learns is something will interact with this body part but the animal doesn’t know what. And inevitably it’s a needle through the skin. Ken also says he leaves significant gaps between needles, to the point it might only happen every couple of months.

4) The use & training of new non food reinforcers

Ken shared his strategy to teaching animals brand new non-food reinforcers and how he integrates this into his training. This can be anything from a clap, to a head scratch to a splash of water for marine mammals! Ken also outlined how he maintains the value of these reinforcers over time and integrates this into his everyday training! This was brand new to me to think about using and training reinforcers in this way! I’m SO excited to now have this in my learning repertoire and looking forward to adding it to my training!

5) Thinking about the balance of reinforcement when problem solving

One of my favourite sessions was when Ken shared with us his problem solving strategy. Part of this presentation included exercises to think about the balance of reinforcement when working through a behavior we might be labelling as problematic. This requires us to hypothesis possible reinforcers and punishers for either and/or both the behavior we want and the unwanted behavior we are seeing.

When the hypothesised punishers outweigh the reinforcers for a desired behaviour, then we can experiment with shifting the balance by strengthening reinforcers and removing punishers! By testing out our hypothesis via the animals future behavior one HUGE outcome is that we can move toward revealing the “true motivation” behind the behaviour/s we are focusing on.

When I think about this, it seems so simply – but ken did a really good job of explaining it and also offering practical exercises to compliment the idea.

— — — — —

Well there you have it! My top five things I took away from four days with Ken Ramirez! “Nearly” as good as having dinner with the man himself!

Have you learned from Ken as well? I would love to hear what he has taught you?

And if you haven’t then here is your exclusive opportunity – First make your self a nice meal, then sit down to eat and put on this amazing ATA podcast episode with myself and Ken – Listen HERE!

OR… if you want even more!?! Ken also joined us for a 2 hours, 15 minute LIVE Q&A earlier this year! This is for ATA premium members only but you can access if (& all other 59 ATA web-class replays) via this exclusive $1 trail link >>> CLICK HERE … we hope to see you on the inside! (See a full list of past ATA web-classes here).

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

Kathy Sdao – Anything you resist persists [Bright Spot Dog Training!]

May 28, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 7 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Kathy Sdao Bio

Kathy is an applied animal behaviourist. She’s been a full-time animal trainer for thirty years, first with marine mammals and now with dogs and their people. At the University of Hawaii, she received a master’s degree as part of a research team which trained dolphins to solve complex cognitive puzzles. She then worked for the United States Navy to train dolphins for open-ocean tasks. Next, Kathy worked as a marine-mammal trainer at the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma Washington. After leaving the zoo world, Kathy created Tacoma’s first dog day-care.

Since 1998, Kathy has owned Bright Spot Dog Training. Services include consulting with families about their challenging dogs and mentoring professional trainers who want to maximize the power of positive-reinforcement training. Kathy is proud to be an original faculty member for Karen Pryor’s ClickerExpos and has taught at thirty-eight of these popular conferences. Kathy has travelled extensively across the United States, Canada and Europe, and to Australia, Israel, Japan and Mexico. In 2012, she published her first book, Plenty in Life Is Free: Reflections on Dogs, Training and Finding Grace.

CLICK HERE for Kathy’s website

Behind the scenes! ? Exotic animal training – Consulting @ a wildlife sanctuary…

May 27, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

Last week I was super excited to head back to Moonlit Sanctuary – my third visit – for a fun filled week hanging out with the amazing Bosch the Barking owl & the wonderful world changing team of animal care professionals! Here are 5 of my favourite takeaways from my time with the team and our furred, feathered & scaly friends!

* 1) Potoroos might just be my new favourite species! So cute! Watch the video with trainer Sian Mulhull below

* 2) As always we were constantly reminded about the importance of celebrating approximations and breaking things down into the smallest learnable chunks for both our animals & human learners. Here we achieve great results by teaching Ash Herrod (the human learner) about luring with the critically endangered Orange Bellied parrots (Neo & Spot).

* 3) I was reminded about how much I absolutely LOVE doing what I do! My rate of reinforcement was so high throughout this whole visit getting to work with creatures great and small – including this spotted tree monitor in the video below with the amazing Hannah Wiggs!

This animal hasn’t been involved in a formal training program before and we were unsure if it would even take food from us being so close! Consequently it was reinforcing to get this result & equally so – to see the Joy in the trainers eyes!

* 4) In my opinion – as important (if not more important) then the time we spend in front of the animal is the time we spend planning! ?

Consequently, we relished the opportunity to get super geeky & use Susan Friedman’s – Functional Assessment & Intervention Design (FAID) tool – to consistently work through some of the bigger challenges at Moonlit sanctuary!

This tools helps us come up with an intervention based on the individual animal in front of us, their unique antecedents & learning history whilst simultaneously honouring the function of the behavior we are labelling as undesirable!

In the image below you can see us working through some of Leo the Quoll’s behaviours! So excited about the ideas we came up with!

You can learn more about this form (and find the link) in an early podcast episode with Susan and I >>> HERE

* 5) Part of the planning out of our training sessions at Moonlit Sanctuary (as well as lots of opportunities for Functional Assessments & Intervention designs – FAID – and Flowcharts) was to act out what we’re actually going to do in our sessions!

I totally have Sarah Owings to thank for this – via her social media sharings & my participation in her (& Helix Fairweather’s) cyber scent course she has really demonstrated to me it’s value & importance as I watch her work with Tucker-dog, Zoe-dog and teach her students!

In the video below we are practicing a routine around getting ready for a training session with Dundee the Freshwater crocodile! I’m pretending to be the crocodile and apparently this is what I think crocodiles do ??? (see videos below).

The AMAZING Blaire Bunter is the trainer…

I feel confident to have left Moonlit Sanctuary with Sarah Owings, Susan G. Friedman & Eva Bertilsson sitting on all of the animal care teams shoulders! It does’t get much better then this! ?

Listen to a ATA podcast with Sarah Owings here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/sarah-owings/
Listen to a ATA podcast with Eva Bertilsson here >>> https://animaltrainingacademy.com/podcast/training-tidbits/eva-bertilsson/

3 BIG UPDATES: NEW blog, Cat enclosure & Compassion fatigue podcast!

May 18, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

I hope everyone has been enjoying these weekly(ish) posts? I’ve had such good feedback and I’ve been loving all the personal comments people have been posting! So much so, that I’ve decided to slowly turn everything into a blog on the ATA website (which is what you are seeing here).

Additionally this week I have a few exciting updates based on numerous things we have been talking about recently!

* Firstly, our cat enclosure is now finished to a level where the cats can go outside! ARGHHH I am so excited about this, as are our cats! See update in the ATA public forum FB group here >>> http://bit.ly/Finally_lol

You can see more info about the project “in action” in the ATA blog here >>> bit.ly/Cat_blog1

* Secondly a few weeks ago I sent our a email called “Everyone has compassion fatigue & we need to talk about it!” See It here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Compassion_Fatigue

In this email I spoke about my realisation that I was at or past the point of burn out with the amount of time and emotional energy I was dedicating to animal training and ATA (Animal Training Academy]) I also highlighted steps I have taken to move to a healthier place!

The email was inspired by a – at the time – an unreleased podcast recording with the amazing Petra Edwards who bravely shared her journey with compassion fatigue and burnout! Well, we actually released this episode this week … which was followed by an outpouring in the ATA members only community areas from tribe members who identified with Petra’s story!

This is an absolute MUST listen for anyone that works with animals and in a caring role! CLICK HERE >>> htttp://bit.ly/ATA_Petra_Edwards

After listening to this episode I would love to hear your thoughts! Did you relate to any parts of it? What parts? Does it make you want to change anything about what you are doing? Do you have your own story to share?

As always looking forward to your thoughts and you can leave a comment below

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s This coming week I am doing a week long in person zoo consult at the wonderful Moonlit Sanctuary in Melbourne Australia (My third time visiting here)! We will be working with Eagles, Koalas, Wombats, Dingos, Goanna’s, Quoll’s, Cockatoo’s Potoroo’s & more! I will make sure to send some cool updates – so stay tuned! ?

Petra Edwards – Bravely sharing about compassion fatigue ? ?

May 14, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Petra Edwards Bio

Petra is a dog trainer in Adelaide, South Australia and has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) with a specialisation in Animal Behaviour. She also holds the professional canine trainer accreditation through the Pet Professional Accreditation Board. Petra is currently studying her PhD investigating how dogs experience their veterinary visits. She hopes her research will not only shed light on the veterinary experience, but offer practical and achievable solutions for improving welfare in the veterinary context. Petra has been involved in the dog training industry from a young age and has worked extensively over the years as an assistant and instructor of pet dog training classes and puppy pre-schools. She is fascinated by all things behaviour and especially loves helping owners and dogs live happily and companionably through positive reinforcement.

Want to learn more about compassion fatigue, listen to a previous ATA podcast episode with Dr Vanessa Rolhf here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA-Vanessa-Rohlf

Do you think you might have Compassion Fatigue? And/or be nearing Burnout? If so please reach out to others for help! We acknowledged however that this isn’t always an easy thing to do and bravery will likely be needed! – So to help lead by example here is a blog post written by ATA founder Ryan Cartlidge after recording this episode with Petra, before it was released >>> bit.ly/ATA_Compassion_Fatigue ?

5 take aways from Susan Friedman/Peta Carke workshops ?- ?- ?

May 12, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

Last week I got to spend an amazing 4 days hanging out with Dr. Susan Friedman, Peta Clarke and 200+ behavior nerds (& dogs) deep within the beautiful Barrington Tops in New South Wales Australia!

Not only did we get to see Wild Platypus on a Daily basis but we got to geek out on both scientific and practical aspects of what we do!

So as I sat at Sydney Airport nearing the final leg of my journey home I thought I would start to write this email and share – whilst still fresh in my memory – 5 amazing takeaways for me from that sensational week! Here they are

1. I was reminded of how little I know! OMG was I ever! I got to experience Susan’s Emotions inside out presentation and consequently there is going to be some latent learning as I process all of this over the coming weeks/days/months! I was left with the words “emotions track contingencies” and I’m currently working on fully digesting what this means and how it works

2. The ATA tribe is AMAZING! – This was four days of meeting so many individuals from ATA’s audience in the flesh and getting hugs that in some instances have been years in the making!

3. Some offerings on definitions of choice & control. I realise how much I use these words interchangeably and I really had to stop and think about the different definitions. At the moment I am left with the these two thoughts – control is all about giving the learner the ability to manage/control outcomes with their behavior, and choice is about settings up contingencies in ways that offer the animal many different outcome options – including the option/control to say no. What do you think?

4. The use of reinforcement placement – it was an absolute joy to watch Peta Clarke in action coaching numerous trainer/dog teams! One topic that came up time and time again was reinforcement placement. This is definitely something I am going to be thinking about more and more in my training over the coming while and how I can improve my skill in this area.

5. High rates of reinforcement. Seeing the contrast in rates of reinforcement when Peta Clarke demonstrated some live training for us in relation to some of the other dog/trainer teams working at the event really allowed me to see how much Peta skilfully moved behavior. This was so beneficial for me to see live and was one of the biggest take aways for me!

To be honest I could go on and on and on… lol and I’m sure as the events of the last week marinate in my mind over the coming whilst latent learning will provide me with so much value from the richness of spending time with individuals at the cutting edge of what we do! #feelingblessed!

If you want to find out more about these two wonderful human beings check out some previous ATA podcast episodes where we were very privileged to have them as guests!

ATA podcast episode with Susan Friedman here >>> http://bit.ly/Friedmanpodcast

ATA podcast episode with Peta Clarke here >>> bit.ly/ATA_Peta_Clarke

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s Want access to over 6 hours of exclusive interview time with Susan Friedman?

You can access two (3 hour long) web-class replays with Dr. Susan Friedman inside the ATA members only area right now! These are for premium members only but we are giving you the change to view them for just $1 – CLICK HERE for your trial membership and get started now!

Who’s your favorite behavior nerd of all time?

May 9, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

I’ve got two, that are at the fore front of my mind (of so many to choose from!)

Firstly, Dr. Susan Friedman has been such a huge influence on my life for the past 10 years and I’m forever grateful for her incredible contribution to my personal growth and to our community!

And there’s someone else who has had a profound influence on my thinking and my practical application of Animal Training & Behavior management over the past 24 months – Swedish trainer Eva Bertilsson!

Eva was the guest (for the second time) on this week’s ATA podcast episode where we talked about three little words starting with C – Choice, Control & Communication!

Listen to the podcast episode HERE

CCC – Choice, Control & Communication is also the name of an amazing conference being put on by Eva in Sweden later this year (learn all about it in the episode).

Check out the line up below!

It brings me great joy to announce that Animal Training Academy is an official sponsor of CCC 2019! – By being a sponsor ATA can help promote the event and consequently the dissemination of information from the incredible collection of knowledge and experience the speakers bring!

We need behavior nerds like Eva Bertilsson leading the way with the amazing work she and her colleagues are doing! Sharing ideas like creating Animal Training flowcharts and using Start Buttons with our animals.

LEARN about flow charts and start buttons here (in the 1st episode Eva and I did together])

What about you? Who is your favourite behavior nerd of all time? – I look forward to finding out – leave a comment below!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

CLICK HERE to be taken back to the other blog posts

[Bonus episode] – Eva Bertilsson: CCC – Choice, Control & Communication 2019

May 7, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

Eva Bertilsson – Bio

Eva Bertilsson has a master’s degree in behavior analysis and a passion for all things related to behavior, learning and animal welfare. Together with business partner Emelie Johnson Vegh, Eva runs their collaboration Carpe Momentum, teaching seminars on the general principles of behavior and learning, and coaching trainers in the art of structuring great training sessions regardless of the venue or the species. Eva is a board member of the Swedish Association for Behavior Analysis, a faculty member of Clicker Expo, and an enthusiastic disseminator of ethical practices based in behavioral science. In addition to her own teaching, she has also been instrumental in introducing TAGteach ™ and Fear Free™, as well as numerous renown speakers (for example Susan Friedman, Susan Schneider and Clive Wynne), to the Scandinavian audience.

Animal Training Academy is proud to sponsor the up and coming CCC2019 (Choice, Control, Communication) conference coordinated by Eva Bertilsson! CLICK HERE to learn more.

CCC – 2019 conference speakers

The giraffe video mentioned in the podcast

Ur never ending animal project… [in pictures] ! ???

May 5, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

What’s your never ending animal project?

Everywhere I go people are requesting updates on how my cat enclosure is going! Well I should say the never-ending cattery building mission – because it’s not actually going to enclose anything until it’s finished! And I thought I would be finished 4 weeks ago! lol

We have just moved house and are consequently needing to build a new cattery! Our two beautiful felines don’t leave our property for a variety of reasons! One of the big one’s being I am a huge conservationist and we have a lot of native New Zealand birds visit our gardens & I feel out cats would love to … (fill in the blanks).

So here’s it’s evolution in pictures! All the wood used so far is wood brought with us from our old house & wood lying around on our new property!

The cat netting is also recycled from our old house where out entire back garden was netted over!

I got told off for the photo below from wifey! She was totally correct – selfies and ladders don’t mix lol … But now that it’s taken it’s cool to see a birds eye view!

Next step was access from the house! – The guy who installed the cat doors said this was only the second time in 50 years he has put a door somewhere as odd as an elevated bathroom window (Which will be their exit from the south end of the house! – with added climbing structures of course).

Finally this week I have added a door so we can access the space from our garden. Once again this was recycled and used to be on the front of our previous house to prevent the cats from running out onto the road…

The final wall is going to go where the step ladder is in the above image! So excited to hopefully get this done soon ? ??? lol

What about you? What projects have you started for your animals that have taken a little bit longer than expected? Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.s see photos of my old cat enclosure in this thread from the Animal Training Academy public forum on FaceBook >>> bit.ly/ATA_FB_old_cat_space

Dr. Robert Hewings – UK college of scent dogs

April 30, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr Robert Hewings bio

Dr Robert Hewings is the author of ‘Scent and Scent-ability’ and head of learning and development for the UK College of Scent Detection, and a highly experienced Canine Trainer. He retired from the Metropolitan Police after 30 years’ exemplary service, 25 of which was as a Police Dog Handler. The final nine years as a full-time trainer with the Metropolitan Police Dog Training Establishment. He has enhanced this experience with a BSc (Canine Training and Behaviour) MA (Professional Practice Police Dog Training) and a Doctor of Professional Practice (D/Prof) Canine Scent Detection. Rob has instructed all police canine-search disciplines including explosive search and narcotics, supporting this with an amazing academic journey that has without doubt enhanced his relationship with the dogs he trains.

Combining his scent detection experience Rob is currently training scent detection within the ‘Assistance Dog Community’ where, working in partnership with the PTSD Charity Bravehound is researching and training dogs to recognise the scent of a nightmare, and gently wake the sufferer.

Finally, Rob truly understands the importance of a positive training schedule with the dogs he trains and the people he coaches. He wishes to share his love and experience of search training with you and your dog. Witnessing the enjoyment, enthusiasm and excitement the dogs get from being engaged in the natural process of ‘nose-work’ has been his guilty pleasure for the last 25 years & as Rob says… long may this continue!!

CLICK HERE for the UK College of Scent Dog Website

Everyone has compassion fatigue & we need to talk about it! ? ?

April 27, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

This week I was really lucky to record a podcast episode with one of the bravest guests we have had on the Animal Training Academy show so far! They bared all by sharing their personal story working as a dog training consultant and realising that they were suffering from compassion fatigue.

Recording this podcast was actually quite confronting for me.

Firstly, this person shared the idea of compassion fatigue being a spectrum and that we likely all experience some of the related feelings and behaviours involved – but to different degrees.

Secondly an activity, involving breaking down into percentages how much time and emotion we put into the different things/aspects in our life’s was discussed. The guest shared that doing this activity was quite shocking for them as it made them realise how much emotional energy was spent on their own clients and dogs!

As a result of spending so much time and energy on our own & our client’s animals’ – other aspects of our lives – like, partners, family and friends have the risk of being attended to with very little to no emotional reserves.

It scares me to think that I feel I give about 70-80% to Animal Training, behavior and my business… After this what valuable energy might I have left for my wife, my family, my friends and for my own health and wellbeing?

Whilst recording this episode I was also reminded of my episode with Jean Donaldson who talked about burnout. One of the things Jean suggested was that we need a hobby away from what we do!

This idea was highlighted for me when I was in Australia for a four-day animal training conference recently which had over 200 delegates attending. I had a lot of people come and tell me how much they love Animal Training Academy! Which was really nice. Additionally, and on more than one occasion I was asked what hobbies I had outside of Animal Training. The scary thing is I didn’t know what to say!

I’ve realised my focus might be labeled as maladjusted! So I’ve taken action!

Firstly, I spoke to my wife about this in what was quite an emotional conversation! Then together we identified 5 areas I could focus on in my life that have nothing to do with animal training and/or ATA! … And each week I am going to set goals in these areas that I will email to my wife so that she can hold me accountable!

Here are the 5 areas

1.Marriage
2.Family
3.Friendship
4.Fitness and health
5.Self-care/hobby

I’m writing this to be open and possibly encourage others to be open about it as well. Because left undiscussed compassion fatigue and burnout can lead to depression and other mental health challenges!

What’s your experience here? I want you to know you’re not alone and we’re here for you if you want to talk! You can comment below… And please make sure to reach out to your local R+ Community!

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

P.S Here is the episode with Jean Donaldson where she talks about burn out (listen at 29:38) >>> http://bit.ly/Jean_Donaldson

P.P.S Last year I was super lucky to connect with Dr. Vanessa Rohlf to talk specifically about Compassion Fatigue, grief and other challenges as they relate to our industry. Listen to this episode here >>> http://bit.ly/ATA-Vanessa-Rohlf

P.P.P.S See another post about compassion fatigue on ATA members Kelli Inglis’s blog here >>> bit.ly/Kelli_Blog

Michelle Skurski – Disney’s Animal Kingdom ®

April 16, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Michelle Skurski Bio

Michelle is going on almost 30 years now training animals in a zoological setting. She began her career at a facility called marine World Africa USA, training predominantly tigers. She joined Disney in 1998 and in 2001 became a Zoological Manager of Behavioural Husbandry. In this role she supports the animal care teams at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with maintaining training and enrichment programs for all species under their care. Along with her special interest in tigers Michelle has a passion for training reptiles large and small. Currently she sits on the AZA (American Zoological Association) Professional Development Committee and is co-course administrator and instructor for the AZA Professional Course: Environmental Enrichment in Zoo and Aquarium Settings.

Agnieszka Janarek – Changing training culture

April 2, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Agnieszka Janarek Bio

Agnieszka described herself as a passionate, knowledgeable behavior nerd, advocate of choice in animal training, nose work addict and obedience and concept training geek. She is the founder of the Polish Nose work Association. Owner of three, rescued mixed breeds with whom she takes part in various canine sports and heavy absorber of international educational opportunities traveling to courses and seminars in the USA, UK, Netherlands & Germany and then bringing this all back to her community in Poland. Agnieszka describes her priorities as combining learning science, practice, dog-handler, relationship, precision and fun.

Lindsay Wood Brown – Think Behavior

March 19, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Lindsay Wood Brown Bio

Lindsay Wood Brown is a board-certified Associate Applied Animal Behaviourist (ACAAB) with a master’s degree in Animal Behavior. She specializes in finding solutions for behavioural challenges and consults for animal shelters on the design and implementation of behavior programs, effective behavior modification methods, and the development of robust operational strategies to achieve behavioral health for animals within the shelter environment.

Lindsay teaches seminars and workshops around the country and serves as a faculty member for Karen Pryor Academy and Clicker Expo. She offers coaching and 1:1 mentorship opportunity for behavior consultants.

Lindsay has a long history of leadership and building high functioning teams within animal shelters. She served as the Director of Operations for Lynchburg Humane Society (LHS), an open-admission animal shelter located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Her role at Lynchburg Humane included the oversight of all shelter operations, with a strong focus on behavior and behavior modification to increase the number of animal lives saved and successfully rehomed.

Lindsay served for 8 years as the Director of Animal Training and Behavior for the Humane Society of Boulder Valley in Boulder, Colorado. She developed Boulder Humane’s Training and Behavior Department, including their comprehensive behavior modification program, which focuses on rehabilitating dogs with specific behavior conditions, including resource-guarding, fearful behavior, body-handling sensitivities, separation anxiety, and dog-dog aggression. Lindsay also developed the Humane Society of Boulder Valley’s curricula for a wide array of positive reinforcement, clicker training classes for community members.

A shelter pup working through the food guarding plan to demonstrate the head lift behavior (As mentioned in this episode)

Jean Donaldson – Academy for dog trainers

March 5, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Jean is the founder and principal instructor of The Academy for Dog Trainers. The Academy is celebrating its twentieth anniversary in 2019. She is a four-time winner of The Dog Writers’ Association of America’s Maxwell Award. In 2017, Jean was recruited to create Dog Training 101 for The Great Courses.

Born in Montreal, Canada, Jean founded the Montreal Flyball Association, and Renaissance Dog Training, the first positive reinforcement-based school, and counseling service in the province. Her own dogs and dogs she has trained have earned numerous titles and wins in a variety of dog sports, including OTCh, TDX, HIT and FDCh. While a student, she worked as an adoption counselor at the Montreal SPCA and later served on its Board of Directors. Before founding The Academy, Jean did exclusively referral aggression cases for six years. She lives in Oakland, California, with her dog, Brian, adopted in 2015.

Training a Lace Monitor Lizard at Moonlit Sanctuary, Melbourne Australia.

February 28, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 5 Comments

Training Lacie, Training Myself… (Written by ATA member Hannah Wiggs)

Moonlit Sanctuary is a privately owned Wildlife and Conservation Park, involved in a number of conservation programs, as well as a commitment to educating its visitors whilst maintain a high standard of animal welfare.

For many years the only animal training that happened at the park was based around encounter animals and basic husbandry of a couple of species, such as dingoes. In 2015, keepers worked with an animal trainer to create a Conservation in Action show, which includes free flight birds, mammals and recently training has extended to reptiles.

Whilst initially utilised as a tool to increase visitor interaction, and hence education, we have now begun training animals to assist in their own husbandry/participate voluntarily in their own health checks, and remove themselves from their enclosures (if desired) for maintenance. All using positive reinforcement techniques.

My training journey commenced with Lacie, the lace monitor – creative name I know! Lacie had no prior training, nor did I. She very rarely had positive interactions with keeping staff aside from her feeding time, which consisted of a bowl being dropped over the wall into her enclosure from outside. Historically to health check her, she had been forcibly caught and restrained whilst being weighed, checked over and removed from the enclosure whilst maintenance occurred.

However, handling Lacie at all posed a risk – with a very powerful tail, long and sharp nails and a nasty bite she was a formidable opponent. Not only was it dangerous for us to interact with her in this way, it was extremely stressful for her also. She communicated this to us by loud hissing, writhing away from grips and attempting to whip, scratch and bite. I had two bits of information to go off:

There were potential hazards identified with working with Lacie (and management plans in place to mitigate these).
She liked food… a lot

Initially I was hesitant to train such a ‘respectfully powerful’ lace monitor. – I was intimidated, apprehensive and even scared of her, and I dare say she felt much the same about me. Progress was difficult to see and came very slowly. I begun by loading a clicker, which in retrospect was the most difficult thing to train. This may have been because we had not built a relationship and trusting bond at this stage, or perhaps because I could not interpret her body language to the same extent as I am able to now.

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 was unsure if she was responsive to the clicker, to my hand movements, me dropping the food or another antecedent that was not obvious to me. All of this training has been done from outside of the enclosure, and numerous food delivery methods were trialled (and largely failed as you can see below). I decided to simply ‘drop’ balls of mince on to the perches and other smooth surfaces in her enclosure.

In consultation with more experienced keepers, Lacie was introduced to a target stick. Her body language became clearer to me at this point. If she was ‘uncomfortable’, she would raise her head high, coil her tail, clench her hind legs and simply walk away from me. Whilst it was not the behaviour I desired, it provided clarity as to where the limits of our trust bank stood.

With a prior learning that objects coming over Lacie’s head were used to immobilise and catch her, I predicted that she may perceive a target stick as an aversive stimulus. It took countless sessions over numerous weeks (and an immense amount of frustration and feelings of inadequacy) to make any headway with the target sticks. Subtle changes started to occur in her body language. Her eyes would steadily stay on me during the training; she was focused. She had now learnt that I meant food was coming – and that I was pretty alright due to this.

Her tail became less and less coiled when the target stick, and myself, were present. If it were coiled, her legs would not be clenched and she would not walk away. Eventually I could lower the stick into the enclosure, have her look at it, *click* and be rewarded. Once her look became direct and obvious, I altered the criteria – encouraging her to move towards the target stick. At the time I was unsure how to do this, but thankfully she was not.

I clearly remember a moment I shared with her at this stage- she looked at the target stick for ~3 seconds, then looked directly in to my eyes as if to say ‘Where is my food? I have done the behaviour thank you very much’. I think it was in this moment that I truly appreciated her intelligence, her capability of thinking and ultimately her choice and ‘animality’. Thankfully, it was also after this glance that she took a step closer to the target stick.

Now, she is a completely target trained and ‘respectfully powerful’ lace monitor. Most sessions she eagerly awaits me, except for when it is too hot or cold. I have also introduced her to a set of scales, targeted her on to them and rewarded her for stationing on them- she weighs herself! No more capture and restraint for this aspect of her husbandry.

Going forward, I intend to utilise target training to crate train her and get her to participate in her own husbandry and health checks- with Lacie maintaining complete choice. However, life is not perfect and training is not perfect. We have had setbacks both minor and major, with the onset of winter weather greatly impacting her eagerness for training and her food consumption. Currently, I feel as if training is in limbo – we cannot currently move forwards, and I am questioning if she will retain her learnt behaviours or forget them (and me) by Spring. Optimism and hope, however, are integral to working in the zoo keeping industry, and I will wait with baited breath for our next learning opportunity together!

Training and animal welfare go hand in hand. It is incredibly exciting to be involved in this movement, and be given a platform to educate visitors as to the depth of intelligence our scaly friends possess. Training any animal, let alone a reptile with such a difficult past, was completely new to me- and I believe that she has trained me, taught me and shaped me much more so than I have her. My perception of this ‘fierce beast’ has changed dramatically- I have witnessed her sweet nature, seen her excitement, and discovered her individuality. Training her has become my favourite part of the working week, and I cannot wait to see where we end up on our training journey together.

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 Hannah Wiggs

Hannah Wiggs is the Team Leader of Reptiles and Logistics at Moonlit Sanctuary, in Victoria, Australia. Whilst she grew up with a respect for animals and the environment, she only realised her desire to work directly with them post- high school, and indeed after dropping out of an unrelated university degree.

Her interest piqued after gaining employment in the café of Moonlit Sanctuary. To improve communication and understanding between ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ staff, she started volunteering once a week with the keeping staff. Within weeks, her priorities shifted more and more to the great outdoors – despite the infamous Melbourne weather. Shortly, she begun running nights tours and accepted an offer for paid keeping work.

Laura Ryder – Seize the moment

February 19, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 7 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Laura Ryder – Bio

Laura is the Head Dog Trainer at Morley Vet centre in Perth, Western Australia.

She is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner (KPA CTP), a Full Member of the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers (IMDT) and is also on the Fear-Free Speakers Bureau.

Laura has three passions when it comes to dog training:

As a member of the Fear-Free Speakers Bureau, she passionately brings low-stress handling and Fear-Free training into veterinary clinics – focusing on both the physical and emotional health of patients.
Laura is one half of the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers Australia education team. IMDT Australia launched in January 2019, and Laura hopes to see it follow in the IMDT UK’s footsteps – where it is known as the leading education provider for dog trainers and behaviourists.
Laura also spends a lot of her time creating fun and engaging training courses for pet dogs. 2014 saw Laura create The Canine Adventure course – a non-competitive dog sport, for the family dog to enjoy. The Canine Adventure Course saw Laura travel to Las Vegas in 2016 to presents at the annual APDT conference, and then to London in 2017 where she presented at the Institute of Modern Dog Trainers Conference. There are now trainers all over the world running their very own fun Canine Adventure Courses – which for Laura, means more dogs out there, having fun with their families!

Laura shares her home with her husband, daughter, her four Border Terriers – Wicket, Malani, Lando and Rogue – and her 30-year-old horse, Arnie.

Video – Puppy Socialisation with Rogue!

Ken Ramirez – Training animals for conservation; Chimpanzees, Elephants, Polar bears & more!

February 5, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Ken Ramirez Bio

Ken Ramirez is the Executive Vice-President and Chief Training Officer of Karen Pryor Clicker Training where he oversees the vision, development, and implementation of training education programs for the organization, including ClickerExpo, Karen Pryor Academy, and The Ranch. This allows Ken to help bring positive reinforcement training to all corners of the animal training world.

Previously, Ken served as the Executive Vice-President of animal care and animal training at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, where he developed and supervised animal care and animal health programs, staff training and development as well as public presentation programs for a collection of more than 32,000 animals. He worked at Shedd Aquarium for over 25 years.

A 40+ year veteran of animal care and training, Ramirez is a biologist and animal behaviorist who served nine years at Marineworld of Texas. He also was a trainer and coordinator at Ocean Safari in South Padre Island, Texas, as well as acting as a consultant to many zoo and aquarium programs throughout the world. He began his training career working with guide dogs for the visually impaired and has maintained a close affiliation to pet training throughout his career. He hosted two successful seasons of the pet training television series Talk to the Animals that compared pet training to the important work done with training and caring for animals in zoological facilities. He also works closely with several search and rescue dog organizations, service dog groups, as well as with bomb and narcotic dogs.

Since 2005, Ken has brought his experience as a trainer of many cognitive projects with marine mammals and primates to the dog arena. Most notable has been his work with modifier cues, adduction, matching to sample, mimicry, and counting. The latter two projects: teaching dogs to mimic or imitate other dogs; and to learn the concept of counting are in the process of being prepared for scientific publication. Both of these projects have documented cognitive abilities in dogs that have not been previously well reported or understood.

Ken has also pioneered groundbreaking conservation training projects with chimpanzees, polar bears, elephants, butterflies, and other animals. Conservation training applies behavior science in the field with free-ranging animals and uses remote training to facilitate learning to assist wildlife biologists in a wide range of projects.

Ramirez has been active in several professional organizations, including the International Marine Animal Trainer’s Association (IMATA), of which he is a past president. Ken has been actively involved in the creation of a certification process for animal trainers in zoological settings.

Ramirez has written for numerous scientific publications and authored countless popular articles. He authored the book ANIMAL TRAINING: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement, published in 1999 and Better Together: The Collected Wisdom of Modern Dog Trainers, published in 2017. Ken taught a graduate course on animal training at Western Illinois University for 20 years and currently offers several online courses through the Karen Pryor Academy. In 2017 Ken moved to Washington state where he created a series of immersive hands-on training courses at The Ranch, the Karen Pryor National Training Center.

VIDEO – End of the year wrap up of Ranch Courses in 2018

Sabrina Brando – Director of Animal Welfare; WAZA [The World Association of Zoos and Aquariums]

January 22, 2019 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Sabrina Brando – Bio

Sabrina Brando is Director of Animal Welfare with the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Her favourite job title, however, is ‘I am in the business of animal happiness’. For the last 27 years, she has been working in and with the global zoo and wildlife profession, including zoos, aquariums, wildlife centers, and sanctuaries. Sabrina has a BSc. in psychology and has an MSc. in animal studies, which focused on “An evaluation of zoo animal welfare assessment from inspection to daily practices with recommendations for a holistic approach”. Sabrina is fortunate to be involved in book chapter writing, presenting at conferences, running workshops, and to collaborate on several research projects on animal advocacy, welfare, and behaviour. Sabrina teaches, and always learns new things when teaching as a guest lecturer at various universities and colleges on e.g. animal welfare, behaviour, and the human-animal interaction and relationship. Sabrina loves storytelling and writing – particularly about animals and the natural world, wearing a button with “I love stories” almost all the time. The button sparks a lot of great conversations and storytelling about animals among many other topics, from people she meets at a conference, to a stranger on a plane. Do you have a story you want to share about the animal(s) you care(d) for, a special friendship you have with your favourite animal, a great action for animals or the planet you were involved in, or anything else that makes your heart sing concerning animals and nature, Sabrina would love to hear from you!

You can connect with Sabrina on FaceBook HERE or email her at sabrina.brando@waza.org

Coping with challenging conversations online – ?

January 10, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

This week I’ve really been enjoying listening to some great podcast episodes from other animal trainer’s shows! I especially loved a recent episode from Hannah Branigan’s – Drinking from the toilet – podcast where she spoke to John McGuigan about “Training trolls” …

They were of course talking about internet trolls not the beings from Norse Mythology lol

Wikipedia describes an internet troll as “ … a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet … in an online community … “

This episode really hit home with me because a lot of my day is spent engaging with other people on social media and although I don’t necessarily come across as many trolls as John McGuigan – I definitely do find some engagements much more challenging than others!

Consequently I thought I would compile my own list of 5 things I recommend doing to successfully engaging with other animal trainers online, especially if a post has triggered a strong emotional reaction in you and you have a different opinion – (Or you can just let the cat do it for you; hehehe) … see list below under photo;

1) Take your time to reply… you don’t need to reply straight away.

A weird thing I find about social media is that it feels really urgent! Like we need to reply to this person right now! Although in my experience when emotions run high this doesn’t put us in a very good position to respond!

I am becoming more and more aware of this nagging feeling to respond immediately, whilst at the same time am becoming better at giving my response some time.

This doesn’t mean you can’t write out a response straight away though, I often do this and then revisit it 24 hours after I have had some time away from it.

2) Respond with curiosity.

Recently I had the absolute pleasure of recording a podcast episode with Steve White! Steve actually taught me, what I think is going to be one of the biggest lessons I take away from 2018 … >>> Be curious <<<

Rather then jump in and just unload your thoughts and feelings! First seek to understand why the other person did what they did … what led to the decisions they made?

You can listen to the full episode with Steve White here (Steve talks specifically on this subject at around the 38 minute mark!) >>> http://bit.ly/ATA_Steve_White

AND watch your inbox! Steve will be joining us again LIVE in the ATA members area for a special members only web-class later this month! EEEEE! More on this soon.

3) Think about what you want from the conversation.

4 amazing questions to ask yourself before you respond;

What is the ultimate goal you want from the conversation?
What does the other person want from the conversation?
What do you want for the relationship?
What don’t you want from the conversation?

I learned about these questions in my favourite book of all time! Crucial conversations! If you haven’t heard about this book, this is a MUST read! You can learn more about it in a special ATA podcast episode we did on this topic right here… http://bit.ly/Crucial_conversations

Most of the time – everyone wants the same thing! To do what’s best for the animal! (Both you and the person you are talking to) We just have different ways of going about it.

What I see happen though – is people end up being blocked, deleted from the person’s friend list or removed from a group. At this point – our ability to be able to help is gone! Like we do with our animals there’s benefit in focusing on the relationship first!

4) Privately edit the response from the other person before you answer…

Sometimes I literally cut and paste someones comment from social media into a separate word document and before each label the person uses to describe their animal I will write “… what this person calls (insert label here).

Additionally I will do the same with opinions. Before everything the other person wrote that is just an opinion I will write “ … in this person’s opinion (insert opinion here) … ”

I will go through an entire post like this inserting those 2 things where appropriate.

I will then read the post again and reply to this modified version. This really helps me narrow down on fact and explore that curiosity of what behaviors are actually behind the labels being used and why the people have reached the opinions they have…

5) Focus on one thing at a time

This is really something new I am experimenting on! Often I find my responses can get long and I focus on a lot of different aspects of the conversation. But by doing the suggestion from number one – and taking some time away from my draft response – I can normally pick out what is most relevant and just focus on one thing in my reply.

This makes your response much smaller and I feel easier to achieve the goals you set in point 3 above with regards to what you actually want from the conversation! The jury is still out on this one though… time will tell if I repeat, modify or suppress this behavior moving forward.

— — — — —

What about you? What have you found to be successful in engaging with others online? Especially when emotions run strong, stakes are high and opinions vary? Let me know by commenting below.

Best Regards
Ryan Cartlidge
Animal Training Academy

Joan Orr – Convergence of Human Training, Animal Training & Technology [CHATT]

January 8, 2019 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Joan Orr Bio

Joan Orr is a scientist and internationally recognized clicker trainer. Along with Theresa McKeon, Joan is one of the co-founders of TAGteach International, a company that promotes the application of marker-based positive reinforcement training for humans. Joan was a member of the Karen Pryor Clickertraining Clicker Expo Faculty for 9 years and content creator and advisor to the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior. She is a pioneer in the field of clicker training rabbits and co-author of a book on the subject. Joan and Teresa Lewin are co-founders of Doggone Crazy Inc, a company dedicated to dog bite prevention through education. They created the board game Doggone Crazy!, the “Doggie Detective” bite prevention education program for elementary school children and the Clicker Puppy training DVD. Joan has published many articles on dog bite prevention, positive training methods and the importance of understanding dog body language and has received many awards for her work. Most recently Joan has teamed up with behavior analyst Ryan O’Donnell to put on the annual conference: The Convergence of Human & Animal Training and Technology.

Video from the CHATT conference 2018

Video of the little boy learning to swim Joan mentioned in the episode

Lori Nanan – Nailed it; 5 tips for trimming your animals nails

December 25, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Lori Nanan Bio

Lori Nanan runs LoriNanan.com, a company that offers online educational resources for dog owners and website and marketing services for rewards-based dog trainers. Lori also works for The Academy for Dog Trainers, where she provides orientation to new students and project management for events. She’s worked at an animal shelter, Women’s Animal Center in Bensalem, PA., as the Canine Behavior Education Coordinator, providing enrichment and behavior modification to shelter dogs, as well as offering training services to the public. Lori is the founder of the nonprofit, Your Pit Bull and You, whose tagline is “Animal Learning is not Breed Specific” and is committed to supporting like-minded shelters and rescues. Lori lives in New Hope, PA with her husband, Paul, their cat MooMoo and Hazel, a pit bull terrier mix who has been her greatest teacher.

CLICK HERE for Lori Nanan website

CLICK HERE for Lori Nanan’s – Nailed it – course (as mentioned in this episode use code ATA to get 25% off)

Walking through a – nail care – training plan

Interview segment; Lori Nanan & Jean Donaldson talking on fear

https://youtu.be/uWpxcDi70tc

Alexandra Kurland – “We live on a very intelligent planet”

December 11, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Alexandra Kurland Bio

Alexandra Kurland is a graduate of Cornell University where she specialized in animal behavior. She began teaching in the early 1980’s. Her area of particular interest is the development of a horse’s balance: physical and emotional. Helping horses stay sound throughout a long lifetime is the goal. The result is beautiful horses that feel like heaven to ride.

In 1998 Alexandra launched the rapidly growing field of clicker training for horses with the publication of her first book, Clicker Training for Your Horse. Alexandra teaches clicker training geared to any horse need or sport—including developing a gentle and companionable riding horse, halter training foals, training advanced performance horses, and reforming difficult and unmanageable horses. Alexandra travels widely, giving clicker training seminars and presenting at conferences in the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe. She has written The Click That Teaches: A Step–By–Step Guide in Pictures and The Click That Teaches: Riding with the Clicker. She has also produced The Click That Teaches DVD lesson series, an on-line training course, and she is presently at work on new books and videos.

Lynn Webb – The proficient pup; Avoiding snake avoidance training…

November 27, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline.

Lynn Webb (M.A., KPA CTP, CTMT) Bio

Lynn Webb is a dog trainer and canine massage therapist who lives in Escondido, California, in North San Diego County. She is certified as a dog trainer through the Karen Pryor Academy and as a massage therapist through the Rocky Mountain School of Animal Acupressure and Massage. Lynn has a Master’s degree in United States History and worked for 15 years at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (now known as San Diego Zoo Safari Park) in various positions including Tour Guide, Educator, and Zookeeper.

Today, as a dog trainer with her own company, The Proficient Pup, Lynn specializes in assisting clients with their anxious, shy, or aggressive dogs. She has a strong interest in alleviating the fears that pet dogs experience in varying environments, including rattlesnake habitat. When educating people about Rattlesnake Avoidance, she wants to show them that there is a way to teach a dog to avoid something without teaching him to fear it. Lynn also believes that we humans can respect wildlife and protect our dogs at the same time. Because when it comes to snake-avoidance training, it’s not about the snake; it’s about the choices we make.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/theproficientpup

Instagram: www.instagram.com/theproficientpup

Website: www.theproficientpup.com

YouTube: Click Here for the proficient pup YouTube channel

Link for Lynn’s article in San Diego Pets Magazine: htttp://www.sandiegopetsmagazine.com/industry-news/rattlesnake-avoidance-training/

[Birds of prey video blog] – Breaking the habit: training your staff to work in a new way.

November 19, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

Landgoed Hoenderdaell is a small zoo, which tries to do the best for their animals. Large exhibits, which are as natural as possible.

They used to have a birds of prey demonstration where most birds were tethered to their perches in between shows. This didn’t fit the idea of the zoo anymore. Also due to the changing of public opinion and the fact that there are groups that are against bird shows, Landgoed Hoenderdaell wanted to change their way of keeping their birds.

A plan was made to build a huge complex, where all birds are housed in big aviaries with direct entrance to the demonstration area.

Of course, this meant that the way of training had to be different as well. And that is where we came in.

Silke Kruk is an experienced falconer and I am an experienced PRT trainer. We long had the ambition to combine this and start training birds of prey with PRT. But in Holland, this is not common yet.

We were given a couple of ‘rules’ by the owner when we started:

No animals tethered.
All animals had to participate voluntarily.
We had to do it with the staff that was available (volunteers and old skool trainers).
And we were given more than double the birds that were originally there.

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.

So a big challenge – but one we were ready to take. We soon figured out how we wanted to do it, use positive reinforcement to make the bond between trainer and bird stronger. And use small steps to get the birds used to the new area and the fact that they now have a choice.

Training the birds was not the hardest part.

Most of the animal training steps you can see in the video above.

We gave this presentation at the IMATA conference 2018 in Portugal. We received an award for second best presentation in the Conservation and Education Category. Which we really appreciated. It is a physical compliment for all the work we did.

But the training of the staff, that was and still is a big challenge. Something we didn’t really put in the presentation, but want to address here more clearly.

We have 3 paid animal caretakers in our bird division and the rest is done by volunteers. The volunteers are all very well intended, but most of them are not experienced with PRT. Also, the old staff was very used to the way it always was done.

The staff and volunteers were used to walking with the birds on the glove, attached to the glove. They were used to using the weight as a way of determining if the birds can fly. And they were used to always show the food when calling an animal. Also, in the old demonstration, they used a whistle to call the birds. In the new situation, we use the whistle as a bridge. To tell the birds they have done a good behavior and will get a reward. Totally different….

And as most of us know, changing the behavior of people is way more difficult than changing the behavior of animals. And not only their behavior had to be changed also their way of thinking.

We started with explaining them positive reinforcement training. The benefits, the use of the bridge and the way we start training new behaviors. We did this in a theoretical course. Most of them understood this theoretical course, but we still had to change their way of working with animals.

When we started, our staff missed the control over the birds. They missed the walking around with the birds. And they had to get used to the fact that in the beginning, they couldn’t do everything with all birds, as they were used to.

In the beginning, mainly Silke and I did the training. And when the birds understood the process, the volunteers could start working with the birds again. At this point in the training, we needed the experience and consistency. Most volunteers work 1 or max 2 days a week… Things can change very much in one week.

Slowly we started to show the volunteers 1 by 1 what we expected of them and how it worked. But since every day we have a different team, this is difficult. What we told person A on Monday, changed in a week and was different to what we told person B on Saturday. And the next week we had to tell everyone different things again. So this resulted in some setbacks in training.

For instance: we were training our Southern Hornbill to pick up a fake snake and shake it. Like they would do in the wild to kill the snake. At first, we would reward for picking it up, then for a small shake etc. So we told person A they could reward for picking it up. But in a week the Hornbill knew how to shake very well. We just forgot to tell person A. So she kept rewarding for just picking up…. The hornbill got confused by this and stopped shaking altogether.

This made it clear we had to make a system where people can read the most important changes. But even making people read a board or reading and filling in training sheets, which they never had done before, is pretty difficult…

Even now, after almost a year, still not all volunteers get the part of not showing the food. Or they think they are hiding the food, but it still can be seen… They are so used to that, it is very hard to change that habit. Even the use of the whistle was something that was hard to change. One of the reasons why we bought a new whistle. Just to break the habit.

It took a while for all birds were flying well in the new situation. But now the birds are doing great and the volunteers can see the results: higher flying weights, more interest in participating and all the positive feedback we get from visitors and of course from all of you.

Now the volunteers start accepting the new way. And are more motivated to change their old habits. They even start thinking about how they can train new behaviors.

That is the reason why we wanted to do the presentation in the first place. To show people all over the world that changing a habit can be done. And that changing the old way of training is possible. It takes some time, but it can and I think should be done.

Cheers Saskia Verbruggen and Silke Kruk

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 Saskia Verbruggen

Saskia started her career as a pinniped trainer at the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk, the Netherlands in 2002. This was her first encounter with positive reinforcement training (P.R.T) and she worked there for 8 years until she decided she wanted to gain some experience training other species as well.

In the next 7-8 years, Saskia had various jobs training and working with different animals, including; training birds of prey with a falconer, managing a petting zoo, training seals and harbor porpoises at a seal rescue center & training parrots in Oasis Park on Fuerteventura.

In April 2017 Saskia started her own company ‘Roundeurope Animal Training’ where she hopes to get more people interested in P.R.T, help animal caretakers (private and professional) to be better trainers and improve the welfare of all animals.

In September 2017 Saskia got offered a job at Landgoed Hoenderdaell where she was asked to start training all birds (parrots and raptors) with P.R.T, a really big challenge.

Saskia’s next challenge will be training the big cats at the rescue center of Stichting Leeuw.

Geoff Flemming – Crucial Conversations; Tools for talking when stakes are high…

November 13, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Geoff Flemming bio

Geoff is the General Manager and Business Development at VitalSmarts Australia & New Zealand – which is licensed to deliver the crucial conversations training in this part of the world. He is both a skilled facilitator, with intimate knowledge of crucial conversations & the other vital smart product sets, and his business prowess has been honed over many years working with very senior levels of numerous large organizations.

In addition to his business, consulting and training expertise, Geoff regularly presents to an array of audiences on topics such as the creation of high-performance teams, speaking up with confidence and building accountability. His audiences range from small executive retreats to large conferences, in a variety of industries from healthcare, security, retail, and construction through to pharmaceuticals and not for profits.

Geoff also has good practical experience helping leaders assess their cultures to identify where employees are frequently avoiding the crucial conversations. He has successfully implemented Crucial Conversations Training in many organizations, helping employees learn to speak up about all manner of issues, including business performance, leadership, quality, and safety.

Leslie McDevitt – Control unleashed!

November 6, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Leslie McDevitt Bio

Leslie McDevitt is a certified dog behavior consultant, internationally renowned speaker and author of three books, Control Unleashed: Creating a Focused and Confident Dog, Control Unleashed: Puppy Program and one coming out for this winter US Time – Control Unleashed: Reactive to Relaxed.

Leslie’s writing has been translated into various languages including Russian, Czech, German, Norwegian and Swedish. She is on the 2019 Clicker Expo Faculty and will also be joining the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy Faculty.

Leslie has twenty years’ experience using clicker training to build confidence and help companion, working and performance dogs feel comfortable and happy with challenging environments. She also consults for the University of Pennsylvania Working Dog Centre where she works with dogs in training to be a K9 patrol, scent detection, and SAR dogs, again helping them learn to process the stimuli in challenging work environments so that they can focus on their job.

Leslie’s first and most influential teacher was Dr. Karen Overall, and she is strongly influenced by her concepts of biofeedback training and her Relaxation Protocol. In Leslie’s work, you can see the confluence of Dr. Overall’s relaxation protocol and using clicker training to create counter conditioning procedures with an operant base. Leslie says the thing that gets her most excited at the moment is using start button behaviors she borrowed from animal husbandry training in order to empower dogs to direct their own counter conditioning procedures.

CLICK HERE for Leslie’s website

Arianna Bailey – Natural Encounters; The art & skill of learning as humans in the animal field

October 30, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

Arianna Bailey Bio

As a native Floridian, Arianna has always had a love an appreciation for the unique ecosystem and state she was raised in. Her career started out at a small zoo in the Orlando area where she worked mostly with reptiles. This is where she found her passion for training, enrichment, and animal behavior. There she worked with crocodilians, venomous snakes and many other animals. She found a deep interest in finding new ways to enrich them. Following her desire to learn more about behavior, she sought out a job with Natural Encounters, Inc. and was hired in January of 2009.

She is a current general board member of IAATE and the chair of the Professional Development Committee. She also sits on the board for IATCB which is setting the standard and raising the bar for avian trainers around the world with the new Avian Certification Test and has been certified as a professional bird trainer (CPBT-KA) by the International Avian Trainers Certification Board. Always continuing her education, she has attended, presented and taught at workshops, conferences, and courses on animal behavior and the science behind it throughout her career. Her love of sharing information and teaching animals and humans alike is why she says she has one of the best jobs in the world.

Dr Vanessa Rohlf – Compassion fatigue, stress management & grief!

October 23, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

Dr. Vanessa Rolhf Bio

Dr. Vanessa Rohlf is a consultant, counselor and educator to those who work with and care for animals. She has a Ph.D. with a specialisation in psychology (human-animal interactions), a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Psychology and has worked in the animal industry for over 15 years. She has additional qualifications in mindfulness, animal bereavement, and compassion fatigue. Vanessa is a co-founder of the initiative People & Animals in the Workplace, member of the Anthrozoology Research Group and has lectured and tutored psychology and human behaviour for over 7 years. She also holds an honorary role at La Trobe University and regularly presents her work at international and national conferences as well as through peer-reviewed journal articles. Vanessa provides high quality and informed support services and has worked with a number of animal care industries including animal shelters, veterinary clinics, zoos, dog training, walking and daycare facilities and regularly provides individual counseling, consultations, and workshops to companion animal owners and animal care professionals from a range of industries.

Nick Benger; How to create Animal Training podcasts/content

October 16, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Nick Benger – Bio

Nick Benger is a professional dog trainer that specializes in what he calls “engagement training” for pet dogs. He runs his business Bark Play Teach in his hometown of Bristol, England but is best known as the host of the Dog Talk with Nick Benger podcast. As a big fan of podcasts, he decided to start his own in 2016. This gave him the chance to geek out with some of the best trainers in the world and amass a following in the process. Now thousands of people have tuned in to the weekly episodes. Many of which discuss them on the dedicated Facebook podcast discussion group. Nick is currently working on his first book on dog training and promoting “engagement training” for pet dogs.

Sarah Dixon – President of IAABC: “Earning your chops in NYC”

October 9, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline.

Sarah Dixon Bio

Sarah Dixon is a Certified Dog Behaviour Consultant who originates from British Columbia Canada but is currently working for Instinct Dog Behavior & Training LLC in New York City. She has had articles published in the APDT (Association of Professional Dog Trainers) Chronicle of the Dog, on clickertraining.com, as well as in a collected anthology by Ken Ramirez titled “Better Together: The Collected Wisdom of Modern Dog Trainers.” Sarah teaches workshops on dog training and behavior throughout the United States and Canada and has spoken at the APDT Conference multiple times. With her dogs (Siberian Huskies (past), Belgian shepherd, and an Australian Shepherd), Sarah has trained, competed, or titled in many dog sports including obedience, rally obedience, skijoring, dog sledding, agility, musical freestyle, herding, tricks, and nose work. Sarah specializes in behavior problems such as fear, aggression, anxiety, and reactivity. Most of all, she loves helping people build strong relationships with their pets

Video – Training leash reactivity

Steve White – ProActive K9; Get “curious” with your animal training.

October 2, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Steve White Bio

In his 43rd year of a K9-centered law enforcement career, Steve White is the only person to have served as a handler, trainer, training-sergeant, and supervisor for the Seattle Police Canine Unit. Accredited as a Master Trainer in 1993 by the Washington State Police Canine Association, Steve is also a past Executive Board Member of that body. He served as Vice President of the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers and is a consultant and instructor for the K9 Academy for Law Enforcement. Steve has instructed at seminars in the U.S., Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom. He has served as a primary instructor for Karen Pryor’s ClickerExpo and the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior. His articles have appeared in police K-9 and dog training publications in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Finland, and Japan. He specializes in teaching behavior modification, tracking, and scent work through the use of positive reinforcement-based operant conditioning. He provides consultation and training to K-9 units on administrative and legal issues and has been recognized as an expert witness by Washington and Federal courts in Police K-9 and dog behavior matters.

CLICK HERE for Steve White’s ProActive k9 website

Niki Tudge – Founder & President The DogSmith, The Pet Professional Guild, DogNostics Career Center & President Doggone safe.

September 25, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Niki Tudge Bio

Niki was born and raised in England but now lives in Florida. Her background is in the corporate world and managing hotels which have seen her travel the world & work in places such as Nigeria and South Africa.

Whilst working in these roles Niki always found ways to help rehabilitate abandoned and abused animals and cooperated with organizations like fauna & flora international to protect endangered species from poaching and then helping those animals transition back into their natural habitat.

Though her work with African Native Animals was fulfilling Niki’s first love was always the family pet dog. And upon moving to the united states Niki started setting up projects to help spread the word about the benefits of force-free training, starting ventures such as the Dog Smith – a dog training and pet care business and DogNostics Career College – an online educational forum for pet industry professionals.

As choices of training methods increased, Niki found availability of quick-fix gimmicks popularized by TV grew and misleading ‘entertainment-based’ training techniques became generally accepted, Niki found that it was more and more confusing for the pet owner to understand and differentiate the true foundation and efficacy of dog training and pet care methods and philosophies available.

Because of this, Niki saw a need for a new member forum where pet professionals committed to force-free training methods could gather to support each other and provide a resource to the pet-owning public. The Pet Professional Guild (the Guild) is Niki’s answer to this need. The Guild is dedicated to servicing force-free Pet Professionals and the pet-owning public who want to be confident that the resources they choose to adhere to a consistent training and business philosophy and ethics.

Peggy Hogan – Clicker training horses; The techniques were reflected in the kids eyes…

September 18, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline.

Peggy Hogan Bio

Like many people, Peggy loves animals and has a passion for training. She currently owns 5 minis, 2 full sized horses, and 3 parrots. Learning from clicker trainers of other species, Peggy investigated ways to add more shaping, capturing, luring, and targeting to her program and she experienced how horses would learn complex behaviors freely if given the choice.

Peggy currently teaches, gives clinics, offers online courses and generously shares knowledge of Clicker Training. Peggy has also been a speaker at Clicker Expo every year since 2013 and is thrilled to be presenting at Clicker Expo in 2019. Her goal is to learn how to better share this amazing technology with people in the horse community.

Videos

Trailer loading

Open Mouth Behavior

Eye wash Behavior

Malena DeMartini – Treating separation anxiety in dogs…

September 11, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast writeup

Malena DeMartini Bio

Malena DeMartini, CTC, CDBC, is renowned in the dog training world for her work on canine separation anxiety (SA) disorder. Her book, Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs, has helped countless numbers of dogs and her recent online course for guardians called Mission: POSSIBLE is now out.

In addition to writing and lecturing worldwide, Malena oversees a team of top SA trainers and runs an internationally accessible certification program for accomplished dog professionals looking to hone their skills. Malena is passionate about furthering education in this field through science-based methods and is in the process of collaborating on an intensive study with a leading University to help further advance the knowledge in the field.

Ryan O’Donnell – The daily BA; Saving the world with Behavior Analysis!

September 4, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast writeup

Ryan O’Donnell Bio

Ryan or Ryan O hails from northern Nevada in the grungy, yet surprisingly classy, (and newly renovated) Reno, Nevada. Ryan says he like his climate like I like my data: evolving, uncompromising, and progressive. He has a Master of Science; that is, an M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis, however, his interests have grown to include many others, including entrepreneurship and capturing perspectives and stories through various mediums. These interests and skills have allowed him to work with a lot of great people. Ryan’s started three businesses, numerous active joint venture agreements, a behavioral think-tank, a podcast, a professional development movement, helped organizations that support people with Intellectual Disabilities, to list a few. Currently, he leads product development and distribution for High Sierra Industries as a Learning Systems Development Specialist. Ryan focused outside this role on building a community of thought leaders and doers to create content that increases the transparency of behavior analytic technologies with the hopes of creating a platform that truly saves the world. Other interests are all over, from artificial intelligence and machine learning applications to the theory and philosophy behind Why We Do What We Do (wwdwwdpodcast.com). In my spare time you can find me consuming social media, prepping/climbing a giant mountain, or walking around with my camera in my hand (and, occasionally, all simultaneously). You can connect with he personally on most all social platforms via @TheDailyBA and let him know what drives you to pursue the Behavior Analysis vision.

Episode from The DailyBA

Terry Ryan: Legacy Canine – Stories from chicken training camps …

August 28, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 7 Comments

CLICK HERE to read the podcast draft

Terry Ryan Bio

Terry has been coaching people to train their dogs since 1966. She trained her own dogs for various performance events and was an AKC obedience trial judge for many years. She built and operated a large training complex in Washington State. Legacy Canine Behavior & Training, Inc. promotes humane and effective dog training techniques for a variety of pet, working dog, and competitive applications. Terry maintains a busy national and international workshop schedule. Most frequently teaching instructor’s courses, chicken training workshops, and training games events. Terry is a faculty member of the Karen Pryor Academy, teaching several classes a year in the USA and overseas and she is on the staff of Clicker Expo.

You can email Terry at terry@legacycanine.com

Example of some behaviors from a Chicken training camp

Cognitive enrichment and R+ training for birds of prey [A video blog]

August 27, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 7 Comments

I know it’s not a parrot! ?

On the 10^th March 2017, I shared this video on Facebook, with the wider falconry and animal training community. This is Jess, a nervous female Harris Hawk whom I had been working with closely. Jess, like all birds of prey, is very intelligent but we were having issues with neo-phobia (fear of new things and objects) when out flying and during public demonstrations. I decided to explore the idea that enrichment and training may help her overcome some of this fear…. and it worked! This video though not only showcased Jess’s problem solving and memory skills (this was the first time she had seen this puzzle again for 6 months) but it also had wider implications for me. Amongst the many positive messages, I also received a backlash from, shall we say, more traditional members of the falconry community. This including informing me that Jess was not a parrot, which I knew, and that I should stop messing around with her and fly her properly, which I already did!

This got me thinking, are we really so set in our ways that certain groups of animals get left out of enrichment and +R training? After a bit of digging, I discovered that there were very few resources and articles regarding birds of prey specifically so I would have to come up with my own ideas and training plans, this blog details some of the results…

So the first thing I looked into was the concept of cognitive enrichment, I found two definitions that helped me a lot:

Enrichment: “an animal husbandry principal that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological wellbeing”

page 1. Shepherdson, D. J. (1998). Tracing the path of environmental enrichment in zoos. In: D. J. Shepherdson, J. D. Mellen, & M. Hutchins (Eds), Second nature: Environmental enrichment for captive animals (pp. 1-14). Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.

Cognitive enrichment: (1) engages evolved cognitive skills by providing opportunities to solve problems and control some aspect of the environment, and (2) is correlated to one or more validated measures of well being”

page 6. Clark, F. E. (2011) Great ape cognition and captive care: Can cognitive challenges enhance wellbeing.? Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 135,1-12.

Although we tend to categorize enrichment into various forms such as environmental, food, social etc it seems that cognitive enrichment can span a few different categories and all animals use their brains in all situations. I decided to focus on two main areas with my birds, environmental and training.

Environmental components for cognitive enrichment

One of the main points that stands out in Clark’s definition above is the idea of control, we are all getting quite on board with the idea of control during training but what about in the animal’s normal environment. Birds of prey in particular often have very little control over their aviary space, with many hawks and falcons being tethered. Tethering does have its place in husbandry but I am not going to get into a debate about that as it is a vast subject for discussion… maybe for another blog. Anyway, I made the decision early on in my business that all of my birds would be what we term free lofted, that is in an aviary without tethering so they are free to move around different perches.

This is where the element of control comes in, if all the perches in the aviary are made of the same thing and behave in the same way, as in are fixed, then although it looks like there is an element of choice this can be increased by changing the perching design. We use many different perches: swings, rope, branches, astroturf, logs, bungees covered in astroturf and platforms or shelves. We have also designed a unique perching bracket system (see video below) that allows us to change elements in the bird’s aviaries very quickly keeping the environment flexible and stopping the birds developing repetitive flight paths, a massive problem for birds in aviaries.

The other elements we can control in the aviaries is the addition of sand baths, water baths, showers, tunnels, and plants. These static objects may seem like small additions but they can help encourage natural behavior and foraging. Sand baths are great for adding live insects such as mealworms and locusts too, our small owls love chasing them around and digging through the substrate for them… in fact, our larger birds do as well. Watching a long-legged Harris hawk run after a locust is very enriching for us to watch too!

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.

Food presentation

For birds of prey one of the main reinforcers in their life is food, in fact, with some, I get the impression that I merely exist to them in order to bring them their dinner. Food presentation can be a great way to get a greedy bird to slow down and think things through a bit, as well as a great learning opportunity to explore new objects and problem-solving behavior, such as seen with Jess in the first video.

Our common buzzard, Elki also enjoys a forage box, with newspaper twists with bits of food in, and sticks and leaves. Once he has destroyed the box completely and got every bit of food out, which normally takes him up to an hour to do, he will then carry around the torn paper and sticks and ‘play’ with them for several hours afterward. This is one of his favorite enrichment items and he seems to get very excited when I bring the box over, more so than just his food straight on to a shelf as normal. This is also a wonderful demonstration of contrafreeloading, the theory that when given the choice, an animal seems to prefer to earn its food rather than be handed it on a plate. I have come across this so much whilst working with my birds and it is a lovely thing to see. Elki will ignore food he has already removed from the box in favor of finding more pieces still in the paper and sticks.

Another ‘puzzle’ feeder idea that we made was a meal worm dispenser over a sand bath, this worked very well for Kit, our African Spotted Eagle owl. Kit, bless his soul, is not the most active owl shall we say, and also has a habit of wolfing down his food and then stomping round his aviary complaining that every one else is still eating so why isn’t he! The aim of the meal worm feeder was to keep him mentally and physically active for longer in his aviary. We made it out of his normal tyre sand bath with a piece of plastic piping in a loop over it, and attached a reptile meal worm dispenser that you can buy at the pet shop. It worked really well and he did work out eventually that if he landed on the pipe it would dislodge the meal worms quicker so we have now added a perch to the top of the pipe.

Positive reinforcement training as an enrichment tool

It is a much-debated topic in the animal keeping industry as to whether training can be classed as enrichment or not. I personally believe it definitely does and, in a way, can be one of the most enriching things we can do with our animals. Training allows them to experience more freedom, choice and control in many situations, and in the case of our birds ultimately leads to free flight. Flying is arguably one of the most enriching activities a bird can do. At The Feathery Folk we have tried to take this one step further. We always try to use +R training with our birds and in its essence traditional falconry is the original +R. Without trust and reward our birds will not fly for us and those principles underpin everything we do. We have tried to adapt slightly though and we are working on a lot of husbandry training at the moment. Most of our birds will now sit on a glove to have their beaks and talons trimmed, with little or no restraint. This is a massive step as beak trims generally mean full restraint wrapped in a towel which is stressful for everyone involved so I am very glad that we have managed to almost completely phase this out now.

I am currently working with Boo, the Striped Owl, with the aim to be able to do a full unrestrained equipment change. He is still learning his bridge, ‘good’, and is not the most patient or still owl to work with so you can see from the video below that we have a little way to go. He does seems to love these training sessions and I have noticed a massive improvement in his all-round demeanour. He is more relaxed in his aviary and seems to be a lot less unnerved when we go in with new equipment or tools now.

The last point I would like to touch on is species-specific training. I have a collection of 14 birds of prey, consisting of 13 different species from a Little Owl to a Harris Hawk, so we have a lot of different natural skills there. We try to find each individual species niche and to find a behaviour that may be unique to them. This gives us a great training opportunity and really get our brains, and theirs, working overtime trying to work on this new behavior. All our birds are trained to various generic hand signals and commands such as a whistle recall and wait. We then work on their unique talents, Kit our African Spotted Eagle owl for example loves to run around on the floor. This is natural for him as they are a ground-nesting species and will forage amongst the grass. Since we built this into a specific behavior he has really come out of his shell in demonstrations and keeps the audience amused by legging it around the arena looking for little pieces of food we have scattered. It is also an excellent educational talking point, so not only enriching for him but also the public.

My proudest training moment however has been with Pippin, our 1 year old Common Barn Owl. Pippin has surpassed all my expectations so far and I am so excited to see how far I can go with her. To date she knows 4 different commands and hand signals, one of which is ‘up’ for a hover behaviour. Hovering is very hard work for a bird and barn owls will do it for just a few seconds allow themselves to pinpoint their prey accurately. It was a staged process with Pippin involving a lot of shaping but she picked it up so quickly and as you can see in the video below she is pretty good at it now!

I hope I have enlightened you a little on the possibilities for enrichment for birds of prey, but also I hope that I can encourage everyone to not think of the supposed restrictions of the taxa you are working with. Owls are generally thought of within the falconry world as being a little bit slow and stupid, and certainly not something worthy of spending time enriching. I, however, think that they are vastly underrated and are far from bird-brained! In fact, having worked with them now for 10 years I feel we should reclaim that insult and we should be proud to call ourselves bird-brained, I know I am.

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 Libby Cooper

Libby has always had a love of birds and owned two Senegal parrots in her teens, one of which, called Stoney, had a lot of behavioral issues due to being caged continually without any toys or interaction. Helping Stoney sparked an interest in +R training and enrichment for birds. Libby has been working with birds of prey for about 10 years after undertaking a falconry apprenticeship alongside studying Animal Management at Reaseheath College.

Libby set up The Feathery Folk as her own business nearly 4 years ago. Having always been interested in training and enrichment Libby was keen to incorporate this into the husbandry of her birds, even in a commercial setting. In 2016 she gave her first presentation on the subject of enrichment for birds of prey at the Abwak (Association of British and Irish Wild Animal Keepers) Symposium at Folly Farm in South Wales. It was very well received and on the back of this, the Bird of Prey Enrichment Facebook Group was set up. This now has over 1000 members from all over the world and has been a great platform for sharing ideas. Since then she has given presentations on this subject for other organizations including The Female Falconers Club.

Libby is very proud of The Feathery Folk teams’ husbandry and training practices and they have even designed and pioneered a new changeable bracket perching system that has even been used by London Zoo.

If you would like to follow The Feathery Folk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFeatheryFolk/
Website: www.thefeatheryfolk.co.uk

Grisha Stewart – Behaviour adjustment training 2.0…

August 21, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Grisha Stewart Bio

Grisha Stewart, MA, CPDT-KA is an author, international speaker, and dog trainer who specializes in dog reactivity. She runs Empowered Animals, LLC, and the online Animal Building Blocks Academy from Deadwood, Oregon. She founded and ran Ahimsa Dog Training in Seattle for 13 years, earning many awards, including Best of Western Washington. “Ahimsa” is a Buddhist doctrine of nonviolence to all living things, which reflects Grisha’s focus on empowerment to promote the well being of dogs and their humans.

Her latest book, “Behavior Adjustment Training 2.0: New Practical Techniques for Fear, Frustration, and Aggression,” was published by Dogwise in early 2016. Her popular second book, “The Official Ahimsa Dog Training Manual: A Practical, Force-Free Guide to Problem Solving & Manners,” was published in 2012 and updated in 2014. Her popular BAT 2.0 DVD series about empowered socialization and training, was released in 2014.

Grisha has a master’s degree in mathematics and graduate work in animal behavior. She is an enthusiastic and entertaining presenter who creates her seminars to accommodate a variety of learning styles.

LINKS:

Web: http://grishastewart.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/grisha.stewart
YouTube: http://youtube.com/grishastewart1
Twitter: http://twitter.com/grishastewart
Instagram: http://instagram.com/grishastewart
CLICK HERE to learn more about and purchase Girsha’s BAT 2.0 Book.

Additionally, Animal Training Academy members can get 20% of Grisha’s BAT 2.0 Book, Ahimsa Dog Training Manual & BAT 2.0 Empowered Animals DVD series… To get access to this special deal and lots of other incredible membership features check out what’s on offer via an ATA membership below!

https://animaltrainingacademy.com/membership-2018/

VIDEOS:

Behavior adjustment training 2.0 video

The behavior adjustment training song

Sarah Owings. “Embracing Brave Learning / Let’s Make Stimulus Control Sexy Again!”

August 14, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Sarah Owings Bio

Sarah Owings is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner. She specializes in the practical application of behavioral principles to help transform the lives of fearful, shut down, and over-the-top dogs. As the owner of Bridges Dog Training, an international speaker, and regular contributor to online training forums, she is known for her innovative approaches to tough behavior problems and her compassionate and insightful teaching. She has written for Clean Run Magazine on topics such as stimulus control, release cues, and toy-related cues, and serves as faculty at ClickerExpo, an instructor for Karen Pryor Academy, and an advisor to the Glendale Humane Society in Los Angeles. She is also an avid nose work competitor, currently competing at the Elite level with her dog, Tucker. She recently moved from Los Angeles to San Rafael, CA with her two dogs, two geriatric rabbits, and her husband Fred.

Videos

It’s Not a Character Flaw! It’s the ABC’s!

Leave it vs. “Food as Cue”

Annette Pedersen – Animal Training Coordinator at Copenhagen Zoo … “Guinea pigs were not meant to fly”

August 7, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast writeup

Annette Pederson Bio

Annette started her 4-year education as a Zookeeper in 1988 & in 1989 she was hired as a trainee at Copenhagen Zoo where she completed the practical part of her education. During this time, Annette got the opportunity to work with all kinds of species in the Zoo.

When Annette finished her education in 1992, she then got a position at the marine mammal section working with Harbour Seals and California Sea lions and additionally alongside animals like penguins, Malayan tapirs and babirusa … to name a few.

From 1993-2008 Annette attended all seminars, courses, and conferences regarding training that she could possibly find and/or get financial support for. Including a field trip in 1998 to the US visiting Brookfield Zoo, Shedd Aquarium, and Sea World Orlando. That trip changed Annette’s life!

In 2008 Annette moved to the Elephant section working with Elephants that had just moved from free contact into PC. At the same time, she got the position as Husbandry Training Coordinator.

Since 2008 Annette’s job has been to develop slash expand the training skills of the keepers at Copenhagen Zoo, as well as daily problem solving and behavior management with a variety of species and challenges.

Since 2009 she has additionally helped develop the Danish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (DAZA) animal training course and serves on the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) as Chair for the Animal Training Working Group and a member of the Animal Welfare Working group. Annette is also an instructor for the EAZA animal training courses under the EAZA Academy.

Further commitments include serving on the board of the Animal Behavior Management Alliance (ABMA) between 2014-2016 & today representing ABMA as an EU liaison working towards other European ABMA conference in 2020!

Videos

Horse Teeter-totter as mentioned in the podcast

Mouse deer & go-pro as mentioned in the podcast

Michael Shikashio – Complete Canine: Aggressive dogs

July 31, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Michael Shikashio

Michael Shikashio, CDBC, is the past president of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and provides private consultations working exclusively with dog aggression cases through his business Complete Canines LLC. Michael is fully certified through the IAABC and is a full member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers (APDT). He also offers mentoring and training to other professionals.

Michael is sought after for his expert opinion by numerous media outlets, including the New York Times, New York Post, Baltimore Sun, WebMD, Women’s Health Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, The Chronicle of the Dog, and Steve Dale’s Pet World.

He is a featured speaker on the topic of canine aggression at conferences and seminars around the world, and he currently teaches “Aggression Cases: A to Z” through The Dog Trainers Connection and the “Aggression in Dogs Mentorship” through the IAABC.

Muzzle training video

Dr. Chris Pachel – Animal Behaviour Clinic; “It’s like learning a new language”

July 24, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr. Chris Pachel

Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB received his veterinary degree from the University of MN in 2002 and became board certified by the ACVB in 2010. He previously operated a house-call behavior practice in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and is now the owner and lead clinician at the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, OR. Dr. Pachel lectures regularly throughout the US and Canada has taught courses at the University of MN and at the Virginia Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, and has authored several articles and book chapters on topics such as “interact aggression” and “pet selection for animal-assisted therapy”.

Open Mouth behavior – A video case study. By ATA member, Sarah Ripley.

July 16, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 8 Comments

Behaviors You Wish You’d Never Started – Open Wide, The Saga….

Have you ever started teaching a new behavior and then wished you hadn’t? Have you ever done this having painted yourself into a corner by publicly declaring your intentions? That’s even more fun. A few months ago, I made that very mistake by publicly announcing I was going to teach my dog, Breezy (AKA Pooh), to open his mouth for tooth exams. This is the story of a somewhat rocky journey…

First, get the behavior:

Easy! Dogs open their mouths all the time, right? How hard can it be to capture, lure or shape it? For some, very easy. For us? Not so much.

Method 01 – target upper and lower jaw.

This was my first choice. On the face of it, using targets seemed like a no-brainer. It is a very common way to teach a dog to open its mouth. Almost every video of dogs I’ve seen used this method. Pooh understands nose and chin targets. In fact, he has a very strong sustained nose target – a full minute when timed. However, for a dog with such a strong sustained nose touch, it proved useless.

After many sessions of trying all I had was…. variations on a sustained target. He WOULD NOT MOVE! We could get a lovely chin rest. We had perfect, rock solid tooth targeting. Nose to hand, any position, no problem. Unfortunately, they all resulted in perfect stillness – except the eyes. He would roll his eyes as if to say ‘well, come on! Click already!”.

Result? Fail.

Method 02 – open mouth around a large object.

I’m led to believe that this is a common method used by zoo trainers. The large target is presented and the animal is clicked for opening their mouth in anticipation of grabbing at it. Maybe this works well because the animal doesn’t actually have to carry the item? I don’t know, but for us I still couldn’t get any indication that Pooh was opening his mouth for any reason other than to grab/target the object. There was very little anticipatory opening – either my timing really sucks or he was just incredibly quick and focused on the end result; he is, after all, a highly trained competition obedience dog – trained to retrieve just about anything. Present an object? He’s thinking of carrying it. Back to the drawing board.

Result? Fail.

Method 03 – open for a spoon or treat.

Another tried and tested method by the zoo community. This time the animal is clicked for opening its mouth in anticipation of the food reward. This sort of worked, maybe. However, a bit too much learning history of manners and impulse control made this a little confusing and somewhat stressful. It felt like I was teasing him. Once the penny dropped that he was ‘doing something’ that made the click happen, he started offering previously learned behaviors such as eye contact and lick-your-nose. We both got frustrated. Oh well. Another idea bites the dust.

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.

Result? Fail.

Method 04 – toss and catch.

After posting a few snippets of our struggles, someone suggested capturing the mouth open from tossing treats. This was great fun, improved my food throwing and Pooh’s catching no end but didn’t further our quest much. Again, timing was an issue and Pooh is not a dog to stand around with his mouth open hoping your aim is good. LOL

Result? Fail.

Method 05 – physical prompt.

By this point, I’d been struggling for weeks and I’d nearly given up. However, I am nothing if not stubborn! Re-watching a few of the earlier videos I saw something I’d missed the first times I’d viewed them: Pooh opened his mouth in anticipation when I stuck my thumb out. There were a few times I’d been trying to place my thumb on his upper lip and missed, it had gone in his mouth which he’d obligingly opened for it – and I’d clicked it. This was not intentional but hey, who cares! I could use it.

After some work we got to the stage where I’d present my thumb, he would offer a ‘top jaw target’ (usually resting his front incisors on my thumb) and stay there with his mouth a little bit open. We were back to the duration ‘freeze in place’ problem. Ok. I bit the bullet and decided to try a physical prompt to see if I could get that bottom jaw to move even slightly. I really didn’t want this to be aversive so I was very cautious about how I introduced it. A very light touch with my other hand, while maintaining the ‘thumb target’ saw his lower jaw move. YES!!!! The process was:

‘Present thumb’ – rest top incisors on thumb – ‘physical prompt’ – open mouth – mark/reinforce.

I was hoping that by linking everything into a very predictable tight sequence the ‘present thumb’ cue would eventually cue the whole lot and I’d be able to drop the physical prompt. We stayed at this point for quite some time. Repeatedly I tried to fade the prompt. Repeatedly he told me that without it he was fixed in place. Targets mean duration.

I was too close to give up now!

One of the things we as dog trainers are repeatedly told is ‘avoid unnecessary frustration’. Good advice and something I try my best to do in my training. However, for this, I decided that maybe a bit of frustration would be my friend. What happens when you get frustration? Usually, the animal offers something else. I decided to see if Pooh had been noticing what he was doing every time I’d touched his lower teeth.

I gave my thumb target cue – he gave me a lovely thumb/tooth rest. I waited. He rolled his eyes. I waited longer. He started adding sound effects. At this point, I was almost ready to bail. He lowered his bottom jaw. Click – PARTY!!!

You will never believe how much patience that bit took. It felt horrible!!

A few weeks of shaping that initial move and I had almost what I wanted – a cue and a distinct ‘open mouth’ behavior.

Time to add back some duration. Pooh understands ‘wait’ to mean freeze in place. Because it was positively trained I don’t find it adds stress or conflict so I’m happy to use it to ‘explain’ a task to him. So, by cuing ‘wait’ instead of clicking at the widest point of the open mouth, I quickly got ‘open and stay open’. It was pretty easy to drop the verbal ‘wait’; it’s a process I’ve used a lot and he understands the game well so I continue to use it to ‘explain’ something to him as necessary.

It’s all very well to be able to ask a dog to open its mouth for you, however, it won’t be much use in real life if it’s not ‘proofed’ and the only person who can cue it is the owner. I’d like to be able to use this in a veterinary setting if possible. So, the steps we are working on now are adding context and generalising to other people. I am at the stage where I can shine a torch in his mouth, and peer about.

Next, I will see if I can lift lips or touch teeth with a pen. This might take a while but we’re on more solid ground here because Pooh has already worked through many, many behaviors where ‘weird stuff to be ignored’ has been added. He knows the game.

I have also had my husband start cuing the open mouth behavior. Pooh is less confident about this but it’s coming. The first time he asked, Pooh looked at him, looked at me, looked back at the hand signal and offered the tooth target behavior. The opening of the jaw took a couple more reps but we’re getting there nicely now.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if next time my vet wants to check his teeth I can tell him how to ask – and Pooh will be able to have his oral exam without any pressure or restraint! A goal definitely worth working for I think!

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 Sarah Ripley

Sarah originally hails from the UK but swapped hemispheres 15 years ago and now calls Dunedin (New Zealand) home. She is a self-confessed science geek and avidly devours the latest research and thoughts of the R+ training community. Sarah grew up surround by dogs and farm animals in the beautiful Sussex countryside, then moved on to working with horses before returning to formal education. Her degree in Animal Behaviour and Psychology channeled an early fascination with the natural world into a life-long love of learning.

Over the last 12 years, Sarah has been a strong advocate for R+ in Dog club training at all levels. Her personal training goals have focused on showing what R+ training can achieve in the Competition Obedience ring (an area renowned for less than kind training methods) making her border collie/husky, Pooh, up to Obedience Grand Champion in 2016. Since becoming a professional dog trainer she has focused full time on ways to better communicate the joys, benefits, and subtleties of reward-based training for pet owners and dog sport competitors. If you would like to find out more, she can be found on Facebook and online.

CLICK HERE to see Sarah’s business page on FaceBook

CLICK HERE to see Sarah’s website

Peta Clarke; Animal Training solutions – ABC’s & K9 Nose Work ….

July 10, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Peta Clarke Bio

Peta Clarke lives and breathes the animals she works with. With over twenty-five years’ experience working as a professional animal trainer in a variety of settings both in Australia and America, she has immersed herself during that time in the practical and theoretical application of reinforcement training in the care of literally thousands of animals. While all trainers have their favorite animals and even breeds, she urges us to step outside our comfort zone and work with as many different species as we can. Peta says only when you train animals that push you past your boundaries will you really continue to learn and grow as a trainer and more important than anything else really learn to trust the science.

Video mentioned in the podcast about Spaz’s behavior before going on stage during the Legally Blonde Roadshow

Video about the importance of choice

Linda Ryan – Inspiring pet Teaching; “Spreading animal training sparks…”

June 26, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline.

Linda Ryan – Bio

Linda qualified as a veterinary nurse in 2002 from general practice. She then worked at 2 world-leading university referral hospitals, obtaining the Diploma in Advanced Veterinary Nursing (Medical) in 2005; & in 2009, became a Veterinary Technician Specialist in Oncology, and a member of the Academy of Internal Medicine for Veterinary Technicians.

As well as her specialist interest in oncology, Linda also has interests in analgesia, clinical nutrition, medical nursing, behavioral health & welfare, maintenance of optimum quality of life in chronically ill patients & clinical teaching.

Linda’s interest in training & behavior evolved over her nursing career as she became more aware of its importance to patient’s needs in their veterinary care. In 2012, Linda became a graduate of the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behaviour, & she is now proud to be a faculty member at the Academy.

Linda has since gone on to further advance her training & education in animal training & behavior, & continue to study – having credentialed for the examination for the Veterinary Technician Specialist in Behavior in October; & she is about to embark on a top-up year for a degree in Animal Behaviour & Welfare this Autumn.

Linda owns & run Inspiring Pet Teaching, which is aimed at pet & owner training & education, as well as CPD provision – she frequently writes & present for the veterinary press & at CPD events for vets, vet nurses, training professionals & owners. Linda regularly collaborates to provide course content &/or teaching & reviewing for Karen Pryor Academy; International Cat Care, Fear Free; ONCOREepd; as well as many other continuing education providers, both locally, nationally, internationally, & online. The vet-trainer connections & patient-friendly veterinary practice is a passion which allows Linda to meld her veterinary nursing & behavior knowledge for the benefit of patients, staff & owners.

LINKS

CLICK HERE for Linda’s inspiring Pet Teaching website.

CLICK HERE to find Linda & Inspiring Pet Teaching on FaceBook

Cat training at the vet (Linda mentioned in the podcast).

Ninny the “unmanageable” cat mentioned in the episode

https://youtu.be/xF79ZR_pzZo

Animal Training Academy Blog

June 22, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

The home of this blog has now moved to our new website!

CLICK HERE to see all of our latest posts

⬆️ ⬆️ ⬆️

* 08th September 2021 – Two key functions of your clicker. By ATA Happiness Engineer; Anna Bartosik & Ryan Cartlidge

* 17th August 2021 – 5 ideas to overcome overwhelm (& stay focused on your animal training goals). By ATA Happiness Engineer; Anna Bartosik

* 10th July 2021 – Koala Training – A Video training diary. By ATA members Brittanie Beckett & Caitlin Ondracek

* 20th June 2021 – Top ten ATA podcast episodes of all time

* 11th May 2021 – Watch me train an open mouth behavior with my dog

* 30th March 2021 – How training animals can teach you about – Trust! ?

* 27th February 2021 – 3 HUGE changes @ Animal Training Academy in 2021. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 23rd January 2021 – ATA’s top 10 training videos of 2020

* 27th December 2020 – (Dog training); Pattern games with Jack & Jill ? – By Jill Hassevoort

* 28th November 2020 – How to add distractions to your trained behaviours (video examples) – By Ryan Cartlidge

* 30th October 2020 – Practicing your animal training mechanics… By Ryan Cartlidge

* 17th Oct 2020 – What’s your plan if your animal says NO? By Ryan Cartlidge

* 10th Oct 2020 – How to introduce dogs/animals (my 6 biggest lessons); By ATA member Shelly Wood

* 03rd October 2020 – How to over come your fear of (insert fear here) ?!? A behavioural approach; By ATA member Amanda Sjöland

* 11th September 2020 – 5 big objectives of a R+ certified parrot trainer (Videos) – By ATA member Lisa Longo

* 4th September 2020 – R+ training IS quality of life – By ATA members Tessa & Molly Herron

* 21st August 2020 – How to decide on your Animal Training logo/business name… By Ryan Cartlidge

* 12th August 2020 – A animal trainers survival guide (mental health in a pandemic). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 06 August 2020 – (Capturing behaviour) – scratch with all 4 paws … for nail care. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 24th July 2020 – 5 videos – Co-operative care (dogs & parrots), match 2 sample (penguins), R+ horse riding, & choice/control

* 10th July 202 – 3 big takeaways from my KPA certification journey… By Ryan Cartlidge

* 05th July 2020 – Do you film every (animal) training session you do? By Ryan Cartlidge

* 04th June 2020 – 10 ideas to help you train for duration – By Ryan Cartlidge

* 22nd May 2020 – How to build a strong trust account – By ATA members Carol & Odie Milner

* 16th May 2020 – Watch me train my dog to lie on her side, By Ryan Cartlidge

* 21st March 2020 – 10 reasons to join ATA whilst in self-isolation. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 29th February 2020 – Upgrade your animal training skills with this instant free co-trainer. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 14th February 2010 – 5 animal-training business lessons from Veronica Boutelle. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 22nd January 2020 – Behind the scenes; Exotic animal training – Consulting @ a wildlife sanctuary (#2). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 12th January 2020 – (Practical exercise) – Your 2020 animal training goals, Splitting not lumping. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 04th January 2020 – Top 5 Take-Aways from AZA’s Animal Welfare: Evidence Based Management Course – Written by ATA member Kaitlyn Wiktor

* 26th December 2019 – I pushed my friend of the sofa! Whoops … (managing guests & pets over the festive season). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 22nd November 2019 – 5 top takeaways from Steve White workshop. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 09th November 2019 – When our human learners aren’t on the same page. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 27th October 2019 – Top 10 animal training videos 2019. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 17th October 2019 – I have a confession to make! (and I feel really bad). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 10th October 2019 – Careful! This will give you goosebumps & teary-eyes! By Ryan Cartlidge

* 04th October 2019 – Crate training TIPS for your animal. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 20th September 2019 – Catio V 2.0, New ATA podcasts, blog posts, LIVE web-classes and more updates… By Ryan Cartlidge

* 12th September 2019 – My animal is not food motivated – AT ALL! (your 9-point motivational checklist). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 30th August 2019 – Does your animal training flow(chart)? By Ryan Cartlidge.

* 23rd August 2019 – Nice hat. Ugly face. Nice top – 2 essential skills for animal trainers (giving/receiving feedback & Self evaluation). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 15th August 2019 – What is your Animal Training Why? By Ryan Cartlidge

* 09th August 2019 – Do you lie down when you train? If not – you totally should! (Scent work training with Fibi-dog #2). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 18th July 2019 – Training a Lace Monitor Lizard at Moonlit Sanctuary, Melbourne Australia – A video case study. By ATA member, Hannah Wiggs.

* 13th July 2019 – The biggest failure of Animal Training Academy (so far) … By Ryan Cartlidge

* 29th June 2019 – Watch me scent train my dog (Fibi)! By Ryan Cartlidge

* 20th June 2019 – Why I am getting certified as a professional dog trainer. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 08th June 2019 – Dinner with Ken Ramirez (You’re invited). By Ryan Cartlidge

* 27th May 2019 – Behind the scenes! Exotic animal training – Consulting @ a wildlife sanctuary. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 18th May 2019 – 3 BIG UPDATES: NEW blog, Cat enclosure & Compassion fatigue podcast! By Ryan Cartlidge

* 8th May 2019 – Who is your favourite behavior nerd? By Ryan Cartlidge

* 5th May 2019 – Ur never ending animal project… (in pictures) ! Building our cat enclosure. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 27th April 2019 – Everyone has compassion fatigue & we need to talk about it! By Ryan Cartlidge

* 9th April 2019 – 5 take aways from Susan Friedman/Peta Carke workshops. By Ryan Cartlidge

* 10th January 2019 – Coping with challenging conversations online – By Ryan Cartlidge

* 23rd December 2018 – (Birds of prey video blog) – Breaking the habit: training your staff to work in a new way. A video case study. By ATA member Saskia Verbruggen.

* 31st August 2018 – Positive reinforcement & Enrichment with Birds of Prey – A video case study by. By ATA member, Libby Cooper.

* 19th July 2018 – Open Mouth behavior – A video case study. By ATA member, Sarah Ripley.

* 22nd June 2018 – Trailer loading horses – A video case study. By ATA member, Josefine Linderström.

Trailer loading horses – A video case study – By Josefine Linderström

June 13, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

I’m not a horse person. My aunt, however, is. She’s been kind enough to let me play some shaping games with her horses and open-minded enough to begin to shift towards a more reward-based frame of mind. One day she told me about a friend of hers, Ann, who couldn’t load her horse, and asked if it was possible to do with a clicker. My humble and articulate answer was along the lines of “well duh”.

She told Ann and before I knew it there I was, having to own up to what I’d said. How exciting! The plan was to teach her young horse Amour to go to a cone, and then place that cone further and further into the trailer. As weird as it seemed to a horse person it seemed perfectly straightforward to me. It worked beautifully, and Amour never seized to impress us with his wits and bravery!

The first step was to condition the clicker with food and then to teach the target behavior (touching his nose to a cone). He was a star, very quick to catch on and really enjoyed it. Ann was amazed how clever her horse was, and Amour learned a few things as well:

When I hear the click, good stuff happens.
When I don’t hear the click, nothing happens.
I make the click happen by doing things.

Amour has a choice: stand still and get nothing or go to the cone and get the good stuff. Conventional horse training based on negative reinforcement (“pressure/release”) gives the horse a different kind of choice: Stand still and feel pressure or move and experience relief. For a number of reasons that’s not my first-hand choice, though I’ll admit it usually works OK in terms of getting a calm horse to do what we want (as evident by seemingly the vast majority of the horse world using it). But it works badly, if at all when we need them to do a Scary Thing.

Want to learn more? CLICK HERE to listen to an ATA podcast on Positive Reinforcement horse training with Sylvia Czarnecki

Here’s the problem: If doing the Scary Thing is to provide a sense of relief, the pressure they get away from must be even more unpleasant. Are you scared of spiders? Imagine going “sigh, what a relief to have this tarantula on my face”. If you had a choice between having a tarantula on your face and something else, how bad would that other thing have to be for you to choose the tarantula?

Not only is this ethically questionable, there is also a risk of accidentally flipping it around and have it work against you. If the horse is successful at planting his feet or lunging to the side to avoid entering the trailer, he may think “whew, what a relief that she’s just pulling on the halter, I can do this all day as long as I don’t have to go into the trailer”. He’d then be negatively reinforced for avoiding the trailer. Whoops! This is one of the reasons we use a target instead: it’s a tool for giving direction without pressure.

Ann and Amour continued to play the cone game. A few times a week for around 5 minutes or so, they played it indoors, outside, Amour got to go around corners to find it, walk over different types of flooring, through doorways, find it at different heights. He adored this game and even did some Scary Things to win it, like walking on a wildly suspicious piece of the tarp (when Ann and I became distracted and started chatting he even grabbed it with his mouth and waved it around to get our attention, – “Hey! Why are you not clicking? I’m doing a thing, look at me!” Thanks, Amour for reminding us to be more focused!).

Eventually, we started setting up scenarios that resembled that of walking into a trailer, like the one in the video below. Side note: Next time I got there, Ann had taken the awesome initiative to teach a verbal back up cue instead of using pressure on the halter. It was so fun and easy with the clicker, so why not? What a team!

By now Amour clearly knows how to play this game and is OK with the “leveling up” we’ve been doing. It’s time to face the boss. In our first session with the trailer, Amour was OK putting his front hoofs on the ramp, but that was it. The back ones were firmly rooted into the ground, like two 100-year old oaks. This was as far as Ann had gotten without me, before clicker training, so getting him un-stuck would be a big deal. She had the patience of an angel and had been standing there for over an hour, trying to lure him on board with carrots. As much as I admire that, I certainly do not have that kind of patience. I expect progress.

I tried moving the cone further up the ramp to see if he would follow it, and he pawed at the ramp and snorted in frustration. No wonder, I had just made the game un-winnable for him! Not cool! This is what happens if we are in too big a hurry to raise the criteria, and this is often where we get frustrated. People call their animals stubborn, stupid, silly and give up on the training method.

Luckily the issue is not the personality of the animal, or flaws of reward-based training. The problem is simply a gap between the ability of the learner and the expectations of the teacher. And as opposed to the other commonly suggested diagnosis, this one is easy to fix. We can’t instantly change the ability of the learner, but we can change our expectations. Simply adjust the criteria! Fill that gap with more training steps! We gave Amour a bunch of easy wins on the ground away from the trailer to brighten his mood and sandwiched in a few repetitions of the ramp. He relaxed, and we were able to end the session on a good note.

I gave Ann some homework: Play the cone game, but switch up the rules a bit. Instead of clicking when Amour touched the cone, she was to click the moment a back hoof left the ground before he’d reached the cone. The idea was to give Amour more information about what we want from him, to reinforce movement, and to give him another way to win the game. If he didn’t feel comfortable going all the way to the cone, he could earn reinforcers by taking a step, or just lifting a back foot. A cheat code, if you will, to avoid both the frustration and growing roots. This allowed us to maintain a higher reinforcement rate. And remember that piece of board from the previous video? Another bit of homework was to click for putting his back hoofs on it. Did this work? Well…

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.

Wow! Not only does he put his back hoofs on the ramp. He goes above and beyond and goes almost all the way into the trailer. He even straightens himself up when he notices he’s coming on at an angle! The effort to keep his feet on the ground had turned into an effort to get his feet off the ground! He was far more relaxed than the last session and was curious about the inside of the trailer.

You may notice he is moving back and forth. He didn’t back away from the cone off cue before, why does he do it now? The thing is, he has a different kind of choice now that there is a Scary Thing involved: He can now choose between positive reinforcement (food, inside the trailer) or negative reinforcement (the relief of accessing the security outside). The learner decides what’s reinforcing. At any given time, they will do what’s most reinforcing to them. We want to reinforce them in the best way possible, and letting them choose their reinforcer is an easy way to do it. And though it may seem counterintuitive, we’ve got the Premack principle working in our favor: Likely behavior (backing out) reinforces unlikely behavior (going in).

Some convenient side effects are that he gets to practice backing out calmly and sets himself up for a new repetition as he does it, but most importantly it keeps him calm and happy. If we try to keep him inside with pressure or close behind him before he’s ready, we’d be punishing the behavior of going in and he’d be less likely to do it in the future. Not exactly what we’re going for here… So we click for forwards motion, allow backward motion, and make sure to avoid putting pressure on the halter. Of course, we want the clicks to outnumber the back-outs, otherwise, we’d be teaching the wrong thing and again get a frustrated learner.

The fact that he wants to back out is also valuable information and should not be taken lightly. It tells us how he feels about the trailer: As long as the trailer is a Scary Thing, avoiding it will be reinforcing. However, as he learns to associate the trailer with Good Stuff, it will stop being a Scary Thing and avoiding it will no longer be reinforcing. Pavlov is always on your shoulder. When he stops backing out off cue, we know he’s comfortable inside.

On our third session with the trailer, Amour walked all the way inside. And not only that, he also stayed inside and waited for his cue to back out. Ann’s smile says everything that needs to be said about that day:

Great! So are we done? He’s inside, that’s all there is to loading a horse, isn’t it? Well, he also needs to accept being stuck in there on his own. Would you be comfortable stepping into an elevator? Ok, let’s say you get locked inside, have no idea if/when you get to come out, and then the elevator starts moving around in different directions so you struggle to stay balanced. Still comfortable? There are many things he needs to cope with here:

Being stuck in a small space.
Being alone in there.
Staying balanced when the trailer is in motion.

So no, we are not done. We rely on the trailer being not just tolerable but reinforcing, to get him to go inside. If we rush things, we risk having to start over with a much more suspicious horse. So we played some more trailer games. Ann had certainly gotten a taste for clicker training by now, and they both really enjoy the sessions. So why not teach him to go in on his own?

Yeah… the trailer isn’t a Scary Thing anymore. He’s not worried about it. But we did have a couple of sessions where he was worried for other reasons. One time he had been sedated in the morning and I came by in the afternoon. Another time there was a lot of traffic, and he was restless and over-stimulated, so he was very busy looking at the tractors and machines driving by. And as spring came along suddenly there was delicious grass everywhere, which was much more appealing than the treats we used. These circumstances are far from ideal for learning. But as much as we want to set up our learner for success, we also want this behavior to be bombproof. It needs to work under less-than-ideal circumstances.

Raising one criterion means we need to temporarily relax other criteria. Those days he didn’t always go inside on his own, either because he wanted to keep an eye on the traffic, or because he’d rather eat grass. Ann complained a little about having to lead him into the trailer, and then interrupted herself saying “wow, I got so spoiled!” It’s so easy to fall into the perfectionist trap when you realize you can train anything, (personally I have severe hubris and do it all the time) but we need to strive for progress, not perfection. If the environment is overwhelming, it’s up to us to make the task easier that day. That’s not regression, it’s proofing. Besides, he always walked in and never got stuck to the ground again, so his new “worst” was a lot better than his old “best”.

We also worked on independence and duration by letting him stand inside alone and eat hay. Meanwhile Ann and I would hang out outside the trailer. Because we couldn’t see him it was difficult to guess what he was experiencing. So every now and again we’d take him out, and ask if he wanted to go back in. Had he hesitated, that’d be a sign to us that we’re asking a bit much. Had he not wanted to go in at all, that’d be a sign we are getting way ahead of ourselves. We seemed to be going on perfectly though since he always wanted to go straight back in. Good, that means he still finds it reinforcing!

Eventually, it was time for his first ride. As you can see in the video below, he was not comfortable at all. The ride was short and slow, but the roads were bumpy (as they are in the Swedish countryside). He struggles to stay balanced, snorts, the whites of his eyes are showing, there is tense, twitchy movement and very active ears, and at first, he doesn’t eat. After about a minute his movements slow down ever so slightly and he takes a bite. I believe if we had been on a straight, smooth road and been going for a longer ride, he would have eventually relaxed more. But that’s for another time.

When we got back home we did our little test that I described above: Will he go back in? And despite the very weird and somewhat scary thing that had just happened, he did! What a hero! That, to me, is a sign that the foundation training is robust, and that we have achieved trust. He’s had enough positive experiences with the trailer so that even if something strange or scary happens, the average experience is still a good one. Susan Friedman describes trust like a bank account: many little investments in the form of pleasant experiences, and you’ll survive some economic blows in the form of aversive experiences (CLICK HERE to listen to an ATA podcast episode with Dr. Susan Friedman). We’d built a good buffer throughout the training, so the struggle to stay balanced wasn’t enough to deter him from going back into the trailer. After this, we did only one more session, where we drove him to a different place, went for a walk, loaded him again and then went home. Still, no hesitation to go inside. I trust Ann and Amour to work out the rest on their own.

This was a wonderful learning experience for all three of us. Amour learned to go into a trailer, a crucial life skill for a horse. Ann learned about reward-based horse training, and she is hooked. And I learned so much from them both! If I were to do this again, there are some things I’d change based on the things I’ve learned (I’d try to split the steps between standing in the trailer and going for a ride more, among other things). And through this whole experience, the ATA community answered my questions and cheered me on, so thank you guys for being awesome.

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 Josefin Linderström

Josefin is a Swedish animal lover and dog trainer. She is generally curious about how things work, and that curiosity has always been directed to animals. In her efforts to learn to understand her own two dogs, she became a professional trainer. Other than training dogs, she administrates a couple of FB-groups for reward based training, runs an R+ book club and shares tips and videos on her own social media, always with the goal to inspire fun in peoples lives and empower owners to feel confident using reward based methods. In the last year, she’s tried her hand at training some other animals as well, including bunnies, horses, and chicken. Josefin can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and youtube as Djurpedagogen.

CLICK HERE to find Josefine on Instagram

CLICK HERE to find Josefin on YouTube

CLICK HERE to see more from Josefin Linderström right here at Animal Training Academy

Laura Monaco Torelli – The making of a memorable mentor…

June 12, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline.

Laura Monaco Torelli Bio

Laura Monaco Torelli is the founder of Animal Behavior Training Concepts in Chicago, Illinois. She began her career in 1991 at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, where she trained beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, seals, river otters, and penguins. She has also worked at the San Diego Zoo and then Brookfield Zoo as a lead supervisory trainer. During her time in the zoo community, Laura worked with a wide variety of terrestrial animals, including primates, large cats, birds of prey, horses, parrots, tree kangaroos, giraffes, red pandas, and dogs. Laura now serves as a faculty member of Karen Pryor Academy, and as a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Susan Friedman’s Living & Learning with Animals online course. She and her team at Animal Behavior Training Concepts offer private in-home training as well as group classes at Medical District Veterinary Clinic, an extension of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine.

Hop over to Hannah – (Listen to Laura’s Podcast on Hannah Branigan’s Drinking from the toilet podcast show).
CLICK HERE to book your FREE 20-minute video call consultation with Ryan Cartlidge (as mentioned in the podcast)
Leap over to Laura (Read Laura’s new blog on “The making of a memorable mentor“)
- Laura’s new blog about memorable mentors goes live tomorrow! Check back in soon… In the meantime check out the rest of her Blog HERE
CLICK HERE to visit Laura’s website; Animal Behaviour Training Concepts

Videos

Laura and Santino TV appearance.

Chin rest & Voluntary blood draw

Chin rest, ear care & voluntary injection

Susan Schneider – The Science of Consequences …

May 29, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Susan Schneider Bio

Susan M. Schneider, Ph.D., is a learning researcher, biopsychologist and clicker trainer to her pet rats and budgies. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of the Pacific in California and originally obtained her graduate education from Brown University and the University of Kansas in behavior analysis. Susan additionally spent over a year in New Zealand as a visiting Research Fellow at the University of Auckland. Susan’s 25 years of research and teaching have produced numerous scientific publications, including pioneering work on generalization and choice.

Susan’s award-winning book for the public, The Science of Consequences: How They Affect Genes, Change the Brain, and Impact Our World, describes fundamental learning principles, their role in the larger realm of nature-nurture, and their many applications–including the benefits of positive reinforcement-based animal training. She has keynoted Clicker Expo, WOOF! and the Art and Science of Animal Training conferences as part of 100 book tour events across the US and Europe. The book received advance praise from experts in genetics, neuroscience, and economics, as well as in psychology and animal training. Its worldwide recognition additionally includes coverage in the top scientific journal Nature.

Sylvia Czarnecki – Motionclick: “A mistake is just information …” R+ horse training.

May 15, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Sylvia Czarnecki Bio

Sylvia is a professional positive reinforcement-based Horse Trainer from Germany, working closely with both horses and their trainers via her business Motionclick, since 2011. She has written two books the first being specifically about trick behavior training and the second all about using positive reinforcement with equines. Sylvia delivers clinics, lectures, and lessons on force-free horse training, psychology, and learning theory. She also runs an online membership program for people who want to dive deeper into these subjects. Sylvia is a certified member of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and the Pet Professional Guild (PPG).

Her passion is to help horses and their owners, develop a trust-based, force-free partnership, rooted in modern and science-based learning. Following the guidelines of “Effectiveness is not enough”, Sylvia starts her programs considering the horse’s emotions and uses this to help guide and create a stress-free and non-coercive training atmosphere with the aim of creating the most positive learning experience for both – horse and human.

VIDEO – Choice & Control

Denise Fenzi – Fenzi dog sports academy; “Stay in the happy bucket”

May 1, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Denise Fenzi – Bio

Denise has competed in a wide range of dog sports – titling dogs in obedience, tracking, IPO, mondio ring, herding, conformation, and agility (AKC). She is best known for her flashy and precise obedience work and perfect scores in both IPO and mondio ring sport obedience.

While a successful competitor, Denise’s real passion lies in training dogs and solving the problems that her own dogs and her student’s dogs present. She is a recognized expert in developing drive, motivation, and focus on competition dogs, and is known internationally as an engaging speaker and an expert in no force training for sport dogs. She has consistently demonstrated the ability to train and compete with dogs using motivational methods in sports where compulsion is the norm.

In addition to training and speaking, Denise is a prolific writer. You can find her at www.denisefenzi.com where she maintains an active blog on all things related to dog training and you can also follow her as an active writer on Facebook. Denise and Deb Jones have recently finished a four-book series, “Dog Sports Skills” which has received widespread acclaim in the dog sports community. In addition, she has written additional books on her own, including “Train the Dog in Front of You”, “Beyond the Back Yard; Train Your Dog to Listen Anytime, Anywhere!” and, for the younger audience, “Blogger Dog, Brito!” Several of these books have won Maxwell awards for Best Training and Behavior book from the Dog Writers of America.

Denise thoughtfully and persistently works to break down the barriers that prevent people from obtaining a truly interactive and mutually enjoyable sport relationship with their dogs. Fenzi Academy is the culmination of her efforts as a forward step in providing progressive information to any trainer who wishes to learn.

VIDEO – Denise and Brito working on “TEAM3” (As mentioned in the podcast)

Sam Turner – Proprioception “Too good, not to use for all the dogs…”

April 17, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the same Podcast outline.

Sam Turner Bio

Sam studied Ethology at the Agricultural University of Holland… where she received her Master’s of Science (MSc) degree in 1998. From there she specialized in dog behavior and training. In 2006 she founded her own dog training facility Paws4Fun. Always wanting to continue learning and teaching she is always in search for more information by attending conferences and seminars.In 2012 she developed Proprioception training for dogs in The Netherlands. This has resulted in a puppy, adolescent and senior programme in the form of workshops and courses.

Teaching is a passion for Sam and in 2013 she started an instructors course on Proprioception training as well as an online learning environment (Clicker Training Academy). The latter is not active at the moment but there will be more online learning coming. She gives lectures and workshops for professionals in the pet and sports dog industry on the subjects of clicker training, puppy development, adolescents and proprioception training in different countries (Scotland, England, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, France, The Netherlands and Australia). In June 2016 she was a speaker at the IMDT (Institute for Modern Dog Trainers) conference for dog trainers and dog behaviorist’s and she has just returned from the Animal Training Symposium in Perth, Australia where she was a speaker.

In October 2017 her fourth of a series of books was published in The Netherlands. The series title is ‘Your dog physically and mentally in balance’ focusing on different developmental stages in dogs (pup, adolescent, adult/senior) and the fourth book is about the dog as athletes. Additionally, Sam has written several articles on dog behavior and clicker training for the Dutch website doggo.nl and has published an article in the Spring 2017 issue of the APDT quarterly magazine The Chronicle of The Dog.

There will be more books to look forward to as well as Sam has started writing about puppy and adolescent development as well as proprioception training in English.

Liked this podcast? Check out the three previous podcast episodes from Animal Training Academy

Veronica Boutelle – dogbiz; “Give yourself the gift of doing what you love for a living”

April 3, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

Click Here for the podcast outline

Veronica Boutelle Bio

Veronica is the founder of dog biz, the dog pro industry’s leading business consultancy, through which she has been helping dog trainers help dogs since 2003. She is the author of How to Run a Dog Business: Putting Your Career Where Your Heart Is and The Business of Dog Walking: How To Make a Living Doing What You Love, and the co-author of Minding Your Dog Business: A Practical Guide to Business Success for Dog Professionals, and writes on business topics for many dog training industry journals. Veronica is a sought-after speaker at conferences and dog training schools across the US and internationally. She has recently spoken to positive reinforcement trainers at conferences and seminars in countries as diverse as Chile, Spain, New Zealand, the UK, and here in Australia, including last year’s APDT and Delta Conferences. As former Director of Behavior & Training at the San Francisco SPCA, and as a dog training business owner before that, Veronica understands what it means to be a dog trainer first hand—the daily worries about everything from client compliance to financial security, the unique challenges of a “flexible” schedule that requires evenings and weekends, and the struggle to balance clients and training with the minutiae of running a business—and to balance all of that with a rich non-work life. Her background as a trainer, her business expertise, and her work as an educator put Veronica in a unique position to help professional dog trainers learn to become as skilled in business as they are as trainers—and that means more dogs’ lives touched by positive training.

Liked this podcast? Check out the three previous dog related podcast episodes from ATA

Carrie Kish – Reptelligence; Ectotherm and snake training/enrichment

March 20, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Carrie Kish Bio

Carrie Kish is an avid herpetologist, and animal trainer with a 15-year career in professional dog training, working primarily with dangerous dogs and dogs with fear and anxiety disorders. In 2012, while working for San Diego Zoo Global, Carrie founded Reptelligence with her co-worker and good friend Alex Konold, with the intention of exploring and showcasing the cognition abilities of reptiles and amphibians. Since that time, the Facebook page Reptelligence: Enrichment, Training, and Education has gained an international following including pet owners, veterinarians, zoo curators, professional animal keepers and trainers of all species. Carrie has worked closely with a variety of species from rhinos to roaches, parrots to porcupines, cheetahs to kestrels, and Tuataras to Tarantulas. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Biola University and is working towards a Master’s degree in Ethology at the Ethology Institute, University of Cambridge.

Liked this podcast? Check out the three previous podcast episodes from ATA

LIVE snake training web-class ?

23rd March 7:30 am, 2018 (New Zealand time). CLICK HERE to convert to your time zone.
Also, if you like this then you will love the next LIVE ATA members only web-class we have scheduled featuring Carrie Kish on Snake Training!

This web-class is all about giving reptiles/ectotherms and snakes choice and control when we work with them. The web-class will look at

Animal well-being, educating others and current research.
Overview of traditional training and management techniques
The role of habitat and enrichment
Overview of challenges faced when training reptiles.
Signs of stress and body language in snake
Overview of reinforcers we can use for reptiles
5 step guide to training your snake
What’s next? Moving forward.

Events are for ATA paying members only. We don’t want you to miss out though, so we’re giving you the chance to join for just $1! You can access your exclusive $1 ten-day membership trial below!

https://animaltrainingacademy.com/march-2018/

Jim Mackie – Animal Training and behavior officer, Zoological society of London.

March 6, 2018 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

Jim Mackie Bio

Jim was appointed The Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL)’s first Animal Training and Behaviour Officer in 2012 having previously demonstrated the value of trained behaviors to improve husbandry and welfare in the zoo’s living collections.

Jim’s interest in animal behavior began when he trained his own raptors for educational demonstrations 25 years ago. This led to an opportunity to join ZSL’s Animal display department where he worked for ten years developing the zoo’s visitor education programme. Jim soon realized that the techniques associated with training animals for demonstrations could be transferred to all the animals in the zoo…

Jim’s passion for sharing information in the field of operant learning and behavioral enrichment led to the formation of ZSL’s Behaviour Management Committees, at both London and Whipsnade Zoo and later the BIAZA British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria (BIAZA) Animal Behaviour and Training Working Group which he chairs. In this capacity Jim is now working with the Animal Behaviour and Training Council, to create a formalized education and accreditation programme for animal trainers in zoos and aquaria. Jim is also a member of the EAZA (European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) Training Group and is an EAZA Academy Instructor. In 2015 ZSL was the recipient of a BIAZA gold award in the welfare category for its work in establishing a coherent, collection wide animal training programme for veterinary and husbandry care.

At present at London Zoo alone there are around a hundred species of mammal’s bird’s reptiles and fish participating in training programmes for husbandry across all animal departments and the number of species involved and the variety of behaviors being trained is constantly growing.

VIDEO – Lion behavior management (as talked about in the podcast)

In this podcast episode Jim mentioned the names of some of ATA’s previous podcast guests. Click the links below to learn more.

Also, if you like the conversations in these podcasts then you’re invited to continue them with like-minded people within the Animal Training Academy membership area…

CLICK HERE to see what’s on offer in the Animal Training Academy members area

Within the membership you can get access to twice monthly live web-classes, the back catalog of previous web-classes, plus a huge library of videos & projects to problem solve different training situations. And we’re a sociable bunch with an exclusive private Facebook group, forums area, and WhatsApp chat groups. It’s like Netflix for animal behavior nerds.

Morten Egtvedt- Canis.no; Clicker training, free shaping, cues & fluency. (Episode 50)

February 6, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

Norwegian dog trainer Morten Egtvedt and his wife Cecilie Køste have written three best-selling books about clicker training. They have also published the Nordic dog magazine “Canis” for exactly twenty years this winter. They are the owners of Canis Clickertraining Academy (the leading clicker training dog school in the Nordic countries). They have personally trained more 200 new clicker training instructors in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland since 2003 through their now famous clicker instructor course. Morten has trained dogs mostly for high-level obedience and working dog competitions. He has also trained dogs for search and rescue and for military service for many years. He is a trained biologist with a degree in ethology, but he has always been much more interested in applied behavior analysis than ethology when it comes to practical dog training.

Shaping example from Morten (video)

Chirag Patel- Domesticated Manners (The bucket game)

January 23, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 5 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Chirag Patel Bio

Chirag entered the animal training field professionally in 2004 and has since become a leading figure in the profession internationally. He is highly sought after for consulting with private clients and organizations as well as running workshops for professionals internationally. Chirag consults on the behavior management and training of domestic animals kept as pets, exotics, zoo and laboratory animals. His passion is the application of behavior change science and ethics to improve the life of animals living under human care, especially applying training principles to teach animals to be active participants in their own daily and veterinary care in a stress-free manner.

If you want to find out more you can visit www.domesticatedmanners.com

CLICK HERE for Chirag Patel’s Facebook page

Bucket Game Introduction video

Hannah Branigan – Wonderpups – “I can talk about sit [the behavior] for hours”

January 4, 2018 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Hannah Branigan – Bio

With the belief that everyone (dogs and humans alike) learn best in an environment free of criticism, Hannah breaks down complex skills into bite-sized, accessible pieces, and develops practical techniques that leave her students with a sense of achievement and success. She is on a mission to make training effective + enjoyable for dogs and their handlers, which means optimizing positive reinforcement techniques across species. She is fascinated by behavior and learning, and passionate about bringing innovative, science-based solutions to the dog/human learning space.

Hannah has a background in both human sports and biology. Now she applies that knowledge and experience to the world of animal training and canine competitive sports. She enjoys training and competing with her own dogs in a variety of sports, and has titled her dogs in Obedience, Agility, Conformation, IPO (Schutzhund), and Rally. Her competition obedience DVDs, Obedience FUNdamentals, and Beyond FUNdamentals, have received rave reviews from trainers all over the world, and her students have earned advanced titles and in multiple countries.

While primarily interested in the training process, she finds the high scores, prestigious awards, and national rankings she has earned to be very reinforcing.

Hannah is the host of the popular dog training podcast, Drinking from the Toilet, which focuses on the (often inconvenient) intersection between positive reinforcement philosophy and reality.

Preview of one of Hannah’s online classes

Mark Kingston Jones – Team building with BITE [Enrichment episode]

December 12, 2017 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Mark Kingston Jones Bio

Mark Kingston Jones has been involved in the animal welfare field since 2004. He is a Workshop Coordinator and Level 1 Instructor for The Shape of Enrichment and Co-Founder of Team Building with BITE. In addition to running over 30 of his own Student Environmental Enrichment Courses, in the UK, he has been an Instructor on 20 SHAPE workshops and 2 others, in the UK, USA, Indonesia, South Africa, Romania, Russia, Lithuania, Uganda, Vietnam, Singapore, Armenia, India, and Croatia. Previous to becoming self-employed in 2014, he worked at Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks, as ‘Head of Education and Research’. In addition to organizing talks, workshops and conferences he has organized over 100 enrichment team building workshops, as well as working with keepers to design and implement enrichment ideas. Mark is the SHAPE-UK & Ireland Events Co-Coordinator, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent, and a Trustee for Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary. He has been an author/co-author of 13 publications and presented 47 talks at conferences, both nationally and internationally.

VIDEO EXAMPLES FROM TEAM BUILDING WITH BITE MENTIONED IN THE PODCAST

Eva Bertilsson – Carpe Momentum; Animal Training flow-charts & choice/control

November 28, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

Eva Bertilsson – Bio

Animal Training Academy is proud to sponsor the up and coming CCC2019 (Choice, Control, Communication) conference coordinated by Eva Bertilsson! CLICK HERE to learn more.

The giraffe video mentioned in the podcast

Margaret Rousser – Conservation manager at Oakland Zoo; Making more time for enrichment & training

November 14, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Margaret Rousser – Bio

Margaret Rousser has 20 years of experience training a wide variety of animals from marine mammals to free flight birds to primates. She has been at the Oakland Zoo since 2006, beginning there as a Zoological Manager for the Children’s Zoo and primates. Her responsibilities during that time included serving as the enrichment and training coordinator for the entire zoo as well as managing the day to day operations of that section. In 2017, she became the Conservation Manager. She currently manages Oakland Zoo’s Biodiversity Centre which houses the amphibian conservation programs.

Margaret has a BA in Anthropology from UC Santa Barbara, and an AS in Exotic Animal Training and Management from Moorpark College. She has served on AZA’s (Association of Zoo’s & Aquariums) Hamadryas Baboon Advisory committee and was on the Board of Directors of the ABMA (Animal Behavior Management Alliance) for nearly ten years serving as secretary, Vice President, and President. She has been passionate about improving animal welfare through positive reinforcement training and enrichment throughout her career.

Cleaning and training/enrichment matrix examples mentioned in the podcast

Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs conservation mentioned in the podcast

Kirstin Anderson Hansen – Marine animal behavior and bioacoustics team

October 31, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Kirstin Anderson Hansen Bio

Kirstin Anderson Hansen is currently a Postdoc at the University of Southern Denmark and in cooperation with the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, where she trains grey seals and aquatic birds, currently cormorants and penguins to investigate the effects of underwater noise on marine life. She started her career at the University of California in Santa Cruz over 25 years ago, working with cetaceans as a research assistant and trainer. Later, she followed some of the dolphins to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, where she worked and trained Pacific White-sided dolphins, Beluga whales, harbor seals, sea otters, and penguins. In 1998, she was offered a trainer position at the Fjord and Baelt in Denmark, training harbor porpoises and harbor seals for research and public demonstrations. From 2003 to 2013, she was the training coordinator and zoological curator at Odense Zoo, where she had the opportunity to expand her training experience to all types of animals, including lions, tigers, giraffes, tapirs, birds, and manatees.

Kirstin is the Co-Chair for the Training Committee at the Danish Association for Zoos and Aquariums (DAZA), as well as the Assistant Chair for the Animal Training Working Group at the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA), where she is also an instructor for the animal training and management courses for both DAZA and EAZA. In IMATA, she is the regional report coordinator for IMATA.

Odin the grey seal being trained for the hearing test

Haylee Ellis, APOPO land mind and tuberculosis detection rats – “Using clicker training to save lives…”

October 17, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Haylee Ellis Bio

Haylee joined APOPO – landmine and tuberculosis detection rats in April 2015 after receiving her Master’s degree in behavioral psychology, focusing on animal detection learning and technology. She also holds a certificate in veterinary nursing, and previous research includes behavioral ethology, welfare, and human-animal interactions. She is currently completing her Ph.D. through Waikato University, New Zealand, in collaboration with APOPO. Her research focuses on investigating variables that affect rat detection accuracy and learning.

Emma Parsons – Click to calm; Talking aggressive & reactive dogs.

September 25, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Emma Parson Bio

Emma Parsons is currently a Canine Behavior Training Consultant for Surefire Dogs in Westborough, MA as well as owning her own business. She specializes in managing and rehabilitating the reactive and aggressive dog. She is the author of two highly popular books on this subject: “Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog” and “Teaching the Reactive Dog Class: Leading the Journey from Reactivity to Reliability.” Emma is a Faculty Member and Instructor of Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior as well as of the Karen Pryor ClickerExpo conferences. She gives “Click to Calm” seminars around the world, teaching others how to manage and rehabilitate reactive and aggressive dogs. She is a member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers (APDT) and a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC). Emma holds a BA degree from the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and shares her life with her husband, Greg, and their four clicker-trained competition obedience/agility dogs—three Goldens, Lizzie-Taylor, Kayden-Blue, Austyn-Roque, and a Papillon, Wylie-Rae.

Nicki Boyd – Behavior husbandry manager at San Diego Zoo “I have the best job in the zoo”

September 19, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 5 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Nicki Boyd Bio

Nicki Boyd and is the Behavior Husbandry Manager at the San Diego Zoo. Her educational background includes graduating from Moorpark College’s Exotic Animal Training and Management Program, Masa College’s Animal Health Technician Program, with an Associate in Science Degree, and a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix.

Nicki has worked at the San Diego Zoo for 25 years in various departments such as zookeeper at the Children’s Zoo and Veterinary Hospital, animal handler in the Behavior Department, senior keeper, Team Area Lead, Animal Care Supervisor, Animal Care Manager, Personnel Manager, and now currently as the Behavior Husbandry Manager. Nicki is currently the president of the Red Panda Network which is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving habitat for wild red pandas. And she is also the Past President of the Animal Behavior Management Alliance (ABMA) also serving on the board of directors there for 9 years. To build upon this Nicki is also on the board of directors for the International Avian Certification Board and she is a certified bird trainer. She serves on both the Animal Ambassador Species Advisory Group and the Behavior Advisory Group of AZA committees.

Her role as Behavior Husbandry Manager is to set up training programs all over the San Diego Zoo. She works with various species of bears, large and small cats, hyena, canids, animal ambassadors and many species of other mammals, birds, and reptiles. Training dangerous animal’s means being in close proximity and this requires focus, appropriate facilities, and good safety protocols; part of Nicki’s role is training staff to be safe whilst training animals.

Dr. Jenifer Zeligs – “Make a connection before you give direction”

September 5, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

Dr. Jenifer Zeligs Bio

At the forefront of the animal training industry, Jenifer Zeligs, Ph.D. stands as a world renown animal behaviorist with over 30 years of experience, award-winning presentations on animal behavior modification, and numerous publications to her credit. She recently published what is already being called the new industry “bible” Animal Training 101: The complete and practical guide to the art and science of behavior modification. Dr. Zeligs is the owner of Animal Training and Research International which oversees a small teaching aquarium affiliated with the California State University system.

Her journey into the world of animal training began in grade school when she worked for 7 years at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Since that time, she has worked with dozens of species both terrestrial and aquatic. She has worked as a veterinary technician and with animals trained to assist the handicapped. Her experience also includes collaborating with and consulting for countless private and public facilities and organizations, as well as training animals for research, free release into the open ocean, veterinary procedures, feature films and documentaries, and public display. Dr. Zeligs has been featured in numerous documentaries and television shows including National Geographic Explorer, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Dateline, NBC.

Of all her pursuits, Jenifer is most proud of her students, and finds the greatest joy in teaching and working with those passionate about their interests in conservation, animal care, and training. The center of her work is to foster a nuanced and advanced understanding of behavior modification through a transformational learning theory pros/cons model. This model provides a thorough foundation of the science of behavior through behaviorist, cognitive, and ethological psychologies balanced with a practical understanding of the art of training. Dr. Zeligs hopes to engage students to further inquire and develop the art and science of behavior. Her students now work with and manage a wide range of animal programs throughout the world.

Dr. Zeligs currently teaches at California State University, Monterey Bay, and she regularly teaches in partnership with several other colleges of behavior modification worldwide mentoring students in cutting-edge animal behavior and husbandry.

CLICK HERE for the Animal Training & Reseach International web page

Theresa McKeon; Co-founder – TAG teach international … “Find common language through observation”

August 22, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Theresa McKeon biography

After more than 30 years as a national level gymnastics coach, Theresa was determined to find a way to speed up skill acquisition for her athletes while simultaneously decreasing stress and fear in the learning environment. Her search for behaviourally sound techniques, clean instructions, and the proper timing of feedback and reinforcement, led to the development of the TAG teach methodology. The success of the methodology has been accented by the wide range of applications embracing it. Theresa now consults and designs TAG teach programs in multiple fields including business management, industrial safety, medical and surgical training, sports coaching, even family communication. She is a sought-after speaker around the world including Europe, U.K., Taiwan, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

VIDEOS

Peter Giljam – Animal Training director at Kolmarden Zoo … “Be creative, all the time!”

August 8, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Peter Giljam Bio

When Peter was a child he always knew that he wanted to work with animals, it just wasn’t clear what species. His first internship was at an edutainment park in the Netherlands, where he worked with harbor seals. He did the internship twice, making his choice that marine mammals were going to be a part of his life and career path. At the end of his internships in 2005, he began working at Ouwehands Zoo in the Netherlands where he worked for five years with California Sea Lions.

Whilst working here in 2008 Peter attended his first IMATA conference in where he got to meet trainers from all over the world, and from this experience he knew that he wanted to set higher standards for himself and his career development. In 2010, he was given the opportunity to move to Canada where he had the privilege to work in a multiple species animal show. The show’s participants included Walruses, Californian Sea Lions, and Bottlenose Dolphins.

The peak of Peter’s career came when he was working with a young deaf killer whale named Morgan. She was the topic of his formal presentation at the 2013 IMATA conference, where he was the recipient of the People’s Choice Award. From Tenerife, Peter went to Marine land France where he continued to work with killer whales. After a year he got the opportunity to work for a park in Sweden, where he is today.

The goal of the training team at Kolmårdens dolphinarium was to change the training system in such a way that involves coaching both trainers and animals to get to the level where they want them to be. It has been a big challenge and a great opportunity in his career as a marine mammal trainer. Peter went from a Senior Marine Mammal Trainer at Kolmarden Djurpark, working with Bottlenose Dolphins, African Fur Seals, Harbour Seals, and Grey Seals to his current job Coordinator Animal Training where he can share his experiences with all the animals in the zoo of the same park. In November 2016, he got the honor to serve for the board of IMATA as 2nd Vice President.

LINKS

CLICK HERE for the Kolmarden Zoo website

CLICK HERE for the IMATA (International Marine Animal Trainers Association) website

CLICK HERE for information about the up and coming IMATA conference

CLICK HERE for the ZooSpensefull website

CLICK HERE for the ZooSpensefull FaceBook page

Dr. Clare Browne – Get your timing right …

July 25, 2017 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr. Clare Browne Bio

Dr. Clare Browne is an animal behaviorist, with over 10 years’ experience training and working with domestic dogs. Clare completed her Ph.D. at the University of Waikato on dog training. In this research, she examined aspects of positive reinforcement and dog-human communication that influence dog training efficacy, with a focus on the timing of reinforcement. Her MSc, from Massey University, looked at using dogs to detect and discriminate between species of New Zealand native reptiles. As a case study in her Masters, Clare also trained her own dog to detect tuatara. Clare lectures on the subject of animal behavior at the University level. She has published peer-reviewed papers on dog behavior and training topics, and she presents her research at national and international conferences regularly. Her research has attracted significant media interest, with recent appearances on New Zealand and Australian television shows.

Clare is the Director of Browne Dog Consulting Limited. This is an animal behavior consultancy which provides advice and training for owners on a wide range of problems (e.g., aggression, toilet training, inter-species issues), as well as other roles such as assessment of dogs for local Government programs (e.g., suitability of dogs for library reading programs). Clare is actively involved in her local dog training community, volunteering with a local dog training club and giving community seminars in collaboration with other professionals.

Clare has had pets all of her life, ranging from snails to goats. She currently lives with three dogs and one house rabbit.

CLICK HERE for Dr. Clare Browne’s website

CLICK HERE for the Browne Dog FB page

CLICK HERE to see a list of Dr. Clare Browne’s publications.

[Episode 36] Dr. Susan Friedman – Behavior works/Psychology professor at Utah State University

July 23, 2017 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr. Susan Friedman – Bio

Dr. Susan Friedman is a psychology professor at Utah State University who has pioneered the application of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to captive and companion animals. ABA, with its roots in human learning, offers a scientifically sound teaching technology and ethical standard that can improve the lives of all learners. Students from 22 different countries have participated in Susan’s online courses, Living and Learning with Animals for Professionals and Living and Learning with Parrots for Caregivers. She has written chapters on learning and behavior for three veterinary texts and is a frequent contributor to popular magazines. Her articles appear around the world in eleven languages. Susan has presented seminars internationally for a wide variety of professional organizations such as the Association of Avian Veterinarians, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, Moorpark College Exotic Animal Training and Management program, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. She has been nominated for the Media Award given by the International Association of Behavior Analysis for her efforts to disseminate to pet owners, veterinarians, animal trainers, and zookeepers the essential tools they need to empower and enrich the lives of the animals in their care.

CLICK HERE to learn about Susan’s next LLA online/distant learning course

Links mentioned in this podcast

Dr, Susan Friedmans’ behavior works website

Dr. Susan Friedman’s behavior works FB page

Dr. Susan Friedman’s FAID document (Functional Assessment and intervention design)

Article about the FAID document mentioned above

Terminology Tumult article mentioned in the podcast

The roadmap behavior change hierarchy diagram

The behavioral hierarchy change document – Effectiveness is not enough

Article written by Susan’s daughter about Veda the Alexandrine parrot

[Episode 35] Dr. Kate Mornement – Pets behaving badly

July 23, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr. Kate Mornement – Bio

Dr. Kate Mornement is a Ph.D. qualified Applied Animal Behaviourist based in Melbourne. In 2004 Kate established her animal behavior consultancy practice; Pets Behaving Badly and has consulted pet owners experiencing behavioral difficulties with their pets ever since. Kate also works as an expert witness in dangerous and menacing dog matters, assessing the behavior and temperament of the dogs involved. She is an Associate Editor of Pet Science; a new open access journal which publishes the latest research on pet behavior. Kate is an invited speaker at conferences and pet-related events write for several magazines and is regularly sought by media for comment and interviews regarding animal behavior. A strong advocate of science-based positive reinforcement training and ongoing education, Kate has been fortunate to learn from some of the world’s most respected animal trainers including Steve Martin, Ken Ramirez, Barbara Heidenreich, Terry Ryan and Dr. Susan Friedman.

CLICK HERE for a link to Kate’s website – Pets behaving badly.

CLICK HERE for Dr. Kate’s Pets behaving badly Facebook page.

CLICK HERE to read Kate’s Blog

An episode of Hound TV that Kate featured on in 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0Wa6QM-AnQ

Dr. Susan Friedman – Behavior works/Psychology professor at Utah State University

July 3, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 6 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr. Susan Friedman – Bio

CLICK HERE to learn about Susan’s next LLA online/distant learning course

Links mentioned in this podcast

Dr. Kate Mornement – Pets behaving badly

June 27, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 2 Comments

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline

Dr. Kate Mornement – Bio

CLICK HERE for a link to Kate’s website – Pets behaving badly.

CLICK HERE for Dr. Kate’s Pets behaving badly Facebook page.

CLICK HERE to read Kate’s Blog

An episode of Hound TV that Kate featured on in 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0Wa6QM-AnQ

[Episode 34] Stephanie Edlund – “Because … SCIENCE! Trust the process”

June 16, 2017 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

CLICK HERE to see the podcast outline

Stephanie Edlund Bio

Stephanie has spent most of her life learning about animal welfare, behavior, training, and enrichment. Growing up in Sweden, she has been surrounded by animals her whole life and has always been fascinated by birds especially. Since getting her first ones, two rehoused Parakeets named Blue and sixteen when she was eight years old, she hasn’t lived a day without birds in her life.

After getting her zoo keeping degree she studied Biology at the University of Stockholm. The last 4 years she has been working as a zookeeper and made a few stand-ins as a teacher while learning all she can about, force-free animal training and welfare. Today she runs her own small business in Sweden where she offers presentations and workshops for bird clubs, veterinarians, pet shops and zoos. She also offers consultations and private training lessons, predominantly with parrots but sometimes with other animals as well. Her Swedish website provides articles and online classes on enrichment, force-free animal training and other useful topics for pet owners. She is the head trainer for Korpdalen, an educational zoo facility in Björkvik, Sweden, where she works with free-flighted parrots as well as other birds. Stephanie is a Certified Parrot Behavior Consultant (CPBC) with the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants (IAABC) and is the chairperson of the Parrot Division since November 2016. She is also a professional member of IAATE (The International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators).

CLICK HERE for the understanding parrots website

CLICK HERE for the IAABC (International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants) Website

CLICK HERE for the IAATE (International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators) Website

CLICK HERE to follow understanding parrots on Facebook

CLICK HERE to see Stephanie’s Swedish Animal training website

VIDEO OF THE RAM TRAINING MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92TG9KyS2uo

Stephanie Edlund – “Because … SCIENCE! Trust the process”

June 13, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 4 Comments

CLICK HERE to see the podcast outline

Stephanie Edlund Bio

CLICK HERE for the understanding parrots website

CLICK HERE for the IAABC (International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants) Website

CLICK HERE for the IAATE (International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators) Website

CLICK HERE to follow understanding parrots on Facebook

CLICK HERE to see Stephanie’s Swedish Animal training website

VIDEO OF THE RAM TRAINING MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92TG9KyS2uo

Hillary Hankey – Avian Behavior International, Entrepreneurship and free flight bird training…

May 30, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for a podcast outline

Hillary Hankey Bio

Growing up with animals, Hillary’s enthusiasm for animal behavior knew no bounds. After finding her grandparents’ collection of National Geographic magazines, she logged the daily habits of the domestic tabby cat for research practice – including a few hours of cat naps – on the family camcorder, erasing cherished family memories in the process.

You could probably credit Hillary’s four companion cockatoos for helping her ditch the plan to go to veterinary school after graduating from Colorado State University and following the less conventional path to exotic animal training. Training her birds inspired her to achieve personal goals of the endless pursuit of self-mastery and authenticity, leading Hillary to seek some of the best minds in the field from which to learn. This, in turn, provided incredible opportunities in zoo animal training. The founding of Avian Behavior International in 2013 is an extension of the dogged pursuit to build an environment led by integrity, a commitment to ethical standards of behavior management, and a passion for helping others achieve results with positive reinforcement.

Hillary’s enthusiasm for the preservation and success of birds in the wild and in our homes, is a 24-hour a day, 7-day a week endeavor. With commitments, as various and sundry from her consulting practice, Learning Parrots, to her position on the Board of Directors of the Indonesian Parrot Project, she aims to cultivate the joy of learning and sharing in order to exact change in the lives of birds around the world.

CLICK HERE for the Avian Behavior International website homepage

CLICK HERE for a Blog post from Hilary about free flying companion parrots

CLICK HERE for Hillary’s blog post on the topic of Ikigai which she talks about in this episode

VIDEO OF HILLARY FLYING HER FALCON AS TALKED ABOUT IN PODCAST

Anna Oblasser-Mirtl – Animal Training Center – Austria, “The only limit in positive reinforcement training is our imagination.”

May 15, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 3 Comments

CLICK HERE for a podcast outline/timeline of this episode.

Anna Oblasser-Mirtl – Bio

The care, observation, and training of animals were a great passion in Anna’s childhood. At the age of twelve, she already participated in dog sporting competitions with various dogs, and with her Border Collie “Flyer” (1998-2011) she achieved her first spectacular title with the full number of points in the open class. Several other titles followed in the coming years.

As a dog trainer in various dog schools, she attended seminars, worked and studied at different veterinarians and did an internship at Zoo Vienna and she also worked as a dog trainer while going through high school. After many years of preparation for her first great goal – the unique education in America’s Teaching Zoo – Anna Oblasser-Mirtl was admitted to the Moorpark College, California, immediately after graduating from high school.

In order to learn more about behavioral modification in animals and to make the best use of time in the USA, she completed internships at Los Angeles Zoo, Santa Barbara Zoo, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Dolphin Quest Hawaii, Wild Things Inc.

Anna Oblasser-Mirtl has acquired an excellent theoretical and practical basis in over 20 years of dog training and more than 13 years of Exotic Animal Training. As a “cross-over trainer” (a trainer who has worked with traditional methods before applying positive reinforcement), she has had enough time to gain invaluable experience with a variety of training methods. She can pass these experiences on to her employees, other dog trainers, and dog owners as part of the work of the Animal Training Center.

Since the founding of the Animal Training Centre in 2006, it has been continuing its annual activities in Austria and abroad and maintains close contact with trainers from all over the world and from all disciplines. Meanwhile, a large network has formed, which contributes significantly to the further development of the ATC.

Within the framework of the Animal Behavior Management Alliance conference in San Francisco, Anna received the “Impact Award”, the most prestigious award in the industry, for her lecture on implementing a zoo animal training program at an Austrian zoo after years of trying to improve animal welfare in a zoo setting through operant conditioning in Europe. On top of this, she also won another ABMA award the behavior management innovation award for her lecture on diabetic alert dogs in 2015.

CLICK HERE for the Animal Training Centre website

CLICK HERE to see Anna’s Medical training for Dog’s book on Amazon

CLICK HERE to see the YouTube channel for the Animal Training Center

CLICK HERE for the Animal Training Center Facebook page

– BLOOD DRAW (AS MENTIONED IN PODCAST)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DS3ld0YPFU

Paul McGreevy – Professor of Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare Science at the University of Sydney’s School of Veterinary Science.

May 2, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline for the episode.

This podcast episode is dedicated to Paul’s late “Super dog” Tinker … 🙂

PAUL MCGREEVY – Bio

Paul McGreevy BVSc, Ph.D. is a riding instructor, veterinarian, and ethologist. He is Professor of Animal Behavior and Animal Welfare Science at the University of Sydney’s School of Veterinary Science. The author of over 200 peer-reviewed scientific publications and six books, Paul has received numerous Australian and international awards for his research and teaching innovations. He is a co-founder and honorary fellow of the International Society for Equitation Science. With federal funding, he currently leads a consortium of all the Australian and NZ veterinary faculties that is developing curriculum resources for the teaching of animal welfare science and ethics. He also leads the VetCompass initiative that has brought together all of the Australian veterinary schools to provide national disease surveillance for companion animals and horses.

LINKS

CLICK HERE for the Dogmanship user guide.

CLICK HERE to be taken to a page where you can find out more information about the Dog Log Book.

CLICK HERE to see the C-BARQ Canine Behavioral Assessment & Research Questionaire

CLICK HERE for a paper about dog behavior varying with height, bodyweight and skull shape

CLICK HERE for a paper about environmental factors associated with success rate of herding dates

Valerie Hare – Co-founder of the SHAPE of enrichment, part 2 (Episode 30).

April 12, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 1 Comment

CLICK HERE for the podcast outline.

CLICK here for a podcast episode with Sarah Van Herpt (previously from Wellington Zoo) who talks about her application of the shape or enrichment – “enrichment process”

Valerie Hare – Bio

Val is currently the chief financial officer and workshop coordinator for the shape of enrichment incorporated. She’s also worked as a research animal care supervisor at the Massachusetts general hospital, and zoo keeper at san Diego wild animal park, a behavioral research technician at the san Diego zoo and of course now as an enrichment consultant.

Valerie has also served on the international conference on Environmental enrichment committee since 1997 and served in the bear care group board of directors between 2007 – 2014, she’s a member of the animal behavioral management alliance the ABMA … and of various zoo keepers associations from around the world.

Val holds a bachelor’s degree of science in Biology with an emphasis on zoology from san Diego state university and an associate’s degree as a veterinary technician from the state university of New York.

CLICK HERE for information about the up and coming International conference on enrichment conference happening in Bogota Columbia.

CLICK HERE for the SHAPE of enrichment website.

PROMOTIONAL VIDEO FOR UP INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT CONFERENCE

Valerie Hare – Co-founder of the SHAPE of enrichment, part 1 (Episode 29).

April 2, 2017 by ryan cartlidge Leave a Comment

Valerie Hare – Bio

Val is currently the chief financial officer and workshop coordinator for the shape of enrichment incorporated. She’s also worked as a research animal care supervisor at the Massachusetts general hospital, and zoo keeper at san Diego wild animal park, a behavioural research technician at the san Diego zoo and of course now as an enrichment consultant.

Spiny Lobster feeder mentioned in the Podcast

Jan Østergaard on “square training” – Canis Skive (Denmark)

March 21, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 4 Comments

Jan Østergaard

Jan runs a part time dog school called “Canis Hundeskole Skive” where he teaches Clicker training, shaping and basic Skills. Jan started his career in the local dog-club attending puppy class and it didn’t take long before he was absolutely hooked on dog training.

He started learning what he needed to do to become an instructor in 2009 and at the time was taught mostly about luring and handling and not actually not much about the dog learning new behaviors. A year later though he became a trainer educating others in obedience for competition.

At about the same time Jan met Thomas Stjernass who was talking about Clicker Training, voluntary behavior and backchaining and to Jan this sound sounded much more what he likes to call real dog training. Jan started to use these techniques with his own dog and suddenly started to win some of the competitions he was entering … Sure enough Jan WAS HOOKED.

In 2010 Jan also become associated with Canis Silkeborg and became heavily influenced by dog trainers Catja Pederson and Lotte Sorenson, Jan took the Canis clicker training certification which he finished in 2011 and started his own school under the umbrella of Canis in 2014.

Over the last couple of year Jans interest in obedience has been slowly replaced and he now focuses heavily on certain techniques mentioned earlier, clicker training, voluntary behavior, back chaining and shaping … as a person who continually is seeking out development opportunities … Jan then travelled to Norway in 2015 and completed a more advanced instructor certification with Canis … which brings us up to modern day where Jan is about to go international to teach others about his techniques

CLICK HERE for the Canis Skive page/website …

CLICK HERE for information about Jan’s workshops in Montana.

CLICK HERE for information about Jan’s other US workshop in Minneapolis.

[Focus on what you want] Karolina Westlund … Associate Professor of Ethology – University of Stockholm

March 7, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 7 Comments

Podcast outline

0.00. Introductions
3.45. Why mixing perspectives is beneficial to your understanding of animal behaviour.
8.40. Understanding animal emotions makes for better training and higher welfare.
15.40. How to prevent and reduce fear in the veterinary clinic.
22.45. When to use negative reinforcement to improve welfare.
33.05. Using memes to spread the word about animal training and welfare.

Karolina Westlund

Karolina grew up pining for a kitten for several years, and pestering her parents until they gave up. The green-eyed black half siamese cat that she got for her seventh birthday became a true friend who lived to be 21 years old, but an easily startled cat who often went into hiding when there were visitors and a great teacher for the young Karolina.

Karolina had grand ideas about becoming a field biologist, but that never came about – the closest she got was working as a nature travel guide in France and Madeira. She studied primate conflict resolution behaviour for her phD, and with this background in primatology, combined with behaviour analysis, started working with primate behaviour management. She is now an Associate Professor of Ethology at the University of Stockholm, with a passion for teaching how behaviour management can be used to improve animal welfare. She started presenting her ideas online in late 2015, launching her blog. Nowadays she offers live workshops, online courses and free webinars as well as the occasional blog post. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with her husband, two kids, and an ongoing argument as to whether living with a cat is a good idea.

CLICK HERE to read Karolina’s blog post on “Why you should behave as if animals have feelings even if you don’t believe that they do”

CLICK HERE to read Karolina’s blog post on Meme’s

In the podcast Karolina said “what may be a problem to you could actually serve some purpose to the animal”. In this film (and accompanying blog post), she shows/discusses one way of addressing problem behaviour that’s fun, teaches the animal something and improves the human-animal relationship. Focus on what you want.

Wouter Stellaard – Animal programs training director (Columbus Zoo).

February 21, 2017 by ryan cartlidge 7 Comments

Wouter Stellaard – Animal Programs Training Director (Columbus Zoo).

Wouter Stellaard has been in the animal field for 26 years. His passion and career began in the Netherlands while working in a wildlife rehabilitation centre. He created his own animal ambulance while finishing his animal care studies. In search for further education he came to the US where he graduated from the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College. After an internship he was hired at Natural Encounters Inc. As a senior trainer he helped create, set up, train, and present bird shows at zoos and aquariums across the country. As the Director of Behavioral Programs he consulted both nationally and internationally to create zoo wide animal training programs with keepers to grow their training and presentation skills.

Currently Wouter is the Animal Programs Training Director at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. He is responsible for the training of staff and animals in a variety of areas with a variety of taxa. He and his team produce natural behavior mixed species shows, run an immersive close encounters guest area, as well as an African exhibit experience. The African exhibit focuses on life around an African watering hole featuring cheetah runs, bird flights, hoofstock, and a variety of mammal talks. Wouter’s passion is to teach people how to train animals using the science of behavior change and further the industry standards.