Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Small Pets

Summer Fun

Karen Pryor — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

I've always been interested in play. Science doesn't explain it very well, or it's explained as something young animals do to practice future skills. But that definition doesn't cover every kind of play, and it doesn't explain why it's so much fun, so reinforcing in itself.

Stepping on the Food: A Memo from Karen

Karen Pryor — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0600

You're training "leave it." You drop a bit of food, the dog lunges toward it, and you cover it with your foot. Are you just managing the environment, or is this negative punishment, taking away something desired?

The Sea Food Circus: Training Fish

Karen Pryor — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Are fish trainable? And if they are, why bother?

How to Keep Your Pet Safe

Joan Orr — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:10:02 -0500

Does your pet aspire to work in the areas of gardening, electrical work, stuffed animal surgery, or even hazardous waste disposal? Given the opportunity, many pets engage in activities that are downright dangerous. As their owners, it is our responsibility to maintain the safety of these zany, ambitious pets.

Train Your Bunny to Sit in an Easter Basket

Joan Orr — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Enjoy spring with a real Easter Bunny—yours! Here's how to train your rabbit to climb into a basket and stay there, as excerpted from Getting Started: Clicking with your Rabbit by Joan Orr and Teresa Lewin.

Congratulations to the Canis Film Festival Winners!

KPCT — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Laura VanArendonk Baugh won Grand Prize at the first-ever Canis Film Festival, a contest designed to showcase innovative animal-training videos. This unique festival focuses on short films of seven minutes or fewer that educate animal owners and professionals about the power of training based on the science of operant conditioning.

Clicker Training Your Ferret

Joan Orr — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Co-authored by Teresa Lewin. Is your ferret inquisitive, full of fun, quirky, a born entertainer? Congratulations—your pet is a natural candidate for clicker training!

Feral Rabbits Trained and Socialized with Clickers

Bill Peña — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 15:55:34 -0500

A great story with some incredibly cute pictures from the Best Friends Animal Society, sent to us by Joan Orr, author of Getting Started: Clicking with Your Rabbit and ClickerExpo faculty member:

Training a Fish: Goldfish-Click

Ogden Lindsley — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 14:22:51 -0500

Note: Ogden Lindsley was one of B.F. Skinners' first graduate students, a past president of the Association for Behavior analysis, and one of the first behavior analysts to grasp the power of shaping with a conditioned reinforcer. As a professor at the University of Kansas, he required his own students to shape behavior; many of them used goldfish. The instructions here for clicker training a goldfish are easy to follow and make a good science project. Karen Pryor

Taming Shy or Feral Rabbits with Clicker Training

BUNS — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 11:58:06 -0500

Editor's note: Bunnies Urgently Needing Shelter, or BUNS, is a nonprofit volunteer group that cares for abandoned rabbits (and guinea pigs) at the Santa Barbara County Stray Animal Shelter in Santa Barbara, California . The organization educates potential adopters and performs home visits before placing rabbits. All of BUNS' rabbits are spayed or neutered before being adopted. BUNS added clicker training to enrich the lives of both shelter and adopted rabbits, and found that clicker training can be used to increase adoptable behaviors in their rabbits. The group also offers rabbit clicker training classes. Visit the BUNS website for further information.

Getting Started: Clicking with Your Rabbit

KPCT — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Why leave your bunny in a cage all day when you could both be having fun together?

Rabbits are smart! Find out how your rabbit can quickly learn to:

Jump through a hoop and sit in a basket
Happily get into your lap to be carried and snuggled
Come when called
"Gimme five" with a paw
Use a litter box
Stop biting and other problem behaviors

Bunnies in Your Easter Basket? Better Get this Book, Too!

KPCT — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0500

Waltham, MA, April 5, 2006—Just in time for Easter, Karen Pryor Clickertraining has published a new and indispensable guide for bunny owners. Getting Started: Clicking with Your Rabbit by Joan Orr and Teresa Lewin will show you exactly how to bring out the best in your bunny friend.

What? Train a Rabbit?

Joan Orr — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Rabbitsâ€¦ furry and lovable, of course; quirky and silly, sometimes; full of energy and mischief, undoubtedly; but trainable? You bet! You're probably training your rabbit without even realizing it. Is he litter-box trained? Does he come to see you when you go to his cage? Then you've already taken your first steps.

Training Your Rabbit to Jump on Cue

Joan Orr — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0600

There are many different ways a bunny can jump. She can jump over a pole, through a hoop, onto a platform, or into a basket. This trick teaches your bunny to jump over a pole, but with some creative baby steps, jumping can easily be generalized to jumping in other situations.

What Do Dolphins Do for Christmas?

Karen Pryor — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Christmas in Hawaii is always a little different. Santa might wear flip-flops instead of boots, a red pareu (sarong) around his opu (stomach), a red hat, a red lei—and nothing else. At Hawaii's Sea Life Park, where I was head trainer for a decade in the '60s, we put on dolphin shows many times a day, and sometimes had big crowds of school children. Naturally, we thought of Christmas-type events: dolphins pulling Santa's sleigh—with gift-wrapped buckets of fish and a Hawaiian poi dog riding on top of the sleigh—that kind of thing.

Fish Enrichment

Karen Pryor — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0600

We don't often worry about the mental state of a fish, but fishes enjoy stimulation and something to do, just as much as land animals. Aquarists know that the environment is important for keeping fish in good health or bringing them into breeding condition. That doesn't just mean places to hide and clean water to swim in; it can also mean a variety of foods including live food to chase, the right tank mates, the right plants, and, yes, an opportunity to learn.

Clicker Trained Bunnies Gain Confidence

Karen Pryor — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Animal shelters are taking in more and more "house bunnies" these days, and looking for homes for them. Bunnies make great house pets; they quickly learn to use a litter box, they're clean, they are active in the evening when you get home from work, and they can be very amusing. The bunnies in shelters have usually been spayed or neutered as well, so you can have more than one without worries.

Clicker Trained Rats Make Headlines

Gale Pryor — Sat, 01 May 2004 00:00:00 -0500

On May 18, readers of the New York Times were treated to a front-page story on mine-sniffing Gambian giant pouched rats. The reporter, Michael Wines, traveled to Mozambique to discover the latest breakthrough in mine detection technology: a squad of rats, outfitted in tiny harnesses and hitched to 10-yard clotheslines. When the rats catch the scent of TNT, the give-away for a buried landmine, they deliberately scratch the earth.

A Clicker Cat and Rat Tale

Sherri Lippman — Thu, 01 Apr 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Virginia Broitman and Sherri Lippman, top clicker trainers and producers of the popular Bow Wow series of clicker training videos, sent us these provocative photos. Hmm. How did you manage this, ladies? Sherri answers:

Clicker Training Your Small Pet

Joan Orr — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 -0600

Clicker training small pets is a rewarding experience for animal and owner both. Rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, rats and other small pets are entirely trainable. Clicker training can help develop positive behavior, as well as a bond between human and animal. Joan Orr's article on clicker training small pets, as published in fall 2005 issue of PETS magazine, is available online as a PDF.