I’m currently taking some classes part time in the behavior analysis department at the University of North Texas and they’re going excellently so far. I also have a goldfish I bought several weeks ago that I’ve been training, yes, training a goldfish!

I probably won’t update on the site much, if at all. However, I’d love to have you visit and follow along at my new blog.

It can be found here:
The Stale Cheerios Blog

As well, I’ve set up an RSS feed, as well as an e-mail subscription option, to make it easy to keep up to date with.

~Mary

I’m probably the only vet student in the history of the world who doesn’t have a pet. (Note: This is an utterly false statement, I know of at least a few of my classmates who don’t have animals).

When I signed my lease on my apartment, my landlady gave me quite a funny look when she learned I was a vet student without any pets. However, my building has a no cat policy, and I would just feel horrible keeping a dog locked up all day in my one bedroom apartment.

I had been thinking about getting something small and furry, but hadn’t yet. I found out that a friend of a friend had a turtle that was needing a new home, so I said I’d take her.

Anyways, I’ve never had a turtle before, so I don’t know a huge amount about turtle care. Now seems like a pretty good time to learn, though! (And I did check out a few books from the library on turtles). So, I’ll post some pictures when I get her. I don’t know a whole lot about her yet, other than she’s about seven years old and named Chloe.

If you’re a horse person and aren’t familiar with this article (it’s real title is “Timing and Rate of Skeletal Maturation in Horses, with comments on starting young horses and the state of the industry,” but it is commonly known as “the Ranger Piece”) than you really really need to go read it now.

The Ranger Piece

For those who don’t want to read the whole piece, here’s a bit about it:

Dr. Deb Bennett has a degree in vertebrate paleontology and is internationally known for her work on horse conformation, development and anatomy. The piece deals mainly with bone growth and maturation in horses, and when a young horse can safely be ridden.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise–a horse’s spine and other bones do not finish fusing until the animal is 5-6 years old. Yet, we start racing horses when they are 2-3, and many horses are put into training months before they start their first race.

Horse races were originally quite long (up to 4 miles) and involved several heats throughout the day, so that in a single day a horse might be asked to go close to 20 miles. Eventually, shorter races were added for younger horses because it was known (even over 100 years ago!) that a young horse was not physically mature and could not handle going that distance without breaking down. However, the short races slowly replaced the longer races as they were popular with spectators and profitable for track managers.

However, it’s not just the Thoroughbred industry, many other breeder start their horses incredibly early. (The Quarter Horse industry immediately comes to mind, however, they are just one of many). Many people think it’s alright to start certain breeds at age 2-3 because they are “fast-maturing.” However, it is utterly false, all horses actually mature at approximately the same rate. As Dr. Deb says:

For there are some breeds of horse–the Quarter Horse is the premier among these–which have been bred in such a manner as to look mature long before they actually are mature. This puts these horses in jeapardy from people who are either ignorant of the closure schedule, or more interested in their own schedule (for futurities or other competition) than they are in teh welfare of the animal.

Basically, many people think when the growth plates in a horse’s knees are finished fusing, that the animal is safe to ride. However, these aren’t the only important growth plates. Many other bones fuse much later, and the spine fuses last of all. Even small horses don’t finish growing until they are 5 1/2. Now, add 6 months for a gelding and add more time for larger, taller horses. A big saddlebred or Thoroughbred might not be fully mature until he is 8. The growth plates in the spine are some of the last ones to close and (importantly) take a lot of stress when the horse is being ridden.

Riding a horse at 2-3 is unlikely to damage the growth plates in his legs. However, it can put stress on the back, which can make it harder for the horse to move properly and learn how to collect himself. However, there’s plenty of light work on the ground that can be done with a young horse.

How many horses do you know that won’t trailer load, are hard to lead, don’t know how to properly lunge, won’t stand tied, or have other ground problems? How about properly teaching these skills to your 2 year old horse rather than riding him? Then, when he’s 15, not only will he still be perfectly sound, but he’ll also know how to trailer load! What a concept.

1. The horses shall run four miles (over undulating terrain, on turf), and the winer shall be recorded.

2. They shall then rub for half an hour.

3. They shall then run a second heat of four miles, and rub for half an hour.

4. They shall then run a final heat of four miles, and the overall winner will be the best two of three.

5. The horses shall carry 80 stone apiece (approximately 160 lbs. –!)

From Dr. Deb Benett’s ‘Ranger Piece”

Most Thoroughbred racehorses these days compete in races that are from .5 to 1.5 miles. Racehorses are started young, and most are in hard training by the time they are 2. However, as they are not physically mature until much, much later, this is incredibly hard on their bodies. Most of today’s racehorses probably couldn’t handle the strenuous races of the past.

Read Part 2

Here’s some common misconceptions about animal training:
Fish can’t be trained.
Cats can’t be trained.
Fish aren’t friendly/cuddly and don’t like to be petted.
Chickens can’t be trained.
Turtles can’t be trained.

So, you might want to think twice next time before calling a fish, bird or reptile dumb!

Seriously.

Here’s some of their signs.

Others have suggested that, as predators, dogs are trying to camouflage their scent to prey animals by smelling like something else. I suspect this just makes them smell like a dog or wolf who rolled in something stinky. Besides, if I were a vulnerable prey animal and I smelled an 80-pound dead squirrel moving toward me, I’d probably start getting a little jumpy.

Besides being extremely funny, I think this is extremely insightful for considering how we readily accept things as scientific fact when they might or might not be true. Scientists don’t really know why dogs roll in dead things, although they have plenty of theories. However, plenty of people have told me before that dogs roll in dead things to camouflage their scent. How do they know this?

And more importantly, when people tell us what we assume to be science facts (or anything, for that matter), do we usually stop and consider if it actually makes sense, or do we usually just accept it at face value? Sometimes a healthy level of skepticism can be beneficial, as it leads to further inquiry and exploration. (Although, being too much of a doubting Thomas can be bad as well.)

So, please keep asking questions of the world around you, and just be glad that you don’t smell like an 80-pound dead squirrel.

(Most) people these days also realize that it doesn’t do a whole lot of good to beat a living horse. Yes, if you scare him badly enough you might be able to force him into that trailer. (This is mainly because at some point the “scary” trailer starts looking a whole lot more comforting than the person using force).

So, beating a horse doesn’t work. What should we do instead? How about using small amounts of pressure and release of pressure coupled with other motivators (such as comfort). Wouldn’t this be the better solution? Intuitively, we think yes. However, what if there’s an even better solution?

A recent study by several Welsh researchers evaluated the use of positive and negative training methods in retraining simple tasks (such as leading, standing for grooming, trailer loading) to rescued horses. (The original article was published in the August 2008 issue of Applied Animal Behavior Science. If you have access to journal databases through your school, you can find it online. Otherwise, you can at least read the abstract here, if you are interested.)

Here’s what they did:
Horse training methods often rely on positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement or a combination of both. (In this context, positive reinforcement refers to something added after the behavior that increases the chance of the behavior occurring again, such as a treat or a scratch behind the ears. Negative reinforcement refers to a stimulus applied that the horse works to avoid, such as pressure. When we pull on the reins, the horse stops because of negative reinforcement, it is seeking to avoid the pressure.)

16 rescued Welsh ponies were trained for seven weeks (4 times a week for 30 minutes) by experienced staff to perform 5 tasks (leading, standing to be groomed, picking up feet, trailer loading, and walking an obstacle course) using either positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. The 8 ponies in the positive reinforcement group were trained using clicker training. The 8 ponies in the other group were trained using a whip/training stick. The stick was applied with a very light touch at first, and then with increasing pressure if the animal did not respond. As soon as the animal responded, the tapping was stopped.

Weekly, a novel object test was given where the ponies were individually released into an arena with a novel object (a hung umbrella). After about week 4 of training, the ponies being trained with positive reinforcement (+R) were significantly more likely to approach the novel object and the observer. This group was also more likely to approach the door to the stable while turned out in the pasture. During training, ponies in the negative reinforcement (-R) group were more likely to exhibit pawing behavior, which is often a sign of frustration. Although both methods were successful for training the ponies, the ponies in the +R group were more likely to exhibit explorative behaviors and were more willing to participate in training. Also, more of the ponies in the +R group met the criteria for re-homing at the end of the study.

Some of my thoughts:
These were all rescue ponies (all had little previous contact with humans, and most past interaction with humans had been aversive). So, they could have been more sensitive to -R techniques than regular horses. This has important implications for rescue groups, who might want to incorporate more +R into their training programs. Pressure (and -R) can be a very effective for training horses. However, as was seen in this study, the horses trained in this method were less likely to exhibit curiosity or to exhibit correct behaviors on their own. So, if we want correct behaviors and control, either training method will do. But, if we want horses that are braver and more curious and that (potentially) can be rehomed faster, +R methods (such as shaping, targeting or luring) might be a better approach. It would be really interesting to see this study redone with “normal” horses that didn’t have a lot of previous stress and baggage.

(And for all you skeptics about whether or not horses can be trained with mainly positive reinforcement, go read the clickRyder blog or go watch some youtube videos. Like this one, or this one, or this one.)

This is great for dogs because it provides both mental stimulation and physical activity. Instead of just standing there and gulping down their food, the dog has to do a bit of work to get the food. Buster Cubes can also be really helpful if your dog usually tried to gulp down his whole bowl of food in one bite. Since only a few pieces of food come out every time the cube rolls over, the dog ends up eating much slower.

Ginger now loves her Buster Cube. However, it took her a little while to get the hang of it. My parents usually leave a bowl of food out since she does a good job of not overeating. So, I took her food up yesterday mid-morning (otherwise she wouldn’t have been interested in the Cube at all, if she still had a bowl of food out). Then, mid-afternoon, we loaded the Buster Cube full of treats and a handful of stale cheerios (This dog Loves stale cheerios!) and presented it too her. She had no idea what to do with it!

She used her tongue to get as much out of the hole as she could. However, she was then stuck. She figured out pretty quickly that she could push it around with her nose. So push it around she did! Push, push, push, all around the kitchen. Then she gave up. And sat there, head cocked, ears alert, telling me that she was stuck.

So, I helped her push it around and got some more of the food to fall out. Then, she pushed it around with her nose some more, until she got frustrated and stuck again. She couldn’t figure out that she needed to get it to turn over. Merely pushing it wasn’t enough. So, we gave up for awhile. Later, we tried again, but she still couldn’t get the hang of it. Later in the evening, my dad gave her back her bowl of food, as she was completely stumped by the Buster Cube.

Today, we did a bit of training outside and then I left her outside with the Buster Cube. She completely ignored. I kept checking back on her through the window to see what she was doing. About half an hour after I threw her outside, I saw her playing with the Buster Cube! First, she figured out that if she pushed it with her nose in the dirt, it tipped over, and that’s how the food came out. Later, I also saw her using her paw to get it to flip over to release the food. Since there are leaves all over the backyard it was an extra challenge. After the food fell out she then had to find it in the leaves. I did take a bit of video, but I don’t have the right cables for the video camera at my parent’s house. I’ll try to post some of the video this week when I get back to Kansas.

I think she kept getting stumped in the house because she wanted me to solve the puzzle for her. She’d stop, and sit there, and stare at me, as if asking me to get the darn thing to release the treats for her. Outside, she was all on her own. The thing smelled like food, and she was curious enough that she eventually solved the puzzle.

This concept of making an animal work for their food is very often used in zoos these days and is commonly called enrichment. Many zoos these days are trying to come up with creative and complex ways to feed their animals. This is beneficial because by mimicking problems animals face in the wild (having to spend time finding food), animals increase their level of physical activity, are provided with more mental stimulation and spend more time engaging in eating related activities. This is particularly important–wild animals spend much of their time foraging for food and eating. In a captive setting, they often spend much less time foraging or hunting for food, which can lead to boredom and unhappy animals.

I’ve watched the bears at a zoo play with a toy very similar to a Buster Cube. The keepers had taken a large plastic barrel, punched out a few holes in the side, filled the barrel partially with food, and then hung it from a wall so that it was several feet above the ground. In order to get the food out, the bear had to bat and swing at the barrel causing it to move and rotate. Eventually, a piece or two of food would fall out. The bear was absolutely fascinated with this toy, and I watched him play with it for quite a while.

Sure our dogs aren’t wild animals. However, by adding a bit of variety to their lives it can also help to reduce boredom and make their lives a bit more interesting.

She’s caught on super fast, and has made really good progress in her first 5 days of clicker training. We’ve kept the sessions short, no longer than 4-5 minutes, but have been doing 3-5 session per day.

We started out by charging the clicker, working on a bit of basic targeting, and getting her sit super good. We also got the down command super. Before, down almost always had to be accompanied by luring and/or physically moving the dog. Now, I say down, and she hits the floor. Super fast. And with her tail wagging.

We’ve also been working on come, because it would be nice if she knew how to do this well, especially since she gets out every now and then and is too fast to chase. We started out playing the Come game with Jay and me. (This is the Come game.) Boy was she confused at first! Jay hadn’t done any clicker training with her, so she wasn’t about to leave me and go see if he might have anything. So, we backed up a bit and started with Jay and me standing together. We’d wait for her to come and then click and reward. Then, we’d throw another treat halfway across the kitchen so she had to go get it. When she came back to us, Jay would click and reward her. Pretty quickly she learned that Jay was good for treats as well. The we moved to standing apart again, and later on added a cue. Now, she’ll come running in the backyard whenever I call. However, I still don’t think she’d be reliable out of the yard.

Today we started on loose leash walking, as this would be really nice for her to learn how to do. She also finally figured out how her Buster Cube works. Maybe finally is a bad word, as we only introduced the Buster Cube yesterday. (But boy was she confused yesterday!) I did take some video of her playing with the Buster Cube, I’ll try and post that sometime soon.