23 Sep 37 Bird Training Stories with Katie, Paige and Hillary for MemberFest Part 1
It's our Avian Behavior Lab MemberFest 2021, celebrating the second anniversary of our online animal behavior and training membership platform....
Author: Hillary Hankey
03 Sep 36 On curiosity, leadership and evolution as an animal trainer with Dani Poirier Larson
You can’t tell anyone to be curious, you can show them, you can inspire them, and you can lead with humility and grace That’s what Dani Poirier Larson of the Southwick Zoo shows, the spirit she embodies and shows her team....
26 Aug 35 How Our Animals Handle the Pandemic
Animal behavior sure does love routine. But what happens when that routine changes and is beyond our control? What about those changes that affect our mental well-being and then transfer on the way we work with our animals and fellow animal lovers? We talk about...
19 Aug What’s the Difference in Using Systematic Desensitization versus Counter Conditioning in Animal Training?
Posted at 14:02h
in Animal Training, Bird of Prey Training, Parrot Care and Husbandry, Parrot Training
When we have an animal, or in our little avian saturated pocket of the world, a bird, that is showing fear, stress, aggression, or anxiety of some sort in response to a specific stimulus, traditionally we have turned toward procedures such as systematic desensitization or...
28 Jul What is a Hanging Bate and Why Do We Want to Avoid Them at All Costs?
If you have ever handled a trained bird of prey, you might have had to deal with a bate. A bate is when you have the bird on your glove, you have the jesses tucked in, and the bird decides it wants to go somewhere...
14 Jul 34 What to do when your bird picks favorites
Everyone has preferences, and our birds and other animals are no different. From Amazon Parrots, African Greys, to ravens and Turkey Vultures, the birds that we work with make no bones about it when they have chosen a favorite. Sometimes it is harmless and maybe...
18 Jun 33 Interview with Wildlife Biologist Wes Larson
Hillary got to sit down with the Griz Kid! Wildlife biologist Wes Larsen, bear expert, and all around awesome person talked with us about his work with HawkWatch this spring banding Golden Eagles in Utah....
04 Jun 32 Thinking of Free Flying Your Parrot?
As a professional free flight bird trainer with high visibility, Hillary has heard from many different companion parrot free flyers of various experience levels. These insights reveal many different outcomes in free flying companion parrots that survivorship bias doesn't always reveal This episode examines several important...
27 May How Understanding Nature Can Help You with Dogs and Babies and Dancing Barn Owls
Recently in our podcast episode #29 Why Scientific Literacy Matters to Our Animals, we spoke about how the human brain is wired for thought in different ways and how that impacts the way we interact with the world. Shocker of all shockers, this has direct...
21 May 31 Applying Negative Reinforcement for Calm Behavior (and what the past has taught us about challenging animal training science)
In this episode, Hillary uses her experience as a guest speaker at the ABMA 2021 conference as well as her evolution on the principle of applying negative reinforcement in using space as a reinforcer to reinforce calm behavior in challenging birds to help the listener...