When we talk about giving animals "control" in training, we stumble into vague territory. Control is a hypothetical construct. It's abstract, unmeasurable, and it shifts the conversation away from behavior and back into feelings and intention. Let's ground ourselves in what we can observe and influence:...
Choice and control are buzzy words in animal training right now. But what do we really mean when we talk about choice? And are we actually offering it? Are we really performing a functional assessment to see what true choice means? And doesn’t B.F. Skinner’s...
If you've ever found yourself stuck in a training session thinking "why isn't this working?", the answer might not be your mechanics, your timing, or even your reinforcer. It might be that you never clearly defined what you're actually training for. Let's talk about why clarity...
October is usually our busiest offsite program month. Be it the spooky season, and people can’t get enough of our owls or school programming getting into the swing of the year. That means our birds are on the move. Our staff shifts our training goals...
Coercion. It’s a tough word. It can bring up ideas of force or even harm — and it’s not always easy to look at directly. But the truth is, most of us have used coercion in our training without even realizing it. It shows up...
If you’ve been working with birds for a while, chances are you’ve picked up your fair share of training advice — some of it helpful, some of it… maybe not so much. “Don’t let the bird win.” “Hold on ‘til they give up.” “He just needs to know...
If you’ve ever looked at a tough behavior case and thought, “Where do I even begin?”—you’re not alone. I’ve been there, too. And not just with one species. I’m talking about cockatoos that scream sunrise to sunset. African greys with surgical bite precision. Raptors that...
If you have worked with a bird who has a hard time with the smallest of changes, such as a vulture, raven, or older parrot, you can probably appreciate that when 17 year old condor Suyana joined the Avian Behavior team after living her entire...
Choice and control are really buzzy words in animal training. Here’s the thing about how we use them in animal training: it sounds really nice in a conference slide or an Instagram caption. But when you’re out there in the aviary or standing in front...
When we talk about giving effective feedback, what we’re really talking about is how we communicate as trainers, mentors, and leaders in the animal training space. What does it look like when we’re working together as a team, making sure we’re heading in the right...