This is from Dragonfly Farm’s levels program for training a dog using positive reinforcement (clicker training). However, it applied equally as well to other species.
Humans are natural lumpers. We think “This dog needs to learn a 60′ retrieve over a kangaroo” and we don’t stop to think if the dog has ever MET a kangaroo, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'
Why people fail at training animals.
November 27th, 2008 · No Comments
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Night Sky and Flashlights!
November 25th, 2008 · 1 Comment
I went out to see the horses briefly this evening right as it was getting dark.
I saw both Jupiter and Venus tonight, which was pretty neat.
Casey Jane, however, was quite concerned about my flashlight. But, she’s a lot more confident these days. So, instead of bolting off, she just followed me around the pasture at [...]
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Good Dog!
November 21st, 2008 · 1 Comment
Here’s a well trained dog!
This dog, who’s about a year old, just won StartPet 2008. Really fun video, you can tell how excited and willing to please the dog is. Both the dog and owner look like they’re having a blast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upLdskCXAhU
This is another really interesting video. It shows how fast a behavior can be aquired [...]
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Wonderful Screaming Frogs
November 17th, 2008 · No Comments
Animals have all sorts of wonderful and wild ways of warding of predators. Frogs, for instance, will often “scream” when touched by a predator to startle the predator and allow the frog to escape. Also, some will urinate as they jump away to cover their scent and to leave the predator with a bad taste.
What [...]
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Elective Veterinary Procedures
November 16th, 2008 · No Comments
One interesting thing about vet medicine is many of the procedures vets do are optional procedures that may improve quality of life, but sometimes are purely aesthetic or purely to make the owner happier. (Think, for example, of things like docking tails and ears, declawing cats, and even things such as spaying and neutering.)
Also, many [...]
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Horse Detectives!
November 15th, 2008 · No Comments
So, here’s a neat little horse mystery I came up with yesterday after some online research I was doing. Hope you enjoy!
You work as a detective at the local police station in Anytown, USA. It’s Saturday morning, and you’ve gone into the office to see if you can’t finish up several things you were working [...]
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Did you know?
November 12th, 2008 · No Comments
A horse cannot breathe through it’s mouth, it can only breathe through it’s nose. So, that’s why you don’t ever see a horse panting or breathing hard through it’s mouth after a hard workout.
Also, horses can’t throw up (which is why they end up with colic and bloat and all sorts of other wonderful [...]
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Recent Readings
November 11th, 2008 · No Comments
I recently finished Burton Raffel’s translation of Das Nibelungenlied, which was absolutely wonderful. His translation of the High Middle German is fantastic. The poem flows with a structure and rhythm and is almost hauntingly beautiful. The Yale Press review compares the story to both the Illiad and The Godfather. As well, I found many themes [...]
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No Hoof, No Horse?
November 10th, 2008 · 2 Comments
“Of the 122 million equines found around the world, no more than 10 percent are clinically sound.
Some 10 percent (12.2 million) are clinically, completely and unusably lame.The remaining 80 percent (97.6 million) are somewhat lame, and could not pass a soundness evaluation test.”
- American Farriers Journal, Nov. 2002, v.26 #6, p.5.
This number is absolutely astounding. [...]
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Magical Numbers (Your Age By Riding)
November 8th, 2008 · No Comments
Here’s a math trick I’ve seen before that was posted on one of the horse forums I frequently read and the underlying explanation for how it works.
Trick:
YOUR AGE BY RIDING
Don’t tell me your age; you probably would tell a falsehood anyway… but, your instructor may know!!
YOUR AGE BY RIDING MATH
DON’T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!
It [...]
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