COOPERATION IN MEDICAL CARE

This video corresponds to pg 10 of the guidelines. It represents an example of a tiger trained to cooperate in medical care.

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

COOPERATION IN MEDICAL CARE

This video corresponds to pg 10 of the guidelines. It represents an example of puffins trained to cooperate in medical care.

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

PARTICIPATION IN DAY-TO-DAY CARE

This video corresponds to pg 10 of the guidelines. It represents an example of flamingos trained to cooperate in day-to-day care.  

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCES/ CREATES ENRICHING EXPERIENCES

This video corresponds to pg 10 of the guidelines. It represents an example of a horse trained to participate in an educational program, for enrichment, and to benefit fitness.

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

CREATES ENRICHING EXPERIENCES

This video corresponds to pg 10 of the guidelines. It represents an example in which training was used to contribute to enriching experiences for large cats and to benefit fitness.

Training can provide highly appetitive experiences for animals. Learning new behaviours can offer cognitive challenges that can result in desired outcomes for the animal. Shaping through approximations can increase the difficulty and complexity of enrichment programs which can lead to measurable welfare benefits. For example, offering food to big cats at increasing heights on a vertical feed pole. However, training must be continually re-evaluated to ensure optimal welfare is maintained (Laule & Desmond, 1998; Hare & Sevenich, 2001; Fernandez, 2022).

Video Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

Training: Dublin Zoo

FACILITATES DATA COLLECTION FOR SCIENTIFIC STUDIES

This video corresponds to pg 10 of the guidelines. The panda has been trained to allow an oral swab for data collection for a scientific study. This is also important for cooperation in medical care.

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

"CALM" BEHAVIORS

This video corresponds to pg 11 of the guidelines. Reinforcing calm behaviours in the presence of animal caregivers is often an important first step in a training program. Calm behaviours must be observable and measurable. Before sheep sheering could begin, calm behaviours were reinforced.

Credit: Djurparks Zoologen

TARGETING

This video corresponds to pg 12 of the guidelines. This iguana has been trained to target. Targeting or target training is training an animal to orient a body part towards something. This can then be used to direct the animal or body part without touching the animal.

Credit: Djurparks Zoologen

STATIONING

This video corresponds to pg 12 of the guidelines. Stationing is training an animal to remain in one location for a prolonged duration. Stationing is often used to achieve other behaviour goals such as collecting animal weights. In this example a warty pig learns to go to a station when caregivers enter the enclosure. The platform has also been used on top of a scale to collect weights.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

SHIFTING

This video corresponds to pg 13 of the guidelines. These black necked stilts have been trained to recall and shift from their display space into a holding area off display. The two spaces are then separated by closing a door.

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

RECALL 

This video corresponds to pg 13 of the guidelines. These pelicans have been trained to recall and shift.  

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

TRANSPORTATION

This video corresponds to pg 14 of the guidelines. Teaching transportation proactively, before it is necessary, is helpful in reducing the potential stress associated with animal moves. In this example, target training is used to help teach a Komodo dragon to enter a crate for the first time.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

BRIDGING STIMULUS

This video corresponds to pg 21 of the guidelines. When contiguity is difficult to attain, a bridging stimulus can be helpful. In this example behaviour is happening so fast, the bridging stimulus helps precisely indicate which specific action will result in desired outcomes.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

AVERSIVE STIMULUS

This video corresponds to pg 25 of the guidelines. Aversive stimuli are an important part of a feedback loop and should not be confused with coercion. Pain, fear, anxiety, or distress are not required for aversive stimuli to provide feedback to the learner. In this video the pressure applied from the wind is an aversive stimulus that results in behavior change. The birds try to change direction to fly into the wind. Flying into the wind allows them to have more control over their landing.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

REINFORCER

This video corresponds to pg 26 of the guidelines. Once an appetitive or aversive stimulus has shown to reliably increase behaviour, that stimulus can be called a “reinforcer. In this example food is being used as an appetitive stimulus to reinforce behaviors that are useful for managing health care of this white rhino.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

CONTRIVED REINFORCER

This video corresponds to pg 26 of the guidelines. Contrived reinforcers are those that require the mediation of the caregiver for the animal to access them. These may be required to initially train a behaviour. Food is a frequently used contrived reinforcer in animal training.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training 

FUNCTIONAL REINFORCER

This video corresponds to pg 26 of the guidelines. Functional reinforcers are the reinforcers already existing in the environment that have been identified via assessment as maintaining the behaviour. It can be particularly helpful to look for the functional reinforcer when evaluating undesired behaviour. In this example the functional reinforcer was distance from an aversive stimulus (people). Therefore people were removed for calm responses under conditions in which the iguana could be successful.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

NATURAL OR PROGRAM SPECIFIC REINFORCER

This video corresponds to pg 26 of the guidelines. Natural or Program Specific Reinforcers: Reinforcers that serve to maintain behaviour independent of the animal caregiver’s efforts. Naturally, existing reinforcers are helpful for behaviours that caregivers would like to see emitted outside of training session.

In this example two red fronted macaws were initially trained using contrived reinforcers (food and attention) to fly for educational programs. However the activity of flying produced a naturally reinforcing effect. Birds would fly for 20- 30 minutes often ignoring contrived reinforcers. They would stop occasionally to rest and return to looping suggesting the activity itself was reinforcing.

Credit: Avian Behavior International and Barbara's Force Free Animal Training

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

This video corresponds to pg 29 of the guidelines. Positive reinforcement involves the addition of a stimulus as an outcome of emitting a response that results in an increase or strengthening of the behaviour under certain conditions.

In this example an Asian elephant is trained to participate in its own health care using positive reinforcement in a protected contact arrangement. This allows animal caregivers to easily monitor health and provide preventive care on a regular basis.

Credit: Copenhagen Zoo

NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT

This video corresponds to pg 29 of the guidelines. Negative reinforcement involves the removal of a stimulus as an outcome of emitting a response that results in an increase or strengthening of the behaviour under certain conditions. In this example initially a dik dik avoids people indicating distance from people is a desired outcome. This can be used to reinforce desired responses such as calm behavior in the presence of people.

Credit: Barbara's Force Free Animal Training