3 Tricks to Make Your Cooperative Care Behaviour Reliable

One of the biggest goals we try to reach in any park we consult or work at is to increase the animals skill set. We like to train our animals to be part in their own care. After working with so many species we discovered that the technique we apply works across all species. It is a pretty simple formula. But before we talk about this formula it is important to remember that we only use reinforcement practices to empower the individuals.  

The strongest behaviours have the best history. This basically means that each approximation we made to reach the desired behaviour is reinforced very well. Within cooperative care we are building history like this, whenever you request an approximation and you reinforce afterwards you go back to the default position. To then ask the next approximation. Often we do not go back to the default behaviour at first. But this is the important detail if we want to create a strong history. When this isn’t strong our cooperative care behaviour isn’t strong.

Number 1: Foundation 

First things first and that is which foundation behaviours do we need to build our program? This depends on the facility and if the animal lives by themselves, in a group or in a mixed species exhibit. Most often you need the following behaviours:

Start of session

A very import behaviour to train. This indicates that the animal has to come to the trainer to start the session. If you don’t have this you don’t have a training session or if this signal is unclear you might end up with anticipatory behaviour such as pacing as a result. 

Default/ control behaviour

This behaviour is basically an animal staying with you after the start of session signal is given. It is not a normal thing for animals to stay after a start of session signal and therefore we have to teach them this. If you work with tigers, zebra’s or sea lions, the animal has to be conditioned that we are a safe place to eat at. It is a normal behaviour for animals to take a food source and go to an area they feel safe at. Animals put themselves in a vulnerable position when they eat. You are going to be this trustful position.

Target

The target is often seen as a behaviour itself but actually it is a tool to create other behaviours. This means that We shape behaviours with this target and then train the target away again. A good foundation to have is animals that can touch the target anywhere. When I put the target in front of their paw they touch this with there paw, same for their hip, nose or even back. If this foundation is set you have a great start to be successful in the next steps of cooperative care training. 

Number 2: Body positions 

We want the animals to be in specific body positions. If this is in free contact or in protective contact. These positions we need for further care. Think for example about a polar bear putting their paw in a sleeve, or an elephant turning around to see their bum area, or an orca giving their fluke for blood samples and so on. For us to do the actual medical behaviour we need strong body positions. With these positions come duration. If your body position is trained you want duration. 

For the vet to take a proper ultrasound you might want to have your animal in a specific position for up to 20 minutes. For a vaccination it’s probably just 20 seconds. A blood sample depending where it is taken might take you about 1-2 minutes with all the actions done before and after. Talk to your vet about how long it will take and train the animal accordingly. 

Number 3: Desensitization

When the first and the 2^nd are done very well we start the desensitization process. This is where the animal has to stay in a specific position where slowly the changes in the environment are made. Think about specific smells, sounds, amount of people, apparatus, sensations etc. 

The best thing to do is actually talk to the vet at first to find out how such a procedure would look like. From there we are able to train to reach a more detailed goal. For example the vet moves a lot from side to side this means that we have to train our animals to be ok with this. 

When we look at the video below regarding the xray of the giraffe’s leg you can see there is a lot happening. All these things have to be trained: 

• Multiple people
• The xray disks used
• The stick which holds the xray disks
• The sound the xray makes
• The light that comes from the machine
• The machine itself 
• The movement of the people
• The jackets they wear

This is a lot to condition the animal to. If we don’t do this properly you wont have the same outcome. The same is said for this deworming process for example. We have to feel where we need to be then clean the spot with some alcohol, then stick and inject, then clean the spot again. In this case with the loggerhead we needed to repeat 3 times.

When you have a strong foundation, strong body positions and well trained animals for any apparatus, people and senses you will have a very high success rate within your cooperative care program. 

Have fun training!