Cover Photo Credit: AnimalTrainingCenter, Austria Whether you’re working on a voluntary mouth open, an ultrasound, or perhaps conditioning a blood sample with the tiger or rectal exam with elephants. All of these behaviours have one thing in common, and that is the duration of the behaviour. We have all trained Read more…
Cover Photo: Successful animal training is about Communication and Motivation. Trainer: Anette Olsson, photographer: Björn Johansson. Orsa Björnpark. Is the animal you’re training responding to your requests? Doing the behaviour, as it were? Great! That means two things. You’ve successfully communicated what you want the animal to do, and The Read more…
Recently I came back from a trip to Australia and New Zealand both for presentations and workshops. I had a blast! Sharing experiences and training techniques is one of my passions. To change the welfare of animals in the zoo became my focus a while ago and especially after I Read more…
Positive reinforcement is not just applying an object or food source what helps increase the behaviour you want. It actually goes a lot further than this. Working in a zoo setting gives a whole different perspective to reinforcement for the animals. A go to at first is 9 out of Read more…
In 2005 I started to work at Ouwehands Zoo in the Netherlands. I worked under a great supervisor who taught me a lot over the years to come. One of his key points I never forget is to train animals to be used for anything and everything. He explained me Read more…
In this materialistic world, many of us are addicted to money because now we can buy stuff. Money can buy it all and some of us would even argue that money can even buy happiness. We go to a casino or buy lottery tickets to hope for the jackpot. Of Read more…
I don’t have any kids. I would like them though because I think it’s great to see such little creatures growing up and to be part of their adventures. Raising kids is hard and I have to give a lot of credit to my mom because if I look at Read more…
Species and individuals who prefer to flee… Where do you start? You know this one animal, or these species who are extremely afraid of humans? In the marine mammal world, we do have these individuals who are more sensitive than others. In the zoo world we have many species who Read more…
