Even fish can be positively trained (video)!

I recently came across an amazing video with 10 tricks done by a fish! I highly recommend the whole channel Amazing Animal Tricks.

Yet again it shows the power of training and it's another animal who shows that there are no animals that cannot be trained or make significant progress with training. 

I hope that videos like this can inspire all of you to try training. Even when the only animal that you have is a fish - you can work with her too! No amount of reading and watching can replace the hands-on experience! No matter how many times you heard that fish are stupid or that your dog is too stupid to learn, you can prove those people wrong by putting the work in. It's important to learn the theory first - how to break the behaviour down to small steps and increments, how to progress and (most importantly!) how to reinforce as well as the proper mechanics behind it. But later, it's the work that you put in that matters.

Photo by Ludovic Migneault on Unsplash

Training animals is a skill. Just seeing the video or reading about it will not give you that skill. Even training one animal is not enough to be able to train every other animal. It takes time and practice and often patience. It's about seeing small changes and continuing to move forward. If you simply put your hand or a hoop in the fish tank without any preparation the fish will most likely swim away and hide. Just because it's doable it doesn't mean that you can expect the end result immediately. If you are not willing to put the work in, you won't get results. However, it's important to celebrate even the smallest approximations as that might keep you going and help you enjoy the process no matter how long it might take. At some point, you will be surprised that the animal reliably does the trick and it seemed faster than you assumed!

I studied Animal Psychology 5 years ago and have worked with many animals since and I still struggle with certain cases. I might see some progress but it can seem incredibly slow, especially in the shelter environment. Just because I read all the books, watched so many videos and trained myself, it still doesn't make it certain that the progress with the next animal will be fast and easy! It's always a process. Nonetheless, seeing progress is the best feeling and reward for all the time originally put in training. It makes it all worth it!

I would love to see more videos like the one with Star showing that all animals learn. With a little bit of work, there are more wonders to experience in this world than many people ever imagined possible.

Would love to hear what you think about that. Did the video surprise you? If you have a training video to share, I would love to see it.

Be a Superhero for your animal, he will love you for it!