3 things I learnt watching tigers and hyenas training sessions
1. There are zoos that have the welfare of their animals at heart and they go above and beyond to make sure their animals are in the best conditions possible.
2. You don’t have to tell your animal that they’ve done something “wrong” when you are using behaviour science principles effectively.
3. We can all strive to achieve more with our companion animals.
Our role in training animals
Training animals is far bigger term than many people think. It’s about empowering them and giving them a choice. It’s more like educating them. The question is, will we make that effort to educate ourselves? And it's not about judging one another and fighting with each other on who is right. As long as we continue to educate ourselves and let others do the same, we can massively improve the welfare of all the animals we interact with.
Giving your dog a choice
We often think that when we give choice to our dogs, they just won’t do anything that we would like them to do. But from my experience, the more choice you give them, the more likely they will be to spend time with you.
Many times we don’t even bother trying to learn a new skill. We convince ourselves that it’s not for us. When what we could do is to find the first successive approximation and start learning through a fun and successful process.