Training Matters

10/19/2026

Highly recommend with Mary Hunter, who has presented at our Animal Trainers’ Retreats and is a co-writer of the manual for tabletop training game PORTL, which we play at all our events.

Happening tomorrow!

Join Mary Hunter and TAGteach International for a webinar about reinforcement systems!

The webinar will be held on Tuesday, October 20, from 1:00–2:30 pm Eastern Time.

A recording WILL be available if you can’t join the live presentation.

This is a “pay what you can” webinar!

To register, visit this link and click on the EXPLORE button:
TagTeachMembers.com

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Here’s the full description for the event:

Building reinforcement systems for accelerated learning

In this webinar with Mary Hunter, we’ll look closely at reinforcement systems and how they work. Taking the time to carefully design and teach new reinforcement systems can greatly expedite your teaching. As well, Mary will help you understand how to analyze your existing reinforcement systems.

What is a reinforcement system?

A reinforcement system describes the back-and-forth interaction that happens between a teacher and a learner during the delivery of a reinforcer. At each step in the sequence, the teacher’s behavior cues the learner’s next behavior. Likewise, the learner’s behavior cues the teacher’s next behavior.

Learning how to recognize and build reinforcement systems and interconnected chains will help you be more responsive to your learner, turning your training sessions into a back-and-forth conversation.

How do you teach a new reinforcement system?

Mary will share six steps that you can use to design and teach a reinforcement system as an interconnected chain. This process involves finding a suitable teaching environment, selecting a reinforcer, planning an interconnected chain, teaching your learner where and how to collect the reinforcer, adding a reinforcer signal, and finally utilizing your reinforcement system while teaching new behaviors.

Throughout the presentation, Mary will share animal training video examples, as well as examples with human learners using the shaping game PORTL. These examples will help you better understand how reinforcement systems work and why taking the time to teach and improve your reinforcement systems can help accelerate your teaching.

See you tomorrow !!!

Register at: TagTeachMembers.com

10/18/2026

Apparently almost everyone has ADHD. I keep seeing posts explaining the "condition" as a label. "I'm an ADHD woman." "I have ADHD brain." These always strike me as off the mark.

One recent post says that people with ADHD do better with something called "body doubling" because their "brain doesn’t respond to motivation or discipline." That can't possibly be true. What can be true is that particular individuals respond to different environments and reinforcers.

What the body doubling refers to is working next to someone who is working as you work, not commenting on or evaluating your progress. Apparently for "ADHD brains" this sort of environmental setup is conducive to getting work done, whereas some other attempts to provide “motivation” and “discipline” are not. For ALL people diagnosed with ADHD because of what brain scans have indicated. This is likely an oversimplification of the neuroscience.

I'm sure the setup--what trainers call the antecedent arrangement--of working with others is helpful for some individuals diagnosed with ADHD (the diagnosis of which is based on their behaviors under certain conditions, not a brain scan) and not for others. I'm sure it's also helpful for many people who aren't labeled as having ADHD.

It's the behaviors that are the tell. Our understanding of the brain science gives us some background, what might be called distant antecedent, information to base interventions on that we then track the effects of. How do I know this? Because of the children I've observed growing up under this label of ADHD. They couldn't be more different. The mother of one child with this diagnosis couldn't understand why it was called a hyperactivity disorder for her child. She said, "They should call it attention deficit slug disorder," because he was the farthest thing from hyperactive. His thinking and analysis patterns were unusual, to say the least, but he wasn't hyperactive as we commonly understand that descriptor.

One fabulous third-grade teacher was the first to tell me that ADHD is just a label. I had to wrestle with that one. But to actually work with the children diagnosed with ADHD in her classroom, it needed to be understood that they were different individuals. She did have two boys work sitting together quite a lot on the advanced work they were capable of completing but struggled to do. She observed their behaviors and devised a classroom structure that could work for them. She might well have done quite differently for my friend's adorable slug child. Or a little girl who preferred working alone.

Don't label your children or your animals. Look at their behavior. Devise antecedent conditions that help them to be successful. Reinforce with the reinforcers they find meaningful. Remember that reinforcers are plentiful and often more than one is supplied at the same time. In the body doubling concept, the antecedent condition is working in close proximity to others. The reinforcers might be social and sensory just by virtue of that proximity. Whether a setup is successful in providing motivation and discipline to learn and access relevant reinforcers will be indicated in its results.

Image of a dark miniature horse (Angel) "smiling" when cued by trainer Ryan Talbot, who is dressed for cool weather in a wool cap and coat and boots. Is Angel happy? Who knows? What I do know is that Angel is working eagerly with Ryan for the food he is being offered from a white treat bucket strapped to his waist. And that we all enjoy watching it.

10/17/2026

The fall scents are very reinforcing for my three pups. The boxer-pit mix, Winnie, normally hates chilly, rainy mornings like this one. But the smells were too enticing to go back to the house porch as he sometimes does.

Two off leash morning sniffy walks on my farm are part of our routine, which means the dogs need a solid recall. The smells the dogs are exploring are likely animals who have been on the move. I saw a porcupine in a tree and was able to call the dogs off an air scent of the animal. Naturally, they got a lot of cheese.

10/17/2026

In zoos and some other professional animal care facilities, all animals are taught a recall, or to come when called on a cue. And yet dog and horse owners can struggle with this important behavior. There are predictable reasons for that. When we understand how behavior works, we can sort it and achieve more reliable recalls even in challenging situations. And we should. It’s a question of safety.

10/10/2026

People and their dogs in Brooklyn. Love the huskies just hanging with their people. No runaways there!

10/07/2026

Small wins. They add up and look different for each individual.

10/07/2026

PORTL play at our Animal Trainers’ Retreat: Training With Love + Science last month. I’m still digesting the content of the in-depth presentations that weekend, but the fun of the play stays with me. PORTL is a tabletop training game in which teachers and human learners practice the mechanical skills and investigate the science of reinforcement involved in teaching and learning with all species. At its best, teaching and learning new behaviors is a joyous process for both parties in the process. Just as we practice here.

10/06/2026

A few weeks ago, I shared a video of mini horses Diablo and Angel’s very different responses to applesauce. My plan was to be able to deliver medication via a syringe cooperatively to both hoses using applesauce as the medium. In this video, Angel is beginning to take the syringed applesauce enthusiastically. So much so that he grabs the syringe with his mouth unprompted by me. The delivery system for Diablo has changed, which I briefly describe in the video. care horses