Training Matters

18/08/2025

In defense of feeder toys.

I know, I know. It’s fashionable now to poo-poo feeder toys. They aren’t really enrichment or all of what enrichment is. Fair enough on the latter point: they aren’t the one thing that is enrichment. The point about enrichment that there isn’t one thing. There are many things that prompt behavioral variety in keeping with a species’ behavioral needs.

Here’s one. As many know by now, I am raising a litter of puppies. This is my first and probably my only endeavor at puppy raising. I had a nice dog. I bred her with a nice dog. We have EIGHT fractious and active 7-week-old puppies right now.

Feeder toys help me to divert them from their fractiousness with each other when it gets too intense. They give me a way to get them all in from outside: yell “puppies, puppies, puppies” and provide feeder toys. They give the pups things to interact with that are sometimes unpredictable, take some figuring out, and offer different textures and smells to explore. They add chew items to their collection of such. Etc.

So, they help me, one part of the two-individual equation that is dog stewardship. And they provide opportunities for lots of natural puppy behaviors: foraging, chewing, licking, learning how objects behave and some of their physical properties, using one’s body in relation to the toys, acquiring reinforcement both for behaviors and just because.

Don’t ditch the feeder toys because it’s a fad to do so. Use them with behavioral purpose. Remember that you, as the dog’s person, count, too. And make sure you are meeting and even exceeding your dogs’ behavioral needs in all their variety.

Picture below of the feeder toys and a paper roll that will be distributed after the heathens wake up from their post-breakfast nap and go out to potty.

12/08/2025

Featuring trainers, researchers, and behavior analysts using real-world strategies grounded in ABA.

11/08/2025

10/08/2025

Another, even more beautiful piece by Francesca Degli Espinosa. Behavior is the root of all learning. Behavior in itself is something to be valued and understood by teachers of all species. Our workshops explore how behavior works and shaping for all learners. Link to the next one in the comments.

How Lilly learned to offer movement, rather than wait to be moved

10/08/2025

I may have shared this previously here, but this author's writing is so very important, illustrating how the field of applied behavior analysis is evolving when best practices are followed. Shaping without touching the learner is something we practice here at our workshops, the next coming up in September. Link in the comments.

How a labrador puppy taught me behaviour analysis

30/07/2025

Many years ago now I was an avid participant in Bob Bailey and Parvene Farhoody's chicken training workshops. There were five of them, focusing on foundational aspects of training: discrimination, cueing, criteria, chaining and teaching. One of the most meaningful aspects of the workshops, and there were many, was to learn to predict what the chicken would do based on its behavior so you could capitalize on that as the trainers. We were also informed that if we had to pick up and restart the chicken at the task (and we all did at some point) we were "punishing" the chicken, which no one wanted to do. It was hard, really hard, to see and react to the micro movements of the chicken's behavior so that we could shape it toward our end goal without touching the animal. No equipment. No luring. Just you and your chicken, your clicker, your food dispenser and the props you were working with.

It was mostly dog trainers, but not only dog trainers, who attended these workshops. There were horse trainers, therapists, teachers, school administrators, and probably representatives of other professions I wasn't aware of. All understood that learning to shape behavior without touching the learner was an important skill.

Behavior analysts who work with children and RBTs who implement their teaching plans would do well to learn this skill. It may be a skill that changes all the negative press about applied behavior analysis. ABA isn't the issue. It's how it's implemented with learners.

Link to a fabulous substack piece by a behavior analyst on this exact topic in the comments. Among others, the piece credits Kiki Yablon of Kiki Yablon Dog Training, who is a featured speaker and panelist in our upcoming Animal Trainers' Retreat: Training With Love + Science.



Photo by Debbie Jacobs of my beautiful fawn and black Windsprite cuddled with four of her puppies.

28/07/2025

Many folks think of reinforcement as a single, isolated event: something we give the learner as a "reward" that increases the likelihood of that behavior occurring in the future under similar circumstances. But reinforcement applied well is much more than that.

Mary Hunter - StaleCheerios and Behavior Explorer will help us to understand how reinforcement is a process, a series of behaviors or interactions with our learners during our Animal Trainers' Retreat: Training With Love + Science in Vermont in September. Mary's talk, "Building reinforcement systems to improve communication with your learners," will examine reinforcement as a series of behaviors instead of a "thing" we give a learner after a behavior. Mary works with horses as well as dogs and this talk will apply to teaching of all species, as will many of the other talks at our event, linked in the comments.

Other panelists/presenters: Kiki Yablon of Kiki Yablon Dog Training and Behavior Works; Eileen Anderson of Eileenanddogs; Debbie Jacobs of Fearful Dogs and Fearfuldogs.com; Laura Monaco Torelli - Animal Behavior Training Concepts; Dr. Mindy Waite of Carroll University; Hannah McGee of MSPCA-Angell; Dr. Maia Nahele Owen of Behavior Explorer; and Dr. Keira Moore of Pet Project Dog Training.

Video of a grey mini horse chewing and making cute eating noises. His name is Diablo and he looks forward to meeting folks at our retreat.

20/07/2025

In addition to my verbal cue, “Winnie, come!” my most frequent cue for Winnie to come to me when we’re walking is to turn around and look at him as he’s almost alsays behibd me. That one just developed over time. My turning around and looking = an opportunity to get paid and he hurries on up.