#bigcattraining

I guess when you get old, you have to say goodbye to more and more friends ☹ Everett was one of our champions of training! He and the team did so much together in the name of force free training. I was recently discussing this clip featuring Everett because this position keeps the vein dorsal instead of twisting it when a tail gets pulled to the side, as they sometimes do when we retrofit enclosures for training. And the tail drops down which allows good blood flow. This space is just the shift area. He can leave at anytime and mosey on off to enjoy fun times in the habitat, but as you can see, he had learned good things happen when you station for blood draws. It was a pleasure watching you learn all these years Everett (10 years for me I think?) I have no doubt all the exceptional training made your transition peaceful. RIP Everett, Santa Barbara Zoo, oldest snow leopard in the world. #snowleopard #blooddraw #bigcattraining https://www.instagram.com/p/BxxeWMbn8MC/?igshid=1gxcgfjxmncz2

Check out the body language of this Sumatran tiger at the beginning of our training session and at the end. I’ve been using a technique I learned from colleagues at the University of North Texas at Denton to influence behavior of animals showing fear responses or aggressive behavior. It doesn’t require food, coercion, habituation, flooding or in many cases much time. This can mean dramatic behavior change (like the one seen here) in just minutes. The session only took about 20 minutes to go from tolerating targeting to relaxing while in the presence of people. I was able to present more examples and get feedback from colleagues at the recent Art and Science of Animal Training Conference to fine-tune my technique to better help my clients. You can see the entire video and other examples, as well as learn more about this technique in the online animal training education program at www.animaltrainingfundamentals.com #sumatrantiger #tigertraining #aggressivebehavior #fearresponses #bigcattraining https://www.instagram.com/p/BuZiGDtlcYr/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1ghd4ic5aezt1