In honor of World Elephant Day here’s a little before and after clip of training this young bull elephant (Sumatran elephant BTW) to do the right thing to earn reinforcers. Instead of punishing undesired behavior we can train a behavior that is incompatible with the “bad” behavior that will earn desired consequences. In this example wrapping the trunk around the pole is incompatible with climbing over the top. He can’t do both behaviors at the same time. This was his first session and you get to the see moment he figures out the behavior. (The so called “light bulb” moment.) Later in the session we added duration to the hold. A big giant “thank you” to all the amazing people who keep moving elephant conservation, care and training forward, and to the elephants who have inspired, touched so many of us. #worldelephantday #sumatranelephant #dri #differentialreinforcement #elephanttraining #positivereinforcement #lightbulbmoment
