If We Can Teach Wild Animals..
A new illustration inspired by this quote:
“If you can teach a whale to pee in a cup, you can train your dog without punishment” - Ted Turner (Behaviorist & Head Trainer at Sea World)
It still blows my mind that wild exotic animals, and even goldfish, can be trained to do amazing and unnatural things. These animals do it willingly, not through any sort of coercion or intimidation by humans; not because they are avoiding pain.
With this illustration, I hope to inspire pet owners to use gentle, humane, force-free animal training methods that are being implemented successfully around the world in zoos, aquariums, on important life-saving missions as well as in the entertainment industry. We don’t need to follow old fashioned training philosophies that say we have to “break” or “dominate” an animal to get it to do what we want or to make it submit. e.g., using correction collars on dogs, beating horses, throwing birds, hissing at iguanas, etc.
REFERENCES:
Whale peeing in a cup - SEA WORLD
youtu.be/9G4P—9-6-g
Walrus doing sit-ups - SEA WORLD
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFjt9EXFgc
Lion acting in the movies - BOWMANVILLE ZOO
www.bowmanvillezoo.com/?storeinfo=custom&page=amazing…
Rhino getting teeth brushed - COLUMBUS ZOO
youtu.be/-4NZVt0z1Xg
Hyena having blood drawn - DENVER ZOO
youtu.be/Bs-tAHqGruY
Fish playing soccer - FISH SCHOOL
www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4d-ztNwmlw&feature=related
Aldabra tortoise training - OAKLAND ZOO
www.oaklandzoo.org/blog/tag/aldabra-tortoises/
Hero Rats detecting tuberculosis - APOPO
apopo.org/home.php
Chicken playing tic-tac-toe - ANIMAL BEHAVIOR ENTERPRISES/IQ ZOO
www3.uca.edu/iqzoo/Exhibits/bird_brain.htm
Raven working in espionage - ANIMAL BEHAVIOR ENTERPRISES/IQ ZOO
www3.uca.edu/iqzoo/Exhibits/spy_raven.htm
Giraffe being weighed - NIABI ZOO
http://youtu.be/jdHrB5JJTjY
Sea Otters - SHEDD AQUARIUM
http://interactive.sheddaquarium.org/2012/09/sea-otter-awareness-week-catching-up-with-cayucos.html
A great article on Operant Conditioning (published in THE BARK magazine):
http://www.thebark.com/content/dog-training-operant-conditioning
A blog post by Mary Hunter on clicker training Gorillas (and zoo animals): http://stalecheerios.com/blog/animal-training/clicker-training-gorillas-trade/
A great video! The Importance of Choice in Animal Training
http://youtu.be/QQ2MpmxUgSA
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Thank you to Sarah Owings, Mary Hunter, Sara Reusche, Irith Bloom, and Laura Monaco Torelli for your help!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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ORDER THE POSTER:
Large Poster 18” x 24” ($9.70, not including shipping)
Smaller Poster 11” x 17” (pictured) $5.00 each + $3.00 shipping. Please allow up to 2 weeks for delivery.
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