Animal Training Diary - Shedds Aquarium
I flew into Chicago from the UK yesterday to attend an animal training course at the Shedd Aquarium (a beautiful place), and thought I would share my experiences with you over this week.
This is a course run by a well-known animal trainer who has worked with dolphins, whales, big cats… over the last 30 years. I enjoy working with a variety of different animals and thought it would be a great way to expand my knowledge of training as well as working with other species apart from dogs. However saying that one thing I have definitely learned is that the principle of teaching animals is the same for your pet Chihuahua as is for a killer whale or even a chicken! I am really looking forward to learning lots over the next week!!!
Yes, you can train chickens, check out the following video for some training I had done before at another workshop.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taiLxkG1dt8&feature=channel_page
So today was the first day, which involved lectures and a number of practical sessions, during which I was able to observe training of dolphins and a sea lion behind the scenes.
The Sea lion was beautiful and something that the instructor was talking about during his talks was relationship between an animal and his keeper or a pet and their owner, and this was so evident during those sessions.
If we just think about visiting the vet with our dogs, I can remember plenty of times seeing vets and nurses fighting with dogs to clip their nail or take a blood sample at the end of which you get stressed owners, dogs, nurses, vets… (sure you get the picture) The training session with the Sea Lion was amazing as I got to watch Ken teaching this 136 kg (300 pound) animal to simply lie down and allow some one to jab him to take a blood sample, without a muzzle, sedative, leash or barrier of any type. If they can do this with Dolphins and Sea Lions imagine what we can do with our dogs.
This really amazes and fascinates me because I have a dog that I had to teach to sit, stay, give paw and then allow me to take a blood sample, as he would otherwise need to be sedated for such a simple procedure. It just makes you think that it’s soooo worth spending time with our pets training for basic handling procedures especially if they can help eliminate putting the animal under vast amount of stress. Also any good training can only help build and further the trust and relationship we have with our pets.
Pic: Trainer asking the Beluga Whale to open and keep open its mouth without any force or fuss!!!! Can your dog do that? I will be teaching this behaviour when i get home!
