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Green iguanas (Iguana iguana) are a large, long-lived reptile well-equipped to defend themselves against predators and territorial conspecifics. These increasingly common household pets often respond to human caretakers with anti-predator behaviors including hissing and tail whipping. Current green iguana literature recommends long-term socialization training without any well-defined protocols. Animal behaviorists recommend positive reinforcement training whenever possible; however, negative reinforcement may be a suitable alternative when working with frightened or aggressive animals. Removal of aversive human presence contingent on the subject animal’s behavior has been shown to promote calm and friendly behaviors in domestic cats (Felis catus), domestic dogs (Canus lupus familiaris), and petting zoo sheep (Ovis aries). Negative reinforcement research has primarily focused on domestic mammals, but high-level learning capabilities have been demonstrated in a variety of reptile species. Thus, the present study aimed to apply negative reinforcement training to promote non-agonistic behaviors in a captive green iguana. Following 12 days of negative reinforcement training, an increase in non-agonistic behaviors were observed with a decrease in the overall number of agonistic displays and types of agonistic behavior presented. This study indicates that the previously described negative reinforcement protocols for domestic mammals also promote non-agonistic behaviors in a captive pet green iguana utilizing a naturally occurring and unavoidable stimulus to promote behavior change in a least intrusive manner.

Methods of positive reinforcement as a successful means for animal training are the result of many years of research into operant conditioning and learning. However, current literature is unclear on the extent to which these methods are utilized in captive wild and exotic animal populations in the United States. Through phone interviews with animal trainers employed at zoos and wildlife rehabilitation centers in the eastern United States, the author determined that these facilities are currently utilizing positive reinforcement training methods which are proving to be a great benefit for all parties involved. They are enabling a variety of voluntary health procedures to be conducted without anesthesia, improving keeper-animal relationships, and making animal care easier overall for the keepers.

Social validity refers to the social significance and acceptability of intervention goals, procedures, and outcomes. Animal practitioners, who are often guided by the principles of ABA, lack the benefit of verbal participants (at least with respect to target animals) with which to assess a client’s needs and preferences. The study of a learner’s welfare is useful for determining areas where intervention is needed or how the learner feels about an intervention that is underway. Three tenets of animal welfare measurement include physiological function, naturalistic behavior, and affect, where affect refers to private events, including emotions, which are a function of the same variables and contingencies responsible for controlling public behavior. The development of new technologies allows us to look “under the skin” and account for subjective experiences that can now be observed objectively. We introduce the reader to tools available from the animal welfare sciences for the objective measurement of social validity from the learner’s perspective.

Barcelona posa en marxa un cicle de tallers d’educació canina a deu àrees de gossos, gràcies a un acord amb el Centre d’Estudis CIM, març de 2023.

Oxytocin is involved in a broad array of social behaviours. While saliva has been used regularly to investigate the role of oxytocin in social behaviour of mammal species, so far, to our knowledge, no-one has tried to measure its homolog, mesotocin, in birds' saliva. Therefore, in this study we measured salivary mesotocin in common ravens (Corvus corax), and subsequently explored its link to three aspects of raven sociality. We trained ravens (n = 13) to voluntarily provide saliva samples and analysed salivary mesotocin with a commercial oxytocin enzyme-immunoassay kit, also suitable for mesotocin. After testing parallelism and recovery, we investigated the effect of bonding status, sex and season on mesotocin levels. We found that mesotocin was significantly more likely to be detected in samples taken during the breeding season (spring) than during the mating season (winter). In those samples in which mesotocin was detected, concentrations were also significantly higher during the breeding than during the mating season. In contrast, bonding status and sex were not found to relate to mesotocin detectability and concentrations. The seasonal differences in mesotocin correspond to behavioral patterns known to be associated with mesotocin/oxytocin, with ravens showing much more aggression during the mating season while being more tolerant of conspecifics in the breeding season. We show for the first time that saliva samples can be useful for the non-invasive determination of hormone levels in birds. However, the rate of successfully analysed samples was very low, and collection and analysis methods will benefit from further improvements.

Dolphins use stereotyped, individually distinctive, frequency modulated whistles, referred to as signature whistles, in order to broadcast their identity. In this study, we trained six dolphins at Kolmården Zoo, Sweden, to be called over, either upon hearing their own signature whistle (SW) or upon hearing a biologically irrelevant ”trivial” sound (TS), with the aim to prove the Whistle caller concept. The Whistle caller concept is based on the fact that dolphins occasionally use other dolphins’ signature whistles in order to address specific group members and convene. Our hypotheses were that (1) dolphins call-over trained using their SW would learn the behaviour faster than dolphins trained using TSs, and (2) dolphins trained with their SW would be able to discriminate between different SWs better than dolphins trained with a TS would be at discriminating between different TSs. Three out of three dolphins were successfully call-over trained using their SW, and two out of three dolphins using their assigned TS. When discriminating between different sounds, two of the dolphins trained using their SW performed significantly better than one of the dolphins trained using a TS. However, there were large intra-group differences in the results, indicating that we cannot eliminate the possibility that these results stem from individual differences in these dolphins’ ability to learn new behaviours overall, rather than an understanding of the sounds they heard. We suggest that future studies focus on (1) male-female differences in discrimination success when applying the Whistle caller concept, (2) how the characteristics of the trivial sounds affect discrimination success, and (3) the option of calling more than one animal at a time by sending out several SWs in succession.

Descartes’ correspondence with Princess Elisabeth at times reads like a programme for what would later become known as Spinoza’s theory of ethics. Crucial elements in Spinoza, however, such as the notion of beatitude and the idea of internal emotions, link up with Descartes’ _Passions de l’âme_ , rather than with the correspondence – and yet it is on these very subjects that Descartes and Spinoza part ways. Studying in some detail the example of the hunting dog and the accounts of mental change occurring in both authors, this article will argue that Spinoza was able to side-step Descartes’ explanation of mental transformation for the reason that he devoted himself to a completely different issue. Descartes’ focus in _Les Passions de l’âme_ is on negative emotions and behavioral training, whereas Spinoza’s attention in the Ethics is on a remedy of the affects that may yield a naturalistic counterpart to the notion of religious salvation – a difference in philosophical motivation between the two authors that should give us reason to adjust commonplace interpretations of the Descartes-Spinoza controversy

Since the demise in the 1980s of research by psychologists who attempted to teach human language to apes, a range of other perspectives has arisen that explore how humans can communicate with animals and what the possibility of such communication means. Sociologists interested in symbolic interactionism, anthropologists writing about ontology, equestrian and canine trainers, people with autism who say they understand animals because they think like animals, and a ragbag of sundry New Age women who claim to be able to converse with animals through telepathy have started discussing human- animal communication in ways that recast the whole point of thinking about it. This review charts how interest in human-animal communication has moved from a concern with cognition to a concern with ethics, and it discusses the similarities and differences that exist among the range of writing on this topic.

Since its national debut in 1987, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has been a highly acclaimed and much adored weekday magazine among public radio listeners. Each week, nearly 4.8 million people turn to Peabody Award-winning host Terry Gross for insightful conversations with the leading voices in contemporary arts and issues. The renowned program reaches a global audience, with over 620 public radio stations broadcasting Fresh Air, and 3 million podcast downloads each week. Fresh Air has broken the mold of 'talk show' by weaving together superior journalism and intimate storytelling from modern-day intellectuals, politicians and artists alike. Through probing questions and careful research, Gross's interviews are lauded for revealing a fresh perspective on cultural icons and trends. Her thorough conversations are often complemented by commentary from well-known contributors. Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR., (1.) Feline behavior specialist SARAH ELLIS is the co-author of The Trainable Cat: A Practical Guide to Making Life Happier for You and Your Cat (co-written with John Bradshaw who wrote the bestsellers Cat Sense and Dog Sense). It's now out in paperback. ELLIS works for the charity International Cat Care and is a visiting fellow at the University of Lincoln. She lives in England. (REBROADCAST from 09.12.16) (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).(2.) Film critic DAVID EDELSTEIN reviews Novitiate the debut film by Margaret Betts who won the Breakthrough Director Award at the Sundance Film festival.

Birds use colour vision for many biologically relevant behaviours such as foraging and mate choice. Bird colour vision is mediated by four types of single cones, giving them an extra dimension of colour information compared to trichromatic humans. The cone photoreceptors of birds have coloured oil droplets that are assumed to increase the discriminability of colours in bright light at the cost of dim light sensitivity. In this thesis I present four studies where we have trained chickens to perform colour discrimination and tested the limits of their behavioural performance. In paper I we tested how small colour differences chickens can discriminate. This allowed us to test the predictions of the most well established model for bird colour vision, the receptor noise limited model. There was a reasonably good fit between model and behaviour. Furthermore, we tested in how dim light chickens could discriminate colours and found that the intensity threshold was affected by the colour difference between the stimuli and their intensity. In Paper II we continued testing colour discrimination in dim light and tested the hypothesis that chickens sum the signals from many photoreceptors to increase contrast sensitivity at the cost of spatial resolution in dim light, so called spatial pooling. We used food containers covered with larger, smaller, more or fewer colour patches. Supporting the hypothesis, the containers covered by more colour could be discriminated in dimmer light. In Paper III we tested colour constancy, the ability to maintain colour perception in different spectral illuminations that would otherwise confuse colour perception. Our aim was to find the largest illumination change that chicken colour constancy could tolerate. We found that chicken colour constancy could tolerate larger illumination changes when discriminating stimuli that were more different from each other. In paper IV we continued the work on colour constancy but allowed the chickens to use relat

Accidental behavior chains are a common problem in dog training. Many handlers inadvertently reinforce undesirable behaviors. The behavior analytic literature already contains articles describing methods of breaking chains; however, those methods either are not used in dog training for practical purposes or are ineffective in dog training. This experiment investigated two ways to break a behavior chain, including extending the chain and introducing a delay into the chain. The results of extending the chain showed that it is possible to decrease the target behavior using this method, but it was not eliminated in this study. Adding a delay into the behavior chain resulted in a quick elimination of the target behavior.

Since its national debut in 1987, Fresh Air with Terry Gross has been a highly acclaimed and much adored weekday magazine among public radio listeners. Each week, nearly 4.8 million people turn to Peabody Award-winning host Terry Gross for insightful conversations with the leading voices in contemporary arts and issues. The renowned program reaches a global audience, with over 620 public radio stations broadcasting Fresh Air, and 3 million podcast downloads each week. Fresh Air has broken the mold of 'talk show' by weaving together superior journalism and intimate storytelling from modern-day intellectuals, politicians and artists alike. Through probing questions and careful research, Gross's interviews are lauded for revealing a fresh perspective on cultural icons and trends. Her thorough conversations are often complemented by commentary from well-known contributors. Fresh Air is produced at WHYY-FM in Philadelphia and broadcast nationally by NPR., (1.) Former bull riding champ, actor, stunt coordinator, and consultant to HBO's "Deadwood" GARY LEFFEW ("Le-FEW"). He punches up scripts for David Milch's "Deadwood," making sure the cowboys talk like real cowboys do. In 1970 he won the world championship bull riding competition. After that LEFFEW took up acting and appeared in commercials for Coca-Cola, Busch beer, Nissan trucks, Right Guard deodorant, and Timex watches. Now he teaches bull riding at his California Ranch. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW). (2.) Director RUTH LEITMAN (LIGHT-man) and Wrestler LILLIAN "The fabulous Moolah (MOO-la)," ELLISON. The new documentary "Lipstick and Dynamite" takes a look at the world of lady wrestling, a phenomenon that started in the 1930s as a form of entertainment and sport. The wrestlers wrestled other women, men, and sometime animals like alligators. The fabulous Moolah is now in her 80s and still wrestling. Leitman's other documentaries include, "Wildwood, New Jersey," "Alma," and "Welcome to Anatevka."

Past echolocation research demonstrated control over the dolphin's echolocation emissions in a binary (on/off) condition. The dolphin performed a discrimination task while its echolocation output was under stimulus control of an underwater tone. The animal learned to echolocate during the presence of the tone and to remain silent if no tone was given. Mackay used two Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) to determine the dolphin's capability to control whistle emissions in the 5-16 kHz range. Using automatic feeders activated by specific frequency ranges, Mackay showed that dolphins could control the frequency of their whistles. Recent research revealed behavioral control can also be obtained over the source level of the echolocating dolphin. Moore and Patterson trained a dolphin to perform a detection task while under operant control of its emitted source levels. Dolphin clicks are short duration (10 to 100 microsec) wide band transients. It is thought that the target, to a large extent, dictates the click emission parameters of frequency and amplitude. Past research shows that dolphins control the repetition rate of emitted clicks as a function of target range, but the capability of the dolphin to independently control both the frequency and source level of their clicks has never been demonstrated. Presented at 15th Annual Conference of the International Marine Animal Trainers Association, 26-30 October 1987, New Orleans, Louisiana. Keywords: Marine biosystems; Marine biology.

Research trainers demonstrated stimulus control over dolphin echolocation emission in past discrimination studies. Other research revealed control can also be exerted over emitted source levels during detection studies. Combined control over the peak frequency and the source level of the echolocation emission of the dolphin has recently been achieved to 85% performance levels. The dolphin is trained to emit clicks from a fixed position on a bite-plate/tail-rest station to ensure accuracy in click evaluation. Sessions are conducted in a pre-determined random schedule of testing. A collecting hydrophone relays echolocation clicks to a microcomputer system which reinforces the animal when criterion is satisfied. Initial training consists of shifting the source level (or amplitude) of the echolocation clicks while solving a detection task. The separate discriminative stimuli of two underwater tones gain control over high and low amplitude levels of the emitted clicks. A third one, with two distinct repetition rates, is used to train the control over peak frequency output. The separate behaviors are combined by superimposing the repetition rate of the peak frequency stimulus over the pure tone of the amplitude stimulus.

David B. Hill as the animal trainer Carl "Hagenbeck" performs a circus act with trained animals labeled "Murphy, Pugh, Chandler, Peffer, Morgan, Coke, Higgins, Stewart, Teller, Cullom, [and] Hoar." Hill is standing at center with a bag of "Peanut Politics" at his feet. He holds a whip in his right hand and a string in his left, which is attached to a ring in the nose of "Murphy" as a dancing bear. "Pugh" as a monkey sits on the floor. The other animals are standing on short pedestals arranged around the rear of the cage.

Giulio Gatti-Casazza, with the trained animals for various operas, and a woman sit in the "celebrated 'Horseshoe'" section of the opera house. The surrounding vignettes show Alfred Hertz as a young man and as the current conductor, Enrico Caruso, "Italy's Standing Army," which is a group of men dressed for the theater, possibly critics, actors with props, and a prima donna too large to "fit the chairs of the period."

Men look on as cowboys try to saddle a horse

Harry E. Tudor explains to President Roosevelt that Frank Charles Bostock is an expert and will write to him to better answer all his questions. Tudor and the other trainers agree with Roosevelt's opinion that the puma is a particularly cowardly animal. Tudor invites the president and his family to visit the arena for a private performance. He assures Roosevelt that animals still have "the greater part of that native wildness" despite living in captivity.

Ellen Velvin describes her personal experiences with pumas, including that they do not seem as ferocious as the other big cats.

Printed on negative envelope: "Cat, July 1953. Photog: Guy Hayes. Black and white. Printed on August 23, 1953 pg. 16." Caption: "Mickie, owned by Ray Disheroon, of Johnson's Ferry Road, takes her doll for a buggy ride."

Men and women dog handlers and trainers stand with their dogs in a field, likely in Denbigh, N.D. for a dog show. A cabin is visible in the background.

Hunting dogs pose with their handlers at a show or event likely held in Denbigh, N.D. Two trainers, Bob Armstrong and Chesley Harris are identified on the photograph.

James Monroe Avent stands with his dogs Momoney and Mobile on leashes, likely near Denbigh, N.D.

Dogs called John Proctor and Security stand with trainers Ed Garr, Babcock, and James Monroe Avent after field trials held at Denbigh, N.D.

James Monroe Avent, a dog trainer, stands on a wooden walkway in front of a house, perhaps in Denbigh, N.D. He wears a hat, overcoat, and high boots.

Horses and wagons line up on a street in Denbigh, N.D. before going to field trials nearby.

Envelope description: Pony, Track, undated

A horse labeled "Butler's Policy" ridden by Benjamin F. Butler is kicking up its rear legs, startling a horse labeled "Cleveland's Policy" ridden by Grover Cleveland at the "Presidential Race-Course" where "Horses [are] Trained for Presidential Races." The "Gubernatorial Training Stables" are at far left. Gathered beneath a large tree on the right, observing, are John Logan, Roscoe Conkling, James Gillespie Blaine, John Sherman, David Davis, Winfield Scott Hancock, Ulysses S. Grant, Schuyler Colfax, and Samuel J. Tilden. Caption: Dismounted Jockeys - The horses look well enough now; but they began training too early; and will break down long before the race!

Zippy, a 6-month old chipmunk, was captured by the Nestler family's Labrador dog at their summer home at Many Points lake. They brought Zippy back to the city where he has found a permanent home with the family. Here Zippy finds cheese hidden in the hair of his trainer, Audra. See P20572-P20575.

Zippy, a 6-month old chipmunk, was captured by the Nestler family's Labrador dog at their summer home at Many Points lake. They brought Zippy back to the city where he has found a permanent home with the family. Here Zippy nibbles on a cracker held in between the teeth of his trainer, Audra. See P20572-P20575.

Mrs. R. T. Strouse demonstrates her interest in dog handling with two golden retrievers, Zolotoya Uliana and Tonkahof Furlo.

Envelope description: Pony, Track, undated