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Marilyn McEvoy's avatar

I loved your article and insight. It brought me back to the days when I owned a ranch and worked horses and cows in Eastern Oregon. Prior to that however, I was a practicing master falconer. As an apprentice I was required to read Karen Pryor’s book, Don’t Shoot the Dog. I returned to that book over and over again until it was dog-eared and I understood the principles. Operant conditioning is the best training method to achieve a working “hunting” relationship with a bird of prey as they are very food motivated. Contrary to popular belief you can’t “ starve” a bird of prey into submission to get it to hunt with you. They will always be wild (unless captive bred) and would rather be free. They are athletes and must be in top notch condition to hunt and actually catch prey. If their condition is too high they most likely will refuse to hunt and will just go sit in a tree until they’re ready to come down. Conversely if they’re low in weight they probably won’t have the energy to hunt and will do the same, or, be so frickin hungry they’re unmanageable and scary. When you introduce operant conditioning into the bird’s training you don’t have those issues. It’s happy to hunt with you and weight isn’t so critical….. And, you want your bird to return to you when it fails to catch something instead of going off hunting on its own, or flying off forever. So, you use operant conditioning and train your bird to a whistle because that sound travels farther than a clicker and birds can fly a long distance away chasing after a grouse, duck or rabbit. This is an over simplification of the falconry process, but like your wild donkeys most birds of prey have their own personality and preferences and training can be distinctly individual. However, in the long run, if you’re patient, persistent and consistent enough, operant conditioning works. I like how you simplified and explained the 4 different types of conditioning because they can be confusing like you stated. Also, I admire what you are doing with the older and/or unmanageable donkeys/horses, training them humanely so they can be serviceable, bring joy to people who acquire them, and of course, by giving them a quality of life and a second chance. Bless you and thank you!

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Frank B's avatar

Great work! We’ve got three (house) dogs and I’ve found that learning about training and implementing the training are for the lifetime of the trainer and trainee.

Also, there is so much in trying to understand the animal you’re trying to train/communicate with – rather than just trying to make them understand you.

I was excited when I read you would be sharing these. I’m looking forward to more!

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