Dr. Yin's Animal Behavior and Medicine Videos
Training a Lion - Head Turn
Lion keeper trains the lion to lay calmly and turn his head 90ª away from her. She shapes the behavior by first blowing whistle and giving treat to lion for slight head turn and then gradually rewards turns closer and closer to 90ª. The benefit of this exercise is that the lion learns to calm down and focus in order to earn the reward. Prior to this the lion had been called "overmotivated" for food because he wouldn't focus and would pace and roar a lot. Once he figured out that he had to offer the correct behavior (instead of the trainers trying to lure him or repeating a commands), he quickly calmed down and focused.
Related Videos
Capturing a Behavior: Training a Lioness to Present Her Side
Here is a video showing how some behaviors can be trained by capturing, then shaping. This lioness would rub her cheek against the bars when the trainer blew on her, so this behavior was captured then shaped into eventually presenting her side to the trainer (for blood draw).
Teaching a cat to be quiet can be as simple as rewarding quiet behavior. Watch how Dante the Bengal cat learns that meowing does not get him what he wants, but quiet behavior does.
How Dogs Learn: Shaping Zoe into a Box
Have you ever wondered how dogs learn? Operant conditioning, or trial and error learning, is one way in which dogs learn new behaviors. In this video, Dr Sophia Yin trains her australian cattle dog, Zoe, to put two feet into a box. Watch how Zoe figures out what to do!
