I've often puzzled over those prodigy animals who pirouette on cue, or leap out of the water with a human on their nose. How'd they learn that? This book was a guided tour through the fascinating world of animal training, at the...
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I've often puzzled over those prodigy animals who pirouette on cue, or leap out of the water with a human on their nose. How'd they learn that? This book was a guided tour through the fascinating world of animal training, at the school you attend if you want to train animals to perform in movies, at Sea World, and so on. The school has a "staff" of exotic creatures who do their best to keep the students on their toes. The risk of learning the hard way -- by tooth and claw -- is real and severe. But as the school year progresses, the students gain mastery of a reward-based method that's as applicable to the family dog as it is to the school's resident baboon, cougar, and camel. The training approach might be summed up by the phrase, "Put that on a cue." When an animal naturally performs a motion -- especially if that motion is part of a larger trick you want to teach -- you reward that motion and give it a command name. So when my dog looks up, I could give him a cue -- "up" -- and a reward; before long, when I say "up," he'll point his nose skyward. Step by step, trainers build complex behaviors, like dolphins leaping in synchrony or a sea lion holding her mouth open for a dental exam. It's harder than it sounds. The author reports that a number of students can't stomach the rigors of early rising for poop-scooping, book-learning, and pigeon-killing (to feed the carnivores), and wash out of the program. Others lack the patience necessary to teach a rat to perform in the mandatory rat-tricks class. But some human prodigies do rise to the occasion, and absorb the subtle language of wild animals. These are the lucky souls who will spend their lives in that privileged realm that separates most of us from the wild creatures we love. Comment | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)
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