Archives for October 2010

Cat Clicker Training (Video)

Mary over at Stale Cheerios got some great cat clicker training videos up and so I wanted to share one too!

Notice that the young cats (and especially Buddy) can lose attention and because they are shelter cats, they are more interested in attention.

Once the secondary reinforcer (clicker or marker) is established, other rewards can be used easily. Don’t get stuck with one kind of reward system.

Just an FYI there are some technical difficulties not allowing me to post after a move to a new server. Please standby–we should be back up and running next week.

Animal Behavior & Training Internship (Ohio)

The Toledo Zoo (Toledo, Ohio) has an internship available. This internship is designed for college students or recent graduates interested in pursuing a career in animal training or animal behavior.

Interns will work directly with the Curator of Behavioral Husbandry and Research and animal keepers to learn the principles of animal training and enrichment through lecture as well as hands-on work with the animals.

This particular internship is for seal training and polar bear enrichment and interns will participate in animal training demonstrations and schedule, implement and evaluate daily polar bear enrichment. As with many internships, this position is unpaid but housing is available.

Requirements are that you must be a junior or senior in college, or recent college graduate with a major in Biology, Animal Behavior, Psychology, Zoology or other related field

Must be willing to learn, have a positive attitude, and team mentality. Proficiency in Microsoft Excel required and previous hands-on work with animals a plus.

Duties include preparing seal diets and participate in daily feeding/training sessions and enter those training records into a computer program.

In addition, will help in the development of enrichment schedules for several species and construct and implement enrichment items while also conducting animal behavioral observations.

To apply please send a cover letter, resume and 3 references to (email preferred) to
Beth Posta
Curator of Behavioral Husbandry and Research
The Toledo Zoo
Beth.Posta@toledozoo.org 419-385-5721 ext. 2051