Module 4 Animal Training program.

Owl training plan.

· My plan is to train a Verreaux Eagle owl named “Fudge”, from the WLC that is about 3 months old. The owl came in when it was 3 weeks old so it was relatively young & got use to humans when it was still young. This is great for training, the younger the animal the better, so that it can learn from a young age.

· Owls are one of the least intelligent birds to train because of the brain size which are oppressed by the large eye size & the attention span is also very short because of the eyes picking up every small movement & the incredible hearing improved by the satellite shaped face which catches all the sound waves.

· This specific specie of owl is also the largest in Africa so it is a challenge to do training with your arm because it can weigh up to 3 kg!

Previous training

· From the day the owl came in I fed it with my hand, holding a piece of meat near the beak & touching the sensory hairs on the edges specially evolved to sense the touch of a parent wanting to feed it.

· After every piece of meat was given I would rub between the owl’s eyes with my finger, this is a very sensitive spot & on touching the owl would relax & fall into a kind of trance.

· The owl is now old enough to be introduced to a glove because he is starting to perch on the branch inside the cage.

· Now I introduce my handling glove to him by placing it in front of him when feeding so that he can get use to the hand glove & see that it will not harm him.

· Later I lured him closer to the glove by wiggling the meat near the beak & the n slowly taking it away as soon as he wants to grab it, this forces him to come closer to the glove until he sits on the grove eventually.

· This can be seen as Positive reinforcement because I added something good like the food & I didn’t take anything away or punish him.

· After the owl has learned to climb on the glove to get food I started to put the glove on my arm with a piece of meat. Now he sees that it looks different & that if moves. When training any animals you have to be very patient & take small steps to achieve something. The owl has to now first get use to the movement & my presence in the enclosure with glove on.

· Now using negative reinforcement I take the food away when he does not come closer & increases good behaviour from him. Then I use “Targeting” by giving him a piece of meat as soon as he takes a small step forward, and then every time he touches the glove with hid feet or beak I also give him a meat piece as reward, now he sees by doing a certain action he gets rewarded & this makes him want to do the action again to get a treat!

Applying these terms to the Four Possible Consequences, you get:

· Something Good can start or be presented, so behaviour increases = Positive Reinforcement (R+)

· Something Good can end or be taken away, so behaviour decreases = Negative Punishment (P-)

· Something Bad can start or be presented, so behaviour decreases = Positive Punishment (P+)

· Something Bad can end or be taken away, so behaviour increases = Negative Reinforcement (R-)

	Reinforcement (behaviour increases)	Punishment (behaviour decreases)
Positive (something added)	Positive Reinforcement Something added increases behaviour	Positive Punishment Something added decreases behaviour
Negative (something removed)	Negative Reinforcement Something removed increases behaviour	Negative Punishment Something removed decreases behaviour

· I have trained him this way for about 1 and a half months now & he is now comfortable with the glove & sitting on my arm when feeding.

· I just touch his one leg & he lifts up the leg, then I just lift his body & automatically the other leg is lifted so that he can balance on my arm. He responds very well to this, because it is a natural reaction to pick up the remaining leg. He now does this without any struggle.

· I started walking around with him to get him use to the outside sights, sounds & smells. It is a nocturnal animal so he sleeps inside the boma during the day. I have only recently taken him outside during the day. This is now once he is use to humans & do not stress out that much.

· However if it is too hot outside I take him back inside, you can usually see over heating or stress by observing the panting of the throat.

· Fudge has been outside for about a month & is use to everything. I have been walking him around the WLC introducing him to people on the tours doing a short tour about him; He has gotten use to children touching him & people talking around him. One of the things I do with him to entertain the guests is Making him open his wings every once in a while. This is good for him because he stretches the wing muscles after perching on my arm the guests get to see his huge wingspan which will grow up to 1.43 cm. I trained him to open the wings by slowly putting my hand under the one wing & lifting it up, he the automatically lifts both wings & either stretch or flaps them. He seems to like it & doesn’t show any signs of aggressiveness.

· Next I have been walking with him in the Caravan Park telling people about the WLC, he hasn’t been stressing out much and seem to be acting normal when close to so much people.

· At the age of 2 to 3 moths these owlets become juveniles & start exercising the wing & flying to & from the nest so it is time to make Fudge use to a Jesse.

· A jesses is a small leather strap which goes around the ankle of a bird. We use this to keep the bird from flying off its handlers arm. The handler can either hold on to the strap or it can be clipped to the Handling glove.

Future training plan:

· I want to train the owl to fly to my handling glove when calling him, using Positive reinforcement I will give him a meat piece for rewarding the flying action to my hand. This is also called Classical conditioning, where a sound ,smell or sight is associated with a positive reaction like food from a trainer or negative like pain.

· Now I will first whistle every time he gets a piece of meat.

· In this way he will associate my calling with a reward & perch on my arm.

· Eventually this will become a habit for him & he will automatically fly when he hears a whistle.

· After I trained him to fly to my arm in an enclosure I want him to do is outside the enclosure.

· This is a much bigger step because he will get distracted by all the sounds, movements & trees where he can fly to.

· This is where I will get him use to a jesses to prevent him from flying away. By first putting it on him & giving him a reward for letting me put it on him, he will see it as a positive activity.

· I will then keep the jesses on him permanently to get use to it. This may take a while & he will try to get it off, but it is just like a collar on a dog, once they see that it is there to stay they just give up & leave it.

· Now this permanents stay of the jesses will allow the owl to feel conferrable when on my arm & this gives me control of his flying actions.

· Eventually I want him to fly to other people like guests. In other words he must associate whistling & food so good that it would not matter from whom it comes from.

Training philosophy & Ethics.

· A trainer must also see to the safety of the guests, safety when training animals, personal safety & equipment safety. Explain the safety precautions to the guests before the interaction with the animal. The trainer has the full authority to stop the interaction when there is a safety threat to both animal and guest. Both the animal’s safety & public safety has to be considered before & during any interaction.

· It is the keeper’s job to be professional at all times & to ensure the image of the facility stays professional and of the best quality. To ensure the keepers safety: Always inform someone that you are beginning a training session, Always use the appropriate equipment when in training & a trainer has to know her animal’s history & hapits to be able to work safely with the animal.