2015 Corbin Award Winner: Behavior and training of companion and zoo animals

Abstract Text: Activity or behavior varies tremendously across taxa and activity itself separate plants from animals.  Regardless if we consider a dog competing on an agility course, or a hyena standing for voluntary jugular blood collection, we must understand the science of behavior, the natural history and the instinct of the animal in order for successful training to occur. Repeated behaviors result from either positive or negative reinforcement, whereas behaviors diminish with application of positive or negative punishment.  Once we identify reinforcements or punishments relevant to the behavior and specific animal, training and behavior modification become more black and white. This science and theory of animal training are well rooted in the work of Skinner and Pavlov.  However, difficulties in animal training occur when trainers or animal managers fail to understand what motivates or reinforces a specific animal or the relevant species-specific natural histories.  Animal trainers typically use food to motivate or train animals; however, the animal must want that food item for it to be of value. Subjects of same species may not find similar value in reinforcement items. In addition, failure to understand instinctive behavior patterns typically related to obtaining food or social structures may lead to limitations in training or behavior modification.  The term “Instinctive Drift” occurs when animals have been trained to a new learned behavior that ultimately drifts back toward an instinctive behavior.  Often this behavioral drift can be mislabeled by animal trainers as disobedience or misbehavior but is frequently related to instinctive behaviors associated with feeding or obtaining food or other inate insticts such as herding.  Similarly, some aggression issues in dogs may be prevented or mitigated at a young age if owners had increased awareness of the dynamic social structure of dogs.  Stereotypic behaviors are typically thought of as negative repetitive behaviors that originate from artificial environments that do not allow animals to satisfy their normal behavior repertoire and these behaviors can be difficult to modify.  While the science and theory of animal training and behavior are critical to excelling as an animal trainer and manager, it is equally critical to understand natural history, instinctive behaviors and motivation.  Therefore, great animal trainers not only understand the science and theory of behavior, they also consider the uniqueness of individual animals they manage.

Keywords: training, behavior, companion animals, zoo animals