Karen Pryor Clickertraining - Science

Concerned about chemicals? Consider your pet too

Miranda Hersey Helin — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:51:56 -0500

Concern about chemicals in our environment—especially those inside our homes—is growing. From water bottles, baby bottles, and Teflon pans to cleaning chemicals, products that many of us rely on may be making us sick. This may be even more true for our beloved animals. Unfortunately, the US does not regulate the chemicals that pets are exposed to, including those used in manufacturing chew toys and pet accessories.

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization. Founded in 1993, EWG works to protect human health and natural resources. EWG's groundbreaking investigations into human body's toxic burden led to the creation of Pets for the Environment.

In a study released April 17, 2008, EWG reveals that pets are indeed carrying a toxic burden—one that is even higher than their human owners.

"In the first study of its kind, Environmental Working Group found that companion cats and dogs are polluted with even higher levels of many of the same synthetic industrial chemicals that researchers have recently found in people, including newborns.

"Dogs and cats were contaminated with 48 of 70 industrial chemicals tested, including 43 chemicals at levels higher than those typically found in people, according to our study of blood and urine from 20 dogs and 40 cats. Average levels of many chemicals were substantially higher in pets than is typical for people, with 2.4 times higher levels of stain-and grease-proof coatings (perfluorochemicals) in dogs, 23 times more fire retardants (PBDEs) in cats, and more than 5 times the amounts of mercury, compared to average levels in people found in national studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and EWG.

"Just as children ingest pollutants in tap water, play on lawns with pesticide residues, or breathe in an array of indoor air contaminants, so do their pets. But with there compressed lifespans, developing and aging seven or more times faster than children, pets also develop health problems much more rapidly. Pets, like infants and toddlers, have limited diets and play close to the floor, often licking the ground as well as their paws, greatly increasing both their exposures to chemicals and the resulting health risks."

Wondering how to protect your pets? Here's a list of tips to keep your pet healthy. You can also read EWG's press release or visit Pets for the Environment for more information.

Operant conditioning and the creative artist

Miranda Hersey Helin — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:46:34 -0600

Robert Genn is a painter who hosts the website www.thepainterskeys.com and sends out a semi-weekly e-newsletter on various art-related topics. I've been a subscriber for a few months now. When I received a newsletter on the connection between operant conditioning and creativity, I chuckled. I think you'll enjoy it. The letter is reprinted here (click "read more"), with Robert Genn's permission.

Register by 9/30 for ClickerExpo Los Angeles and save $50

KPCT — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0500

Only a few days Left to save $50 on ClickerExpo!

Parrot uses 950 words to talk with people, crack jokes

Bill Peña — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:17:24 -0600

The finding of a parrot with an almost unparalleled power to communicate with people has brought scientists up short. The bird, a captive African grey called N'kisi, has a vocabulary of 950 words, and shows signs of a sense of humour.

Read the full post for more, and hear an excerpt of the parrot talking with his teacher!

Yes, Your Dog Is Talking to You—and to the Cat, Too!

Miranda Hersey Helin — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 11:34:03 -0600

A recent study published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science reveals that dog barking is—no surprise to many dog owners—a nuanced form of communication much like birdsong and infant crying. What's more, these forms of communication share acoustic properties in how they convey basic emotions, such as fear—which facilitates cross-species communication.

Clicker Digest: tracking discussion lists on the web

Miranda Hersey Helin — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:53:47 -0500

Clicker training has grown up on the Internet, through the communications of trainers from all walks of life meeting online and discussing their trials and their joys. Now there are a variety of clicker training discussions groups, including at least one for every species and application imaginable. These online groups are populated with wonderful folks who are eager to help their fellow animal lovers. Many of us subscribe to a subset of these lists, and want to stay keep up with what's going on—but sometimes it's difficult to find time to keep up with all the reading. What's a clicker trainer to do?

ClickerExpo 2007: Training with the Stars!

Bill Peña — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 15:14:59 -0500

The new ClickerExpo.com is now live, including registration for ClickerExpo Los Angeles (Jan. 26-28, 2007)!
We've listened to all the attendee surveys and feedback, and we've kept all your favorite parts of Expo, while making lots of improvements:

Dolphins "know each other's names"

Bill Peña — Mon, 08 May 2006 18:09:06 -0500

I'm sure a few people reading this won't exactly be surprised, but having supporting research for this might be quite groundbreaking. DOLPHINS may be closer to humans than previously realised, with new research showing they communicate by whistling out their own "names".

Help for Animal Shelters, One Click at a Time

Bill Peña — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:34:19 -0600

Redondo Beach, CA (PRWEB) March 4, 2006 -- Karen Pryor Clickertraining (KPCT), organizer of ClickerExpo, the highly acclaimed educational conference specifically for animal professionals and pet owners, and 1-800-Save-A-Pet.com, North America's largest nonprofit online pet adoption service, have teamed up to help more pet owners and shelter professionals learn new skills for successful pet adoptions. How? KPCT and 1-800-Save-A-Pet.com are going to pay partner shelters $25 for each individual that attends ClickerExpo in Newport, RI March 31-April 2, 2006!

Breed-specific legislation

Aaron Clayton — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 19:26:42 -0600

Malcolm Gladwell, author of the books "Blink" and " The Tipping Point" writes a rather good article in the New Yorker this week about the both the power and danger of generalizations, and more specifically, what kind of generalizations are useful and what kinds are not.

ClickerExpo Tucson - a photoset on Flickr

Bill Peña — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 19:23:10 -0600

Photos taken by roving cameraphone photographer Bill Peña at ClickerExpo Tucson. Here's a basketball-playing rabbit to whet your appetite!

Operant conditioning to retrain the human brain

admin — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 14:35:51 -0600

An interesting story about neurofeedback (formerly "biofeedback") making a comeback in therapeutic settings. Now much more sophisticated, the therapy involves asking patients to essentially play a video game whose controls are the patient's own brain waves:

Just two weeks left before ClickerExpo Tucson!

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 15:05:14 -0600

There's nothing else like ClickerExpo.
It's all about positive training, and always cutting-edge. Five tracks of sessions, hands-on Learning Labs, lunchtime Topic Tables, evening games and dinner with the faculty. Nowhere else can you get this much info, this accurate, this focused, and this easy to assimilate—in just three days. Join us!

Broad Institute Unleashes Dog Genome

Bill Peña — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 15:54:46 -0600

An international research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has decoded the DNA of the domestic dog and pinpointed millions of genetic differences that distinguish dog breeds. The study also includes the first comparative analysis to encompass three distinct mammalian genomes, revealing important DNA elements common among them. Such shared genetic signatures offer crucial insights into genome organization and function, particularly in humans. Their efforts, described in the December 8 issue of Nature, shed light on the genetic similarities between dogs and humans as well as the genetic differences between dog breeds, and may guide future discoveries that improve the health of both species.

Sound of Dog's 'Laugh' Calms Other Pooches

Bill Peña — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 19:49:25 -0600

We have our own ideas about how to quiet dogs in a shelter, but here's a great new one ... play a recording of a dog laughing!

Depressed? Swim with dolphins

Bill Peña — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 15:52:16 -0600

Does this explain why so many dolphin trainers have such pleasant dispositions?

Paris - Taking a dip with dolphins can be a tremendous therapy for people with depression, according to a study published on Saturday in the weekly British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Teaching CPR with a clicker

Bill Peña — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 13:43:54 -0500

This is a fascinating story about a CPR self-training device that uses a clicker to mark when chest compressions are being done correctly, with fantastic results:

"They found that the home group learned CPR as effectively as those taking the full-fledged course," Cave said.

Big Apple Dims Lights For Birds

Miranda Hersey Helin — Tue, 04 Oct 2005 13:27:31 -0500

"The bright lights of New York City will be a little dimmer starting next week. That's because many of the city's buildings—including famous skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building and Rockefeller Center—have agreed to turn down the glow in an effort to protect migratory birds. Millions of birds pass through New York City during the fall and spring migration seasons. Window reflections and bright city lights disorient the birds, causing many to crash into buildings and die. The new bird-friendly policy, crafted by the city and the Audubon Society, requests that buildings taller than 40 stories dim or turn off their lights at midnight during the September, October, April, and May migrating periods. Glass buildings along the migration corridors of the Hudson and East Rivers were also asked to dim their lights. Daniel Klem, an ornithologist at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, estimates that 100 million birds die every year from building collisions, and the Audubon Society has collected more than 400 dead birds from a small sampling of buildings in New York City since 1997. A similar program in Chicago has resulted in 80 percent fewer bird deaths." (California Wild This Week)

How women are learning to control their men: operant conditioning!

Miranda Hersey Helin — Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:13:55 -0500

From The Independent:
"Bring Your Husband to Heel is a new [BBC] six-part series which deals with a variety of problems such as how to motivate a man to do the washing up or pay more attention to you." Read the full article at:

Girl Chimps Learn Faster Than Boys

Miranda Hersey Helin — Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:15:53 -0500

"Girls are often considered to mature faster than boys. The same appears to be true among chimpanzees, according to new research to be published in the journal Animal Behavior. Elizabeth Lonsdorf of Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago, observed young chimps in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, along with their mothers over a period of four years. She found young female chimps tended to watch intently as their mothers fished termites out of earthen nest mounds using sticks. As a result, young females mastered the technique at about a year and a half old. Males, on the other hand, paid little attention to the finer points of termite fishing. As a result, they needed about two years longer to acquire this skill. The findings are supported by Lonsdorf's preliminary research on captive chimps at the zoo. " (California Wild This Week)