Dominique has been intrigued by the incredibly subtle discriminations animals are able to make. In this episode she wanted to talk about cues and the rules that trainers create around them to bring some consistency to their training. I wasn’t sure of the context in which she was using the term so her starting point for the conversation raised some questions for me. The rabbit hole we plunged into was a discussion of cues, rules, teaching processes, procedures and principle

This week we are shifting gears completely. Michaela is going to tell us about the stallion project that she and Anja Beran are working on. The stallion project refers to work that Anja and Michaela are spearheading to bring about changes in Germany in the stallion testing process. In this episode Michaela describes the stallion tests and the damage that results to the horses that go through them. Anja was saddened by the number of beautiful young stallions people wanted

This is part 2 of our conversation with Dr Michaela Hempen. I began this series by saying that this is our Holiday present to all of you. In Part 1 Michaela shared the details of the research project she’s been conducting on cribbing. The subject of that study is a quarter horse mare named Blondie. Just when Michaela was reaching a critical stage in the study, Blondie’s owner decided he wanted to sell her. Through the generosity of many in the clicker training community M

This episode is the first of several Holiday presents we have created for you. Our guest is Dr Michaela Hempen. She will be sharing the work she’s been doing with her quarter horse mare, Blondie. Blondie is a cribber. If you aren’t familiar with that term, cribbing, or crib biting as it is also called, refers to a stereotypic behavior in which the horse closes its teeth around a surface such a fence board or a feed bucket and then arches its neck so it can suck in air.

I started out calling this episode “Come on in the water’s fine”. But I think ‘Creating Our Own Mainstream” is really more to the point. You’ll understand why as you listen to this episode. This is part 3 of our conversation with Dr Sarah Memmi. Sarah is a behavioral scientist. She teaches at the University of Louisville in Kentucky where she’s an Assistant Professor of Marketing in the College of Business. Her main area of research is how people pursue goals; how they