Unity Training and Behaviour

Come watch my presentation at the Constructional Approach to Animal Welfare and Training members conference!

🌟Speaker Spotlight🌟CAAWT Membership Shelter and Zoo Conference
We are excited to welcome Bob Siemens (ZBob Siemens) as one of the speakers at this year's CAAWT Membership Conference🎉 Bob will be presenting how our understanding changes if we look at the function of the behavior, rather than the topography of the behavior only. This is an important step in using behavior analysis to analyze behaviors and to program for behavior change🐶✨

Join CAAWT Membership to attend for free AND invite your staff, co-workers, and volunteers from your shelter, zoo, aquarium, or veterinary clinic: https://www.caawt.com/caawt-membership

Here is his presentation title, abstract, and bio💫

⭐️Title⭐️
Contingencies of Reinforcement: The Fearful and the Friendly

⭐️Abstract⭐️
Behaviour comes in many forms. When we look at a particular behaviour our own history's with similar behaviour may skew our opinion of it's purpose. In this presentation we will examine the function of reactive behaviour and how a single form of behaviour may serve different functions across different subjects.

⭐️Bio⭐️
Bob resides in Airdrie, Alberta just outside Calgary and lives with his 3 dogs Frieda, Bella and Ryder and his Cockatiel Zeus. Bon runs his business Unity Training and Behaviour and helps pet parents and their furry family with a wide variety of challenges ranging from fear and aggression to jumping. Bob is a Karen Pryor Academy certified training partner, an accredited dog trainer through the International Association of Animal Behaviour Consultants and the vice president of the Alberta Force Free Alliance.

🌟Speaker Spotlight🌟CAAWT Membership Shelter and Zoo Conference
We are excited to welcome Hillary Hankey as one of the speakers at this year's CAAWT Membership Conference🎉 She will be presenting a wholistic view of looking at training with birds with ethics in mind🦅🦜

Join CAAWT Membership to attend for free AND invite your staff, co-workers, and volunteers from your shelter, zoo, aquarium, or veterinary clinic: https://www.caawt.com/caawt-membership

Here is her presentation title, abstract, and bio💫

⭐️Title⭐️
Both/And: How Nature and Nurture Inform Reinforcement Systems in Bird Training Programs

⭐️Abstract⭐️
This is a species by species look at how phylogeny and adaptive strengths and weaknesses can help us build stronger, more ethical training methodology that fine tunes what it means to exhibit natural behaviors in educational and husbandry programs.

⭐️Bio⭐️
Hillary Hankey is a falconer, professional animal trainer, and behavior consultant. She has been living, breathing, sleeping, and dreaming of flying birds free for decades. Though she grew up with a childhood bedroom filled with parrots – much to her older sister’s chagrin – it wasn’t until she met a good friend in college that she received formal education in training. She began free flying her parrots outdoors under her friend’s mentorship and continued for many years flying and training birds. In 2008, when Hillary moved to San Diego, California filled with hopes and dreams and worked for the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and the San Diego Zoo, training in free flying bird programs. In her spare time, she volunteered consulting at exotic animal education and bird breeding facilities to broaden her understanding of animals. Along the way, she met her match in Andre Mondin, an animal lover that can keep up with the unique lifestyle of living on a farm stride for stride. Because Hillary got her start flying birds in a much more informal way, connecting birds and people in the prairies and hills at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, her desire was to return to her roots, allow birds to fly in more natural way and for people to experience firsthand what birds are truly capable in the skies.

In 2013, she set out to find the perfect property in rural, agrarian San Diego county. Through setbacks and triumph, she founded the ABI ranch, twenty acres with ocean views and glowing sunsets, and set out to realize her dream of creating a space to build an organization based around progressive training techniques, a place safe for ideas to incubate and grow as trainers explore the importance of ethical training methods, and oasis for visitors to enjoy the company of birds that are as excited to see them as the visitors are to have an interactive bird adventure. Similarly, Hillary knew she also wanted to teach other zoo trainers around the world these concepts and ideas to open the doors of the human-animal connection.

Avian Behavior International was a vision of Hillary’s for a very long time, but jumping off can be scary. Entrepreneurship is a challenging life choice in general; basing a business model on a “service” that can fly anywhere and everywhere is darn near foolhardy. Undeterred, Hillary and Andre have enjoyed sharing their love of animals with everyone they meet. It is with hope, enthusiasm, and a sense of reverence that they carefully, transform the property step-by-step they purchased into their vision, a place for discovery, of excitement, and sustainable, permaculture farm that fondly recalls the idyllic childhood Hillary’s father had in these citrus cloaked valleys of San Diego County.

Having a plan during your training is a crucial part of success. Having an idea of what you are going to do when things go wrong or what your next step you will take when successful is what makes a great trainer.

Resolving problem behaviours can sometimes be tricky. But it can be done without the use of fear, pain or punishment. In fact, certified and accredited organizations for dog trainers encourage the use of LIMA (least invasive, minimally aversive) methods, if they don't advocate for ZERO aversive methods.

All problem behaviours can be resolved without the use of punishment. If you are struggling with finding a way to resolve it on your own, then before reaching for a the stick, try finding someone who is trained in finding other ways to use the carrot.

Organizations like the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, the Karen Pryor Academy, the Certification Counsel for Professional Dog Trainers, the Academy for Dog Trainers and the Pet Professional Guild, are all certify trainer and behaviour consultants in LIMA or zero aversive standards and have a trainer locator built into their website.

As the summer heat sets in, we want to ensure that you and your pets have a safe and enjoyable season ahead!

We have compiled some valuable Summer Pet Safety Tips to help you keep your pets cool, happy, and healthy during the summer. Click the link below to get the free PDF! 🐶

https://linktr.ee/unitytrainingandbehaviour

Additionally, you can also sign up using the link below to get more exclusive contents in the future!

http://eepurl.com/hsojOL