Welcome!
Dr. Dean
here because you are just curious.
Everyone is welcome!
If you are fascinated by pet fish training like we are, you should
definitely check out some of the links in the wecome message above.
You'll be amazed at the videos of what fish trained using the tools
and techniques we've developed and do.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to post. If you've
purchased an R2 Fish School Training Kit to teach your fish at home,
PLEASE post a message - we'd really love to hear your experiences, and
help you out if you need some tips and pointers.
Dr. Dean Pomerleau
Founder & Chief Fish Trainer
Fish School, Inc.
Helix Fairweather
What is the information for someone to subscribe to this list? I wuold
like to post it to some of the clicker lists I am on if that's OK with
you.
Helix
--
mailto:he...@cyberagility.com - Albany, OR
Karen Pryor Academy & Clicker Expo Faculty
Level 2 TAG Teach Certified
http://www.cyberagility.com
Dr. Dean
Glad to have you as one of the founding members of this new Fish
Training forum.
I'm excited to hear more about how things are going with Cartman, and
more of your background too. I hope you'll start a new discussion
thread and post about your experience so far with fish training using
the R2 Kit.
> What is the information for someone to subscribe to this list? I would
> you.
do is visit the website for this Google group:
http://groups.google.com/group/fish-school-forum
and follow the simple instructions to join.
Thanks!
--Dean
Helix Fairweather
Right now, since Cartman is eating (savagely) from the feeding wand, I'm
working on the kinks of how to do things with him. He can see the feeding
wand as it comes down from above before it ever penetrates the surface and
he goes nutso!
So, thinking like we would with a dog who loses his brains at the sight of
food coming, I am purposely holding the feeding wand over the tank (but
not in the water) while I wait for a behavior to mark with the flash of
light. This has settled him down somewhat but I think we have more to go
on this.
This morning's session was very nice though he wasn't as hungry as he has
been. I'm still learning how much he can eat and when is a good time of
day to train him. I think he was pretty hungry on the Tetra Crisp regimen,
then along came the tiny bits of cocktail shrimp and he gorged himself.
Now we're settling down and trying to find a rhythm to how much and when.
Right now I am "clicking" him by using a flash of an LED light as the
event marker. I am clicking for any orientation towards the hoop and I'm
working very hard to click only when he's in motion.
Cartman has a real tendency to just hang out in one place and I really
don't want to reinforce that. He's not nearly as active as your goldfish
are! If I had to compare him to a dog, he would be a Mastiff. Big, hard
to get moving, prefers to hang out and watch.
Click for action, feed for position. :)
I am presenting the feeding wand after the flash. This morning I learned
how much he really really likes bopping the feeding wand. If I release the
food too early, he lets it drift away in favor of bopping the wand (could
be a function of not as hungry as he cuold be too). I do think this has a
lot to do with his former target stick training. He sure loved that target
stick!
Considering his previous history of touching a target stick, this morning
I worked on using the cue for toucing the target stick as the reinforcer
following the flash. Behavior - flash - present wand - he touches - I
release food. That went pretty well. He was offering putting head through
the hoop and then completing going through to touch the target stick.
Next session maybe I'll get to offered swim-throughs!
There's a lot of things to work out with Cartman and I think we may be
almost there as far as an event marker and treat delivery.
Helix Fairweather