Target training
Target training is a method of conditioning behavior in animals. Here, a used target (English Target = destination) as an aid.
Procedure
By conditioning - for example with the help of a clicker - the animal to be trained is induced to attach an object (e.g. a stick, the target stick or target stick, or a symbol , including the trainer's hand) to a body part (usually the nose or paw) and keep contact or follow when the target moves. If the animal has been trained in this way, the target can be used to teach it actions under signal control (colloquially also called command / instruction / command) that are otherwise difficult to train.
Possible uses
Classic tasks in which animals are trained by professional animal trainers with the help of targets are presentations and demonstrations, for example by sea lions. Targets are also used in medical training, in preparing animals to tolerate diagnostic examinations or injections in order to avoid immobilization or anesthesia . Other areas of training are enrichment and agility (both employment programs).
A target, in particular the target stick, can also be used to point the animal to a place or object, which then, in the context of the peculiarity of the place or object, causes the animal to react in a desired manner (e.g. taking a certain place).
Touching and remaining on a specially shaped plate is used when a number of animals are to be referred to certain places at the same time in the same place. The animals are conditioned beforehand to touch their personal target, which is clearly different from others, and to remain there.
In the training of assistance dogs z. B. by means of an adhesive (colored or otherwise conspicuous symbol), which is stuck to the light switch, the switching on and off of the light can be trained with the paw. Dogs can also learn to send ahead to specific locations with the help of targets.
Shapes of targets
A wide variety of objects can serve as targets, for example an adhesive, a blanket, a sheet of paper or a flat cardboard box. An extended index finger or the palm of the hand can also be conditioned as a target. The stick that a tamer wields in the circus when showing animals (usually next to a whip) is also a target stick.
The target stick is used for animals in the house (dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits etc.) as well as for exhibition animals, including zoo animals, as a steering aid without being a tool for punishing or enforcing instructions.
Target plates can be used on their own or on rods.
Suitable targets and target sticks are always designed in such a way that the animal cannot experience pain or injury from accidental or intentional contact (eyes!).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Karen Pryor: Don't Shoot the Dog !: The New Art of Teaching and Training . Interpet, 2002, ISBN 978-1-86054-238-1 , pp. 58 ( online ).