If it walks like one, talks like one and looks like one — it must be one. Of all the pets I have cared for, ducks have definitely brought me the most attention. I am not talking about getting ducklings on a whim for Easter either. I kept ducks as pets from fifth grade through college. In sixth grade, my
Read more
Contrafreeloading puts a smile on my face. As a student of animal behavior, it is one of the coolest phenomena I know of. It has been studied in many species from rats to grizzly bears to humans. It is so incredible because these animals do the opposite of what you would expect, hence the “contra” prefix. Contrafreeloading means, when given
Read more
A dog sits on cue. Do you give them a half a treat, one treat or two treats? I would probably give one quarter to one eighth of a treat. That isn’t just because I am particularly frugal. There are a lot of variables like breed and age of the dog and the size and quality of the treats to
Read more
The days are getting shorter here in Tampa, FL and with less sunlight means less opportunities to take great pet photographs. By utilizing sunlight we can achieve more natural expressions and composition. Lighting is essential to great photography, and with fast moving animals, lighting is even more critical. Another benefit of natural sunlight is we can almost completely limit the
Read more
Art or Science? Animal training is a little bit of both. Timing and communication flow together with basic laws of behavior and form actions. Before we get into the specific behaviors we ask our pets, we should first learn how to train them. Positive reinforcement is associated with : negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment. It is not important
Read more
Stepping off the plane onto Costa Rica’s soil, in the winter of 2008, I made a fool of myself. I followed the stream of people hurrying out of the airport and found a young heavily bearded Caucasian man holding a DANTA sign. Around him was a harem of young girls around my age. I was one of the last people
Read more
DANTAisms 