Enrichment Matters

12/06/2024

How great is this? Giving elephants the ability to shower themselves even when there is no access to a pool! Also a cognitive challenge for the one who stops the water from flowing. ❤️

12/05/2024

Ignore the headline. The meat of this piece talks about how positive reinforcement-based training changes the environment for learners so that their lives may be enriched and their neural pathways expand in healthy ways. Doesn't matter if the behaviors taught are "natural" or not. They need to be enjoyable to the learner. The rat driving little vehicles work indicates that positive-reinforcement-based teaching based in principles developed and replicated by Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner have profound positive effects for learners' brain health.

Relatedly, study after study in multiple species indicates that well enriched environments promote brain, behavioral and physical health, apparently by increasing behavioral diversity: individuals living in enriched environments engage in more varied behaviors. Research with fish and mice come immediately to mind, in addition to this work with rats. (I haven't read the rat driving studies, just this first-person piece.) The research indicates that the more enriched an animal's environment, the better their brain and behavior functioning and, therefore, their welfare. It is the doing of things--the behavior--that drives the change.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241128-i-taught-rats-to-drive-a-car-and-it-may-help-us-lead-happier-lives?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3E8_6iBO4Bm91Y7pR8witvH7OZabPS6APtP9cAAs-NmGjHggM36C2UBxw_aem_I6sOpv5j7kcFhkLVS6CdCQ

Teaching rats to drive a tiny car around a laboratory taught scientists a lot about the benefits of anticipating the joy brought by the things we love.

12/04/2024

When we add to the diversity of possible things to do in an animal’s environment, we prompt behavior to occur. This may be particularly important for animals who have led lives of deprivation. They need to start learning that their behavior can lead to good things. Behavioral variation is important to physical and brain health, and it can be stimulated through enriched environments.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/2023349011433644

11/29/2024

Study after study with multiple species supports the conclusions of the work with these rats: behaviors taught with positive reinforcement that lead to increasingly varied life experiences, are good for the brain. Behavior and enrichment are in the environment: the environment sets it up to occur and the behavior alters the environment for the learner. Thank you Pavlov. Thank you Skinner.

Them's the facts as indicated by replicated science.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241128-i-taught-rats-to-drive-a-car-and-it-may-help-us-lead-happier-lives?fbclid=IwY2xjawG2tmhleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHWYPgy-0VGa6p_Hj2FoMcr-zPgvqfPP1XDO-rl4mo9lmTjLzNkAsHvnjtw_aem_qgqzSfKLGo4a0BApyo336g

Teaching rats to drive a tiny car around a laboratory taught scientists a lot about the benefits of anticipating the joy brought by the things we love.

11/23/2024

This is how to make an indoor environment super physically enriching for a cat, particularly one this active. Could add in a cat wheel.

11/07/2024

More sniffs.

11/06/2024

I doubt there is anything more enriching for a dog and other species than the smells encountered when wildlife has been on the move.

11/06/2024

10/02/2024

Variety is an essential quality of enrichment provision, whether you’re providing food, social, olfactory, or other forms of enrichment. Freezing treats for the winter months is a good way to plan for some variety in your animals’ noms when the fresh stuff isn’t available. In the summer, frozen treats like icies can cool and hydrate in warm temps. The possibilities are endless

09/26/2024

When something does, it can provide enrichment for others. 🤦

09/26/2024

When something dies, it can provide enrichment for others 🤦.

07/10/2024

Five days remaining in our early bird discounts for this event. Be sure to grab yours to learn from this panel of industry leaders. And, spread the word!

07/03/2024

Various concepts discussed by trainers, such as choice and control, have origins in zoo animal care with enrichment provision. The idea of enrichment was to give zoo animals "choice" and "control" in captive environments. Enrichment designs that implement concurrent schedules of reinforcement and non-contingent reinforcement strategies are among those that have freed the operant in ingenious ways. The language of "choice" and "control" made its way into training and evolved linguistically to include "agency" and "freedom" (e.g., freedom to choose). Such concepts, their implementation, and their effects on training need to be considered.

Like wild conditions, zoo environments can be designed to evoke a diverse repertoire of free operant behavior. In an appropriately enriched environment, animals will have more opportunities to make choices to control a variety of outcomes.

06/24/2024

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