Dog Training 101: Emergency Recall

Soon after the keepers at PDZA's Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater in Tacoma, Washington adopted Herald from the Humane Society, it became clear how he had ended up as a pound puppy.

Herald liked to run away.

This can be a problem with dogs under normal circumstances, even when they don't live at a zoo. Dogs who slip out the door unattended or sneak out under fences tend to be struck by vehicles, picked up by strangers or get into tussles with other animals.

Now imagine that the dog who has just ripped the leash from your hand is bolting toward a leopard enclosure, or making a bee-line for the North American porcupine during his training session. Whether he's loose in the neighborhood or loose in the zoo, your dog must be rerouted before he gets into a dangerous situation.

Fortunately, Herald the dog is very fond of chicken. To train his emergency recall, we started excitedly shouting, "CHICKEN!" whenever we had a bit of the cooked poultry available; then we fed it to the overjoyed canine. Soon, Herald would scamper from wherever he was in the building when he heard, "chicken." Eventually, he was dashing across the zoo's lawn or down the service roads as we practiced the recall, varying the time and amount of poultry given as a reward. If Herald got the notion to take off in the direction of the aardvark out on her walk, we just yelled the magic word, "Chiiicckkkeeeennn!" and Herald reliably charged back to safety. And to a handful of poultry.

This little trick isn't only useful for dog owners; parents can use it, too. When my siblings and I were young, we had a babysitter, whom we called Aunt Jean. In retrospect, I realize that Aunt Jean had mastered the emergency recall. She was capable of emitting a blasting whistle, which, (no matter where we were on the expansive property) when it reached our little ears, prompted my siblings and I to drop everything and high-tail it back to Aunt Jean. This whistle was extremely effective because instead of poultry, we were rewarded upon our return with popcicles, fruit snacks, an old container to use as a new sandbox toy, a ride to the bank in the station wagon or any number of other reinforcing occurrences.

Aunt Jean also used the same recall for her golden retrievers. This meant that when the whistle rang out and all children and canines in the vicinity arrived panting on the doorstep, sometimes our reward was just dog biscuits.

Artistic Animals

One of the best parts of my job at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is training the animals. You might remember the slowest training session ever with Jumbo Jet the tortoise, for instance. This summer, as a fundraiser, our trainers  taught some of the animals to paint and then auctioned off their artwork at Zoobilee (PDZA's swanky black-tie event).

Herald picked up a brush to help out. His trainers (cleverly) wore thin white suits that we usually only wear when working with animals in quarantine; this kept them (relatively) paint-free during the sessions.

Stella the Abyssinian ground hornbill, as a member of a species known for intelligence and curiosity, seemed like an ideal student. However, training animals always presents new and interesting challenges. For one thing, Stella had to be taught which end of the brush to put on the canvas, which is a concept that human pupils probably already understand.

Here is Stella being rewarded for putting the correct end of the brush onto the canvas.

We use operant conditioning to train all of the animals at the zoo--specifically positive reinforcement, which is a fancy term for giving a treat when the animal does something we like. Of course that's a bit of an oversimplification, but that's the foundation for our methods.

And I'll let you in on a secret. Not only does positive reinforcement work on your dog, your cat and even your tortoise, but it works on people too! I will attempt to film and post a few more training sessions before the summer is over.

Guest Blogger: Herald the Dog

Hello Blog-fans,
My name is Herald, and I'm a dog. Not just any dog--I'm a famous zoo dog. Over a year ago I started working with the kind keepers at the Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater in Tacoma, Washington who hired me to help them with their program.

So far, I've been doing a great job; the zookeepers are really learning a lot. I spend my days training the them to make funny noises, to feed me peanut butter and string cheese, and to act as the cast and crew for my live animals program.

This show is a BIG deal. At least five well-trained humans need to be present or I won't even attempt it, which is why we only do the whole program in the busy season here at the zoo.




During the program I go rafting,

and I take a hot air balloon ride.

Oh, and there are some other animals in the show, too, just to entertain the fans during my costume changes.

Check out the latest behavior I've taught the keepers here. These humans are pretty amazing, aren't they?

At night I send the trainers home to recuperate for the next day's sessions while I keep an eye on the Wild Wonders building and all of the other animals. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say a lot of them are bird-brained, and they really need looking after. Plus, there's that sneaky lynx who lives down the hall...I know he's up to something...

Life wasn't always all warm laps and Snausages though. I don't like to elaborate on my experiences before Wild Wonders, but I spent some long nights on the streets, on the run from the dog-catchers, begging for kibble. That's right: I'm a pound puppy. I'm not ashamed about my lack of pedigree. Even in the hard times, I knew I was destined for greatness.

Here's the real heart of the matter, Blog-fans. Just think what might have become of me--ME, Herald the celebrated conservation hero and all-around Wonder Dog--if some wise humans hadn't picked me to bring into their lives. I won't get all mushy about it because I'm not that kind of dog. But if you're thinking of adding a new friend to your family, visit your local shelter or humane society.

Give mutts a chance.