Hello and welcome back to Animal Wonders!
I’m Jessi and this is Loki the Chinese water dragon.
Some people think it’s impossible to train reptiles, but I disagree!
It’s absolutely possible to train them
and to demonstrate that I’d like to share what I’m training Loki to do.
[ ♪ Intro ]
Alright, I need to give you some background information before we get into the training.
Reptiles are different from most animals that are commonly kept as pets
because they don’t form the same kinds of social bonds with their human caretakers that, say,
a dog, cat, or bird might.
But reptiles can benefit from positive reinforcement training
just like any other animal can!
Loki is an animal ambassador, which means that he has an important job
helping to give educational presentations to audiences virtually and in-person.
When we’re preparing to travel to a local presentation,
we usually reach in, pick him up, and set him into a travel carrier, and we’re off.
But instead of just picking him up, I would like to give him the choice to come out if he wants to.
Since I can’t speak water dragon, I can’t just ask him if he wants to come out.
So I need to teach him what I’m trying to communicate.
That’s the premise behind training,
it’s like creating a language that connects two different species.
So my plan is to teach Loki that when I put my hand out flat like this,
he can choose to climb onto my hand if he wants to come out.
To do this I’m going to use positive reinforcement
to increase the chances he’ll respond the way I’m hoping he does.
I’ll present my hand, and then offer a reward, which is a tasty mealworm.
If he steps onto my hand, he gets the reward.
Now, this is also called baiting because I’m showing him the reward to entice his behavior,
but sometimes baiting is a tool that can be useful in training.
I’m hoping that once he pairs getting a reward with coming onto my hand,
I can present my hand without showing him the mealworm first
and he’ll choose to climb on and then I can give him his treat.
So, let’s see how this goes!
Alright.
Hey, Bubbas!
You see that? You wanna come on over here?
Good boy.
Nice job!
Let's get another little treat for you.
Nice.
He is very cooperative and happy about this.
You see he is not showing any resistance to coming onto my hand.
It's comfortable for him.
Come all the way out now.
All the way on.
Good job!
He is fully on my hand now! Yay!
This is so exciting!
Well done!
Good job, Buddy!
Yeah.
You comfy?
I'll give you one more for just chillin' out.
Here you go, you can have it.
Oh no, we dropped it!
That was a good try, though.
Get one.
Get it, there you go. Good job.
Alright.
I'm going to turn around and let him go back off my hand.
Or I'm going to just set him back on there.
There you go.
Good job!
Alright, we're going to try this again
and see if he wants to do it again, because that was great.
Alright, I'm trying a little bit harder now.
I'm putting it further out to see if we can reduce the steps.
Look at his little tongue!
Come and get it!
There you go.
Rewarded for stepping onto my hand.
Nice job.
Making sure my hand is nice and steady.
He's kind of pushed my fingers apart, I'm worried that he might feel unstable.
So I'm going to try to adjust my hand as he comes farther onto it.
There we go.
And he is fully on my hand this time- I'm going to pick him up.
Just a little bit.
Hi, Buddys.
You did great!
Yes, you did!
You looking around now?
Here you go.
Yes, such a good dragon!
He's so good!
Hi, Bud.
Yes.
You're a good boy, you wanna go back down?
Here you go.
That was awesome!
So, we’re still in the very beginning stages of our training journey with Loki.
I might introduce a target stick at some point,
or see if he'll climb on something besides my hand in the future.
I’m excited to see what comes next and I’ll definitely share updates on our progress!
If you’ve ever trained an animal and would like to share what you've accomplished,
please share your training experience in the comments, I’d love to hear them.
Now, Loki is just one of the many animal rescues that we have at Animal Wonders.
He came from a neglectful home and sustained permanent damage to the front of his mouth.
We’re happy he’s doing so well now, and we’re passionate about providing him
and all the animals in our care with everything they need to live happy and healthy lives.
If you’d like to help us care for these amazing animals and continue to share them,
please join our community on Patreon, by going to patreon.com/animalwonders, I've put the link is below.
Your support will not only get you exclusive perks,
but you’ll be helping to ensure Loki and his friends have great care!
Thanks for watching and if you’d like to continue going on animal adventures with us,
be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you soon!
Bye!
[ ♪ Outro ]