Question: why can we train some animals and not others?

Joanna Cruden answered on 16 Jun 2012:

I think the answer is in two parts with a little behavioural experiment you can try at home, the first part is how humans determined what animals to domestic all those hundreds of years ago and I found a nice webpage which I have borrowed this from; if you click the link it explains more:

http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/2400-domesticated-animals-criteria.html

According to the evolutionary physiologist and geographer Jared Diamond, in his acclaimed book “Guns, Germs and Steel” (Norton, 1997), there are six criteria that animals must meet for domestication. Many species come close, but very few fit the bill

First, domestic animals cannot be picky eaters
Second, only animals that reach maturity quickly relative to the human life span are worth considering
Third, domesticated species must be willing to breed in captivity
Fourth, domesticated animals must be docile by nature.
Fifth, domestic animals cannot have a strong tendency to panic and flee when startled, sheep while panicking have a flocking instinct when startled so can be moved to safety
Lastly, with the exception of the cat, all the major domesticated animals conform to a social hierarchy dominated by strong leadership. This has allowed us to easily modify them so that they’ll recognize their human caretaker as the pack leader

Generally animals we keep as pets start to be trained from the time they are born and don’t really know any difference.

There is a similar criteria to follow when you want to train an animal, I have tried to find something on the web but not found anything straightforward, but the most important is temperament, a willingness to please. There are several temperament tests available to assess how well an animal can be trained.

Reptiles are most likely trained by the trainer taking advantage of their natural behaviours for them to receive a treat or some other type of positive reinforcement, where we may see it as a trick it is in fact a natural behaviour that they simply do at a signal. However it really depends on the temperament of the animal, even some dogs cannot be trained simply because they don’t have the right temperament. There is a big difference between taming an animal and training, as you can tame animals to be handled but it may never be trained to do anything on command, reptiles are an example of animal that could be tamed but unlikely to be trained.

Wild animals may be the same as reptiles you can take advantage of their natural behaviour and each time they carry out a behaviour you reward them and maybe use a clicker noise so they begin to associate the movement with the noise and a reward, they will then perform when they hear the noise, as do humans so try it out on one of your siblings or parents (aka Subjects)!

Planning
You need to make it fun for your subject, first decide on the noise; make it subtle, maybe a rustle of a crisp pack or a tap on their arm or a pinging noise. The treat should be something the subject will want so you need to have an understanding of their behaviour and needs…

The key is not to tell your human subject what you are doing !!

Method
1.Make the noise either a couple of times over an evening (or try it every 30 minutes) and every time they turn offer them a crisp/treat/chat. Try this for a few days, as we are hoping they have a good temperament they should pick it up quickly

2.Once you think they are responding to you, start to make the noise, but without giving them a crisp/treat every time (alternate or randomise when you give them the treat)

3.If you do this over a week you should find they start turning as soon as they hear the sound whether they get a treat or not

4.If this works you have just done your first positive reinforcement test with a primate, if you start today then by Friday they should be turning at the rustle or another noise!

Results
Some subjects won’t respond because they don’t have the right temperament, but others will respond quickly and those are the ones you would take forward to the next training step.

Note
Experiments are always planned and refined so if you have any suggestions on refining this one do share them  I would be interested in your results.

My son always responds to a carrier bag rustle so his temperament means he could be trained to do more tricks for food 😉