One of my biggest challenges is transferring my experience to those who would like to benefit from it. Having spent a number of years training animals in zoological, aviary, and aquarium settings, I have a lot of experience in working with animals that are not leashed. This requires a lot of observation and really good timing at “marking” and rewarding behavior. This is a difficult skill to learn and it requires practice. One of the top problems in dog training is using the leash to create behavior. In the detection dog the leash is a tool to limit the search area. When used incorrectly, the leash becomes the primary tool for communicating with the dog and often places the dog in conflict between the task at hand and what the handler is “saying” through the leash.
So, I offer this software developed to teach psychology students about animal learning. There were once sites you could download the trial for free, but now most of those look a little sketchy. You can rent this from Amazon or purchase (the price is much steeper than it once was). WARNING- this is not Candy Crush and you will not see quick successes. You have to first teach Sniffy to find food in the hopper and only after he is successful can you teach him to press the bar to receive his own reward. The software is quite complex, so if you are really good you can teach sniffy to do a forward roll through much time and patience.
This is not for everyone, but if you are interested in improving your understanding and practice in operant training, this one tool may be helpful.