Have You EVER Trained a Spider?

The idea of training a spider had never entered my consciousness until recently when I attended an animal behavior workshop in Hot Springs, Arkansas, led by Bob Bailey, Sc. D., who has trained spiders, chickens, pigeons, dogs and cats, dolphins, elephants, bunnies, and more as well as guided the professional development of thousands of animal trainers. Bob Bailey is a legendary figure in this community and admired for his work around the world!

Bob sports over 40 years of experience in animal training having served as the first Director of Training for the US Navy Marine Mammal Program in the early 1960s where he pioneered techniques to train dolphins for open-water operations. Around that time, he crossed paths with Keller and Marian Breland who operated Animal Behavior Enterprises (ABE) and were also doing animal behavior work for the US government.

Keller and Marian Breland had served as graduate assistants to the famed behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner and helped in refining the principles of operant conditioning. After WWII, the Brelands migrated this concept to the animal realm creating the field of Applied Animal Psychology. They brought Bob on board in 1965. Unfortunately, Keller died that year but Bob and Marian, who later married, continued to advance the science and pioneer new technologies. Marian passed in 2001 leaving Bob to continue to build on the legacy that he and the Brelands built over the past 6 decades.

Having a background in developing technical training programs (for humans), what I was learning at this workshop in Hot Springs fascinated me. I found myself surrounded by animal trainers, all who were avid believers in operant conditioning which relies on positive reinforcement of desired behaviors. Sounded to me like the foundational element of a supportive classroom or work environment.

Bob (left) headlined the program but other presenters (appearing from left to right in the order presented below) could easily be considered some of the best animal trainers in the world.

Susan Garrett (B.Sc. Animal Science) is the owner of Say Yes Dog Training and one of the most successful agility competitors having won multiple Gold Medals at national and world championship events with her dogs. She is a leading educator of dog trainers having worked with clients in 82 different countries, has published multiple books, and created the DVD Susan Garrett's Crate Games for Self-Control and Motivation.

Simon Prins, known for introducing operant conditioning to the Police K9 training world, is a speaker, author, innovator, trainer, and behaviorist who currently works with the Netherlands Police Agency. He’s skilled at using robotics and sensors with police dogs and has trained countless animals and trainers from special units across the globe. “My goal is to share the power of operant conditioning with the rest of the training world.” He also coauthored the book K9 Behavior Basics: A Manual for Proven Success in Operational Service Dog Training.

Shelley Wood (B.Sc. Wildlife Management) heads the ABC Dolphin Trainer Academy, is the Training Education Director at Dolphin Discovery, and serves on the Board of International Marine Animal Trainers Association. “My passion is teaching people how to kindly and efficiently train all animals living under human care to have the best quality of life, both mentally and physically.” She has more than 20 years of experience working with trainers from 7 different countries.

Vivian Theby (post graduate degree in Animal Behavior Counseling) resides in Germany and is a principal with Tierakademie Scheuerhof. She has been training animals since her elementary school days. Her passion is to convey her knowledge in the form of books, DVDs and seminars at home and abroad. She holds lectures for veterinarians, veterinary staff, dog and horse trainers around the globe and has published several books on dog training including Dog University: A Training Program to Develop Advanced Skills With Your Dog.

Margaret Simek, owner of One Happy Dog, has an extensive list of competition titles to her name. Her passion for putting positive training methods to their most effective use infuses every private session, class, and workshop she teaches. Margaret has pioneered the Simek Method of Nosework training, using operant conditioning to teach dogs to choose odor over food.

Operant conditioning fosters the idea that behaviors which are reinforced tend to continue, while behaviors that are punished will eventually end. Skinner first published his ideas on this topic in The Behavior of Organisms in 1938 after completing a doctorate degree at Harvard University.

In 1961, The Brelands published the results of their early work in “The Misbehavior of Organisms.” They introduced the idea of instinctual drift. Formulated as a result of their extensive and well-documented research with numerous breeds of animals, they had found that shaping behavior does not happen in a vacuum and behavior will inherently drift toward the animal’s natural instincts, particularly under stress, unless countered by positive reinforcement.

I have some lovable rescue dogs and a handful of cats but none of them are going to work for the government or be world champions at anything other than shedding and licking. I did envision that this workshop would help me help them improve their behaviors and expedite their mastery of a few commands. So what did I learn from this amazing experience which was part workshop and part celebration of Bob, Marian, and Keller’s outstanding accomplishments?

I learned, as Bob would say, “training is simple but not easy!” It works best with a meticulous devotion to accuracy and timing that starts with clearly defining the desired behavior. When the animal delivers that behavior, the clock starts. Unless the desired behavior is immediately reinforced, the trainer may be rewarding an entirely different behavior than expected. Often fractions of a second make a huge difference in whether an animal connects the reward with sit or look at the cat.

Given that I research, write, and speak on human factors associated with employee engagement and other workplace issues, I couldn’t help but think that the concepts Bob was sharing with us makes the whole idea of performance reviews once a year rather inconsistent with behavioral science. But I tried to keep my focus on animal training and was generally successful. I wavered once again when Bob proclaimed that “all trainers are successful!”

It dawned on me that the animal learns something from each training session, period. The question is, did it learn what was the trainer was trying to teach it or something completely different?

My thoughts wandered again as I began reflecting that I often speak at conferences about managing corporate culture. I explain that every interaction managers have with employees, whether it involves their behavior directly or the work environment that their behaviors create, impacts the employees’ behavior for better or worse. And culture equates to behavior. So, why not intentionally create a safe, productive culture?

The battle to maintain the focus on animal behavior over human behavior raged in my head like a high energy ping-pong match throughout the whole 4-day event. And why wouldn’t it? The key principles of contemporary human and animal psychology track back the same source--the research and discoveries of B.F. Skinner and the Brelands nearly 60 years ago.

As this amazing event came to a close, Bob, still sharp and in the game but now in his eighties, announced that this was his last workshop. The room erupted in a barrage of respectful protests. But he reinforced the idea that other than fulfilling some existing commitments, sadly this was his last workshop.

It’s still too soon to fully conceptualize or assess how much I learned from Bob and the other presenters. They have certainly inspired me to research these topics and techniques further. But one fact was glowingly clear—how lucky am I to have been a part of this historic event!

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Fred Stawitz helps businesses create effective solutions by shaping a culture that engages employees in safe, productive, and sustainably profitable operations. He created and managed technical training programs for US Space Shuttle Program, Shell/Bechtel energy venture, and large pipeline operations that maximize safety and productivity while ensuring regulatory compliance. He's an international speaker on human factors in the workplace and disruptive, emergent digital technologies; was featured on CNN Headline News, a PBS special, and quoted in a Special Congressional Quarterly Report; and is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Leadership 500 LEAD Award. He as also author of several highly praised and award-winning books and is a successful publisher guiding writers through the process of creating marketable books with global distribution.

Fred Stawitz is also President of Storymakers, Inc., the company that republished the unique book Animal Behavior which was first released by Keller and Marian Breland in 1966. The new release includes a special foreword by Bob Bailey and an incredible array of historic photos of his work with the Brelands.

Connect with Fred Stawitz on LinkedIn.