 |
Reptile Forum, Reptile Classifieds - CaptiveBred
A site to share your Reptile experiances & ask questions
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
crocdoc
Key Member
Joined: 07 Dec 2005
Posts: 262
Location: Sydney Australia - best address on Earth :)
|
 Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 12:22 pm Post subject: monitor learning/training |
 |
|
This video requires a bit of explaining. I’ve been meaning to put this together for ages and finally got a chance to shoot it over the easter long weekend, but only recently had the time to edit it.
A while ago, in a discussion about monitors being trained, I mentioned that most captive monitors get ‘trained’ to do certain things inadvertently, without any particular effort made to train them. Most of what they learn are routines associated with their day to day care and one of the things that popped into my head immediately is the routine adopted by my monitors when they want to be let out of their enclosure. It started accidentally, with me recognising their indications of wanting to be let out, but later I started to change it intentionally. They used to scratch at the glass anywhere along the front of the enclosure but I decided to ignore them unless they were on the far right hand side of the enclosure, on top of the nest box, at which point I would immediately go and let them out. It took no time at all until they only went there to be let out.
The second part of the routine is the way in which they get lifted up. It dawned on me one day that the male and I have a set sequence – I extend my right hand and he puts his left arm between my thumb and forefinger to be hauled out. I have decided to intentionally fine tune and standardise this manoeuvre and now the male does it perfectly almost every time (I was just starting to work on it when the video was made). The female has since learned this routine, too, and is also in the process of perfecting it, but you can see her miss once in this video.
The other reason for me putting together this video (the idea popped in my head a while ago, but I haven’t had the time) was to show that monitors often (if not usually) become quite tame on their own, without much effort being put in to tame them. Look how calm they are and keep in mind that the male is the same monitor as the one catching chicks in 'monitor mayhem'. The female hates being touched, but willingly crawls onto my hand because it means being let out to wander.
monitior routine
Since the clips for this video were shot on the same weekend(s) as the feeding videos featured in ‘monitor mayhem’, both of the lace monitors have quite round bellies from all of those chicks. They aren’t always this fat! |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Mich
Contributing Member
Joined: 05 May 2007
Posts: 59
Location: Barking, London
|
| Posted: Fri May 25, 2007 8:26 pm Post subject: |
|
|
wow, thats a lovely pair of monitors you have there
_________________
0.1.0 Royal Python - Wednesday - CB04
1.1.0 Bearded Dragons - Girr and Lenore - CB06
1.0.0 Cat - Ozzy |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Scott W
Site Admin
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 13355
Location: London, England.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
gabb13
I've settled in...
Joined: 05 Apr 2007
Posts: 25
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:32 pm Post subject: And if you make an actual effort! |
|
|
You can have them:
asking for food,
feeding safely,
potty trained,
and much much more.
Read my lips: any interaction with the keeper is training.
I will repeat: you are training them whether you know it or not; whether mindlessly or deliberately.
May 2, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Rvvxqxm3Q
Lip Service
#29 - Top Rated (Today) - Pets & Animals - All
#26 - Top Rated (Today) - Pets & Animals - English
#54 - Most Discussed (Today) - Pets & Animals - All
May 11, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvBZ6W5ChCs
Lilly's Best Pal
#31 - Top Rated (Today) - Pets & Animals - All
#30 - Top Rated (Today) - Pets & Animals - English
#43 - Most Discussed (Today) - Pets & Animals - All
#8 - Top Favorites (Today) - Pets & Animals - All
#8 - Top Favorites (Today) - Pets & Animals - English
Video Views: 23705
Channel Views: 1798
Subscribers: 22
There are 23 vids now.
Expect more this year,
next year,
the following year...
Eventually you all will get the idea which I presented here once and which you all rejected because thousands of people will not let you not get it.
The time approaches when an untamed monitor will be regarded as a sign of improper husbandry- even as abuse. These animals are too smart to respond favorably to the 'deprivation tank method'.
Dave- here is when I again ask you to correct the misperceptions you originated on a previous occasion rather than claim the values I first introduced here as your own! Jeez- that's plagiarism in the worst form.
_________________
I am the Viper! Kiss my asp!
1.1 Bitis nasicornis |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sam Sweet
Contributing Member
Joined: 30 Aug 2006
Posts: 69
|
| Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2007 5:12 am Post subject: Weren't you banned here, Dunces? |
|
|
| no post |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
martin day
Contributing Member
Joined: 04 Feb 2007
Posts: 90
Location: chesterfield,derbshire
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
a few of things youve done in the past like the bath incident i didnt agree with
but i have to hand it to you ,you have some very nice monitors and i personally think its much better to have monitors that trust you than ones that dont
and yours certainly do  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MJ
Site Moderator
Joined: 26 May 2006
Posts: 5738
Location: London
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 1:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| martin day wrote: | a few of things youve done in the past like the bath incident i didnt agree with
but i have to hand it to you ,you have some very nice monitors and i personally think its much better to have monitors that trust you than ones that dont
and yours certainly do |
It was not crocdoc who did the bath tub thing 
_________________
Paul
For all your Tropical plant and Naturalistic Vivarium needs please enjoy Urban Bromeliad |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
martin day
Contributing Member
Joined: 04 Feb 2007
Posts: 90
Location: chesterfield,derbshire
|
| Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:02 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| no ididnt mean croc doc i was referring to gabb13 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
crocdoc
Key Member
Joined: 07 Dec 2005
Posts: 262
Location: Sydney Australia - best address on Earth :)
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:42 am Post subject: Re: And if you make an actual effort! |
|
|
| gabb13 wrote: | | Dave- here is when I again ask you to correct the misperceptions you originated on a previous occasion rather than claim the values I first introduced here as your own! Jeez- that's plagiarism in the worst form. |
Danceswithsavs (aka gabb13), you did not introduce any concept that hasn't been done by dozens before you. Please re-read the text of my first post in this thread.
Watch the video in the first post of this thread. My monitors have been acting like that long before yours were imported (or even hatched). I've been telling you that all along and you insisted on seeing a video, so I finally got a chance to do the video. No water was involved in taming them and no big effort has been made to train them, either. It's nice that they've tamed down enough to make working with them easier and it's convenient that they've inadvertently become trained to do what they do (with some tweaking on my part), but neither is a must.
The point I've been making all along is that my monitors have become 'tame' without any effort on my part, other than allowing them to become that way on their terms, without me forcing the issue. If I had a defensive young monitor I wouldn't dream of putting it in water to calm it down, for instance. That's what all the fuss was about. It wasn't about whether or not you chose to train your monitors to tongue flick you and your partner's faces for food. I wouldn't dream of teaching my monitors to tongue flick my face for a reward, though, for any association between one's face and food would be a recipe for disaster with lace monitors. They run at a higher gear than savannah monitors.
lace monitor feeding
I've just been overseas and noticed that Sam's croc monitors behave exactly as do my lace monitors and it seems he has done pretty much what I've done to 'tame' his monitors: Nothing. He simply gave them the chance to become accustomed to him on their own terms:
savage croc monitor
When they were young and fearful he felt no desire to put them in water - he just left them alone. They get over that fear in time.
That's what all of the fuss has been about, not the training. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
thomas mcpherson
CaptiveBred Addict!
Joined: 27 Aug 2006
Posts: 613
|
| Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| love the monitor mayhem |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
