Concept Training: Shape Discrimination

Julie Gordon All, Homepage blog, News & Events Leave a Comment

Can animals recognize shapes? As Ken Ramirez demonstrates frequently, they can! But why teach shape discrimination? Training an animal to discriminate between different shapes is not only mentally stimulating, but the behavior can be a useful tool for many situations—particularly when there are multiple animals in a training space. By assigning each animal a unique shape, or what Ken calls a “name target,” the animal comes to understand which location to train at, reducing competition and creating a more orderly environment.