In this article, we once again have the collaboration of our friend Jorge Iván Sánchez Quintero, biologist and animal trainer, who shares how positive reinforcement and progressive habituation to veterinary procedures make a significant difference. The goal? As always, efficient handling and an improved quality of life for these incredible animals.

Imagine for a moment that you are a newly hatched duckling. You open your eyes, and the first thing you see is a moving figure. Without questioning it, your instinct leads you to follow that figure, assuming it is your mother. This phenomenon, known as imprinting, was thoroughly studied by ethologist Konrad Lorenz, who observed how goslings bonded with the first moving object they saw, even if it was a human.

Hello everyone! My name is Marina Schweizer. I am the Animal Training and Welfare Manager at BioParque do Rio, based in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil. I specialized in biology and wildlife management at the São Paulo Zoo Foundation and completed a master's degree in Wildlife Conservation.

In the world of animal training, each day gives us a new opportunity to improve communication between us and the animals. As you know, when we train, we often condition our animals to perform the desired behavior through a cue. But how do we tell our animal what we expect from them? With the help of prompts, which will be essential for guiding and shaping the behaviors we want to train, whether it's a dog, a macaw, or a dolphin. These techniques will help us initiate responses and will be fundamental in our training plans.

In animal training, we sometimes hear about the threshold of tolerance, but what is the threshold of tolerance and how can we manage it?

It is a term that refers to the level or point at which an animal begins to show signs of stress or discomfort in response to a specific stimulus. This concept is crucial for understanding and managing an animal's behavior, as it allows us to identify the limits within which the animal can behave without showing significant frustration or discomfort.

As trainers or caregivers, we often encounter situations with our animals in our daily routines that present behavioral problems, and we may not always know how to solve them, or rather, how to begin developing a plan to improve or resolve them as soon as possible.