Behavior Consulting, Training, Pet Sitting

I REALLY enjoyed the conference of the FL Association of Behavior Analysis!! Two and a half days of research and applied behavior analysis. Presenters work in a variety of areas. Some work with children, some with adults, group homes, autism, brain injury, and more. There were also presenters who work with different species of animals: pets, zoos, feral dogs, cats, and more. There was SO much to try and cover. 

This is a picture (by Val Phillips) of panelists on ”New Horizons in Animal Training and Care: Operant Conditioning and Beyond. The main focus is operant conditioning and husbandry in domesticated and captive animals.”

From left to right they are:

Eduardo J. Fernandez, PhD, University of Washington and Woodland Park Zoo

Christina Alligood, Ph.D., BCBA-D, Disney Animal Kingdom Behavioral Husbandry

Karen Pryor, author, CEO of Karen Pryor, Inc.

Kristi Muir, MS, CPDT-KA, Animal Behavior Training Solutions

Otto Fad, Busch Gardens Tampa Elephant Husbandry

                                                                                             FABA Conference 2011 Program

Videos, lectures, courses, and more from colleges and universities from around the world. You just need to carve out time in your schedule to participate.

Virtual Professors     

Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky gave the opening lecture of the course entitled Human Behavioral Biology and explains the basic premise of the course and how he aims to avoid categorical thinking. All his lectures are available for free on YouTube. Thanks for to Buzz Cecil for letting us know.  

1. Introduction to Human Behavioral Biology
2. Behavioral Evolution
3. Behavioral Evolution II
4. Molecular Genetics I
5. Molecular Genetics II
6. Behavioral Genetics I
7. Behavioral Genetics II
8. Recognizing Relatives
9. Ethology
10. Introduction to Neuroscience I
11. Introduction to Neuroscience II
12. Endocrinology
13. Advanced Neurology and Endocrinology
14. Limbic System
15. Human Sexual Behavior I
16. Human Sexual Behavior II
17. Human Sexual Behavior III & Aggression I
18. Aggression II
19. Aggression III
20. Aggression IV
21. Chaos and Reductionism
22. Emergence and Complexity
23. Language
24. Schizophrenia
25. Individual Differences

The beauty of these lectures is, that they are all on the introductory level, so there are no prerequisites. You can be a scientist or a grad student or a dog owner and Dr. Sapolsky is talking to and for you, not over your head. He talks about the various ways of approaching the different types of thinking about behavior. although this is mainly about human behavior, most of the basic research has been done on and wit animals and animal populations, so the similarities and differences are laid out. Most interesting is, that he dissects them all, talking frankly about the strengths and weakness of each while also examining the interdisciplinarianism of them all where they exists and also where not. In any case, this is NOT for the typical radical believers, because he debunks that very radicalism. He breaks down the standard beliefs and belief systems only to explain the current state-of-the-art ways if looking at something we are involved with every day.

Behavior, be it good, bad, desired or undesired.