80: Creating Reinforcing and Challenging Environments with Gerry Creighton, Global Elephant Care

This episode Gerry Creighton, Global Elephant Care, discusses the importance of and advice for creating reinforcing and challenging environments for animals.  Gerry starts the podcast by detailing his journey and the evolution of the Dublin Zoo and then discussing what it means to “borrow animals” for training.  He gives advice on creatinine environments where animals aren’t looking to us for reinforcers.  Gerry also provides learning on giving animals appropriate, biological challenges and allowing animals to make their own decisions.  The podcast ends with advice on how to effectively message to guests, and leadership, when environments are created that may limit the guest view of the animal. Stay tuned in for Gerry’s "Training Tale" about an elephant who learned the joy of positive reinforcement training! For questions or suggestions about the podcast email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠ and to reach Gerry email ⁠[email protected] To learn more about Global Elephant Care and Gerry’s book “Raised by the Zoo: My Life with Elephants and Other Animals” visit https://globalelephantcare.com/ 5:20 Introduction to Gerry Creighton  21:50 “Borrowing Animals” for training  33:25 How can we give animals appropriate challenges in their life?  40:45 Creating environments where animals aren’t looking to us for reinforcers  50:15 Letting animals make their own decisions and how to listen to those decisions  1:01:40 Effectively messaging to guests and leadership if environments cause an animal to not be readily seen 1:08:40 “Training Tales”