Watch today’s blog video to see what the chimpanzees and our Positive Reinforcement Training team have been up to!
Here is a hint…
Honey B has been resting a lot today after her procedure yesterday. She spent her morning watching chimp videos from her cozy nest, and was reunited with Gordo this afternoon. Gordo seemed very glad to have his friend back!
Before watching the video, I’d say it looks like Terry was excited to see you!
While I was watching, I thought I would probably ask who is the hardest one to work with, but you anticipated that question in the video!:laughing:
Is Foxie getting better about it?
Hope everything turned out well for all!
One of the challenges with using the KardiaMobile to obtain awake ekgs with the chimpanzees is its sensitivity. The erratic portion at the beginning of Terry’s ekg reading was caused by him moving his fingers ever so slightly. Other things like our radios, other devices, or even another chimpanzee pant-hooting or displaying can also cause interference in the reading and cause a reading to have too much “noise” to be diagnostic. For this reason I usually take several readings during each session, and it can take longer than you’d expect to train the behavior to a point that you have diagnostic results for Dr. Erin! One of our goals is also to eventually not need to apply pressure to their fingers while the reading occurs, to prevent any potential interference from our hearts on their reading. I’m a total nerd about KardiaMobile training, I love it so much!
Who is the hardest to train can depend on the behavior we’re asking for. Overall though, I’d have to say Negra at the present moment. She doesn’t have much patience for us asking her to do something, and instead would just like the treat right this second! We are working with her on this by starting with very brief, high reward sessions.
Foxie and Jamie both like to try to touch the ultrasound wand while we work with Burrito. We find it helpful if we have more people available to occupy them with snacks of their own so they aren’t as focused on the ultrasound wand. When we use the real ultrasound, we separate the chimp from their group briefly to lower the risks of damage to the (very expensive) equipment. We have practiced once with Burrito with the real ultrasound machine, and he didn’t mind being separated at all because he had the best view of his tv!
First, I am relieved to hear Honey B is back with Gordo. Nice knowing she bounced back quickly from yesterday’s procedure.
Everyone appears to be progressing with their training! And leave it to Burrito to find PRT so much fun!! He’s too much, in all the best ways.
Thanks for sharing your progress, Ellen! It’s really very impressive.
Burrito is simply the best, and the silliest! He always knows how to have fun.
Thank you! PRT is one of my favorite aspects of the job, and I so enjoy being able to share it with you all.
It’s so interesting to see how everyone does with PRT! Leave it to Burrito to make it into a play session!
It’s always very interesting to see PRT and their progress. It popped in my mind that maybe they do it so eagerly not just because of the treats they get but also because during the traing sessions they can have more physical contact with you. :palms_up_together: