Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

injection training

PRT with Rayne and Dora

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Rayne and Dora are due for an exam in 2025 so we have started to focus on their injection training during Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT). Both of the girls have their “arm” behavior down already (despite what Dora showed in the video) so they already are comfortable presenting for a practice injection. However, we will need to continue working on hold times with both of them so they don’t pull away as soon as the needle touches their skin.

As you will see in today’s video, Dora was not interested in participating today. She was interested in the reinforcements I brought (some juice and craisins), but didn’t want to present much for the behaviors I was asking for. We want her to want to participate – so it’s totally okay! We will continue training with her so she has plenty of opportunities to practice.

PRT A Day Keeps the Doctor at Bay

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Watch today’s blog video to see what the chimpanzees and our Positive Reinforcement Training team have been up to!

Here is a hint…

This is a EKG reading from Terry, using the KardiaMobile!

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!

Building Upon the Foundation (PRT)

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Following my recent blog about Positive Reinforcement Training (PRT) with Rayne, I thought I would do another PRT blog today with a new topic… Injection training!

Injection training is extremely helpful in case of emergency or routine procedures, where the chimpanzees would undergo anesthesia. Sometimes these procedures are planned and we can work on injection training for the months/weeks leading up to the procedure, or occasionally there is an emergency and a chimp needs to have an anesthetic procedure the same day. Therefore, we try to consistently work on injection training with the chimps, as we never know when their PRT skills will have to be put to use.

For injection training, we use a blunt needle as we are just practicing. We ask the chimp to present their arm (either left or right) by using the gestural cue for “arm”, then use our clicker to reinforce them presenting their arm. We will then ask them to hold the position while we pick up the needle syringe. We then let them know what we are doing by saying “poke” and press the blunt needle to the arm. As soon as the chimp allows this, the clicker is used to let them know that is what we wanted and then we follow with a reward (in the video today, it is peanuts). Injection training can be scary and nerve-racking for some chimps, so we typically give them more of a reward than we would with an easier task.

All of Cy’s group (who previously lived at Wildlife Waystation) do so well at PRT. It is clear that their former caregivers have put a lot of time and effort into PRT, and therefore, have built a strong foundation with all of these chimps. Thank you so much to all of their previous caregivers if you’re reading this!

Dora:

Burrito: