Lobster Training at the New England Aquarium

If you thought training fish was impossible, you'll really be amazed by this - folks at the New England Aquarium are training lobsters as described on their blog!

In this video, they are training a lobster to roll over on its back using food reinforcement. Who would have thought that even lobsters can be trained!

--Dean

Fish School Science Project - A Winner!

We've always thought Fish School would make a great Science Fair project. Now someone finally took us up on the idea. Megan from Allentown, PA did her 7th grade science fair project on how different environments & distractors influence the ability of fish to learn.

She won first place - great job Megan! I really like your poster, and the little soccer playing fish you decorated it with.

--Dean

Pet Talk Radio Interview

Last Saturday I did a radio interview for Harrison Forbes for Pet Talk radio, a nationally syndicated radio broadcast about, you guessed it, pets. It was about a 10 minute segment, and came out pretty well. To listen for yourself, click here.

--Dean

BBC "Animals At Work" Segment

Comet and I have done quite a few TV segments, but I have to say this one for the BBC TV Show Animals At Work is by far the most amusing. I think it is so much fun because it features my two kids, Kyle and Kendall, being their goofy selves. Best of all, it shows Comet doing all 9 of his tricks.

Check it out and tell us what you think!

--Dean

R2 Fish School Voted "Best New Product"

Exciting news for all you Fish School fans out there. Our product, the R2 Fish School training kit was just earned first prize in the Global Pet Expo 2009 "Best New Products Showcase" under the Aquatics category. Global Pet Expo is the pet industry's largest annual trade show. The show was held last week and featured over 850 exhibitors in Orlando, Florida.

As our friend Russ from R2 solutions said in this announcement about the award:

"We are very excited to have achieved this great award. The R2 Fish School kit is an amazing product that captures the imagination of all our customers."

Hopefully this recognition will help introduce a lot of new people to the fun hobby of pet fish training.

--Dean

Impressive Customer Video!

Mary recently purchased an R2 Fish School training kit and for the last 10 days has been teaching her common goldfish (Blaze) to do tricks. He's making great progress. He reminds me of Comet when he was a youngster. Congratulations Mary! Check out the video she made of Blaze in action.

--Dean

UK Fish School Distributor at Last!

For a long time now people from the UK and Europe have been asking about how to by the R2 Fish School kit locally, rather than purchasing it from a US source and shipping it overseas. Up until now they've been out of luck. But now our partners at R2 have teamed up with The Novelty Gift Company out of the UK to make the kits available "across the pond".

So Fish School has officially gone international! I'm pretty proud of the fun new logo, which I had a hand in designing. Check it out below.

--Dean

Steelers Fish Fans

Comet and his new friend Boppy are big Steelers fans, as you can see. What other football team would black and gold fish from Pittsburgh root for?!

--Dean

Comet's New Friend

Comet has been looking lonely lately, since is friend Brainiac died a couple months ago. So we bought him a new companion, a nice calico fantail goldfish that we named Boppy, after my dad, who recently passed away. He's nearly as handsome as my former fantail, the fish that still holds the Guinness World Record for the fish with the most tricks, Albert Einstein. As you can see from the pictures below, or the live webcam, the new friends are getting along well.

--Dean

Target Feeder Now Available!

The corner of the Fish School Training Kit is the feeding wand - that allows you to reward your fish with food when and where in the tank your smart little guy performs a trick. But the feeding wand is not just useful for fish training. It can be helpful whenever you want to target a specific fish for feeding. For example, in a crowded tank sometimes shy fish don't get much food. Or sick fish that are hanging out at the bottom of the tank.

Now, in collaboration with our partners at R2 Solutions, we've made the feeding wand available as a standalone product, called the "Target Feeder". It is available at several retailer stores, and on-line at ThatPetPlace.com. Here is their ad for it: