Fish Training in the Classroom

There is a nice article out today describing how teachers are using our fish training kit to teach kids important lessons in school. Here is an excerpt:

"Teachers are catching on to the educational benefits of the kit and educators across the country are using the kit as an in class science project. The Kearney School of Science, Communications and Technology in San Diego, CA and science teacher Joanne "JJ" Johnson have implemented the program. They have 10 tanks setup in her classroom and students are divided into small groups of 3 or 4."

"Team members experience a wonderful sense of pride and accomplishment when they demonstrate the skill of their “fish stars” to an appreciative and often incredulous audience.

"Students have learned that patience and consistency are essential to effectively train animals", says Johnson "Generating excitement in the learning process is at the heart of teaching. Fish School is tailor-made for this”.

It is wonderful to see the excited faces of kids when the start to train their class fish.

--Dean

Customer Videos!

Check out the great videos sent in by happy R2 Fish School customers. I especially like this sent in by Kdiddy1538. For his class project, he trained his betta named Navin to swim through the hoop, tunnel and under the low limbo bar. He gives Comet a real run for his money! Here are both Navin and Comet in action. You can judge for yourself!

--Dean

Fish Trainer of the Day

I want to get a shout out to Mary and her efforts training her goldfish Blaze. Mary is an animal trainer, and blogs at her website Stale Cheerios. Here latest effort involves training Blaze to swim under a decorative bridge in his tank using the R2 Fish School Training Kit. She, like a few other serious fish trainers, is using a flashing light as a bridge signal to cue the behavior. Watch the video below. Great job Mary and Blaze!

--Dean

Fish Trainer of the Day

I just had to share this great video Emily is made of her fish training progress, using the R2 Fish School kit. She and her fish are making terrific progress, which isn't surprising since Emily is a dolphin trainer by trade.

This video, complete with captions and side effects, is just day three of their training efforts, and already her fish is swimming through the hoop, touching the soccer ball, and swimming under the limbo bar. Check it out.

Great job Emily!

--Dean

A Puppy Not a Guppy

Hey fish friends,

There is a cool new children's book just out by Holly Jahangiri called A Puppy, Not a Guppy.

We here at Fish School are especially excited about it because it parallels much of the origins of Fish School, and because Holly has been kind enough to show us early versions of her wonderful book, and ask for our expert advise in fish training. It has been great working with her.

The hero of the story is a young girl named Irma. Just like my kids a couple years ago, Irma wants a puppy but her parents think puppies are too much trouble, and instead buy her three guppies.

Irma is disappointed at first and to cheer her up, her parents suggest she try training her guppies to do tricks like a dog. Irma thinks its a silly idea, but is willing to give it a try - anything to make her fish more interesting. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but if you know the history of Fish School, you know the story has a happy ending!

The book is wonderfully illustrated by the talented artist Ryan Shaw, and even includes information about the real-life story of Fish School. Thanks for mentioning us Holly!

A Puppy, Not a Guppy is available at Amazon.com, and we here at Fish School give it two fins up!

--Dean

Why Not a Trained Fish Patrol?

The US Navy announced today that it would be using marine mammals to guard some of its naval bases, like Puget Sound, to protect against homeland terrorists. Why not used trained fish instead, like I proposed a while back in a white paper I sent to the ONR a while back?

I never heard back from them...

--Dean

New Commercial and Web Site

Hey Fish School fans - we've got a new website and 2-min informercial to bring the idea of pet fish training to a wider audience! I can't tell you how excited we are to finally have it completed. Check it out here.


--Dean

Guppy Training Down Under

Tess from Australia purchased the R2 Fish School training kit as a Christmas present for her husband, but couldn't wait to give it a try in her gorgeous community tank of guppies, platties, tetras & catfish. She said the guppies immediately learned that the wand means food. Here is a very short video of one of her first training sessions with the feeding wand:



Great job Tess!

--Dean

Cirque du Filet

After several years of effort by she and her wonderful fish, Diane at Freshwater Pearl Puppetry has completed the Cirque du filet scene for her show, The Ugly Guppy:

As Diane puts it:

It's amazing how much of my life is wrapped up in that 5 minutes: two years... 10 beloved fish (8 of whom were loved and lost)... over 300 hours of training. But I'd do it again! (Glad I don't have to, however.)

Congratulations Diane! Kudos to you and your fish!

--Dean

NY Times Article on Smart Reef Fish

Here is an interesting article in the science section of the New York Times on experiments by Australian researchers training small reef fish to recognize and respond to targets. The scientists say the ability to learn could provide the fish with survival benefits in the complex social environment of the ocean reefs. There is even a short video of a training session. Their feeding wand isn't nearly as cool as ours!