A
Short Biography of Bob Bailey
by Bob Bailey
I
describe myself as a behavioral-systems analyst and
engineer, small-businessman, field biologist, animal
trainer, and teacher, not necessarily in that order.
I was born in Ohio and grew up in Los Angeles during
WWII before the rest of the world had discovered
what was then idyllic Southern California. My early
years in the 1940s were spent trekking the desert
looking for animals in the San Fernando Valley, and
swimming, surfing, and fishing along the California
coastline. My father was a precision machinist and
worked for MGM Motion Picture Studios, so I am a
movie brat, and had my hair tousled by Spencer Tracy.
I was educated at UCLA (Biology and Chemistry). I
was a Teaching and Research Assistant, and I spent
a lot of time in the 1950s studying and photographing
animals in the desert and at sea. I was intrigued
by what animals did – animal behavior. I began
training animals, both in the lab and in the wild.
My first captive training subjects were squid, amphibians,
fishes, and reptiles. I trained crows, coyotes, and
kangaroo rats in the wild. I was largely self-taught,
and read the works of B. F. Skinner and Keller and
Marian Breland, among others.
My first real job after the military was at the
UCLA School of Medicine, researching psychotropic
drugs. Leaving UCLA, I worked for a short time for
California Fish and Game doing at-sea studies. I
then became the US Navy Marine Mammal Program’s
first Director of Training (1962), and was formally
introduced to the Brelands, their company, Animal
Behavior Enterprises (ABE), and scientific animal
training. It was at that time that my life became
intimately and inextricably connected with Brelands’.
The Brelands taught the US Navy trainers, including
me, the basics of operant conditioning using chickens
as models. I believe it was a combination of the
Brelands’ communication skills and my training
the chickens that opened my eyes to what real training
was all about. My primary claim to fame at this time
probably would be the Navy’s first open-ocean
release of a dolphin (1964). In 1965 I left the Navy
to join the Brelands in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Marian and Keller Breland had studied under Skinner
until 1943. They left the University of Minnesota
and founded ABE, the first company to use operant
conditioning to train animals. The Brelands were
routinely using “clickers” (then, called “crickets”)
by 1944-1945 for training dogs, cats, parakeets,
and other animals. The Brelands conducted their first
animal training classes in 1947, using chickens.
They taught General Mills feed salesmen how to train
animals, and give public stage shows. The Brelands,
through ABE, were the first to use operant conditioning
for training dolphins (1955), whales (1957), parrots
(1957), and many other animals. The Brelands had
written two landmark scientific papers, both in the
American Psychologist: “A New Field
Of Applied Animal Psychology” (1951) and “The
Misbehavior of Organisms” (1961). The first
paper reported the beginning of scientific animal
training, and the second redefined the roles of operant
and respondent conditioning in animal training. Keller
died in 1965. I married Marian Breland in 1976. We
had already formed a close partnership in the study
and training of animals.
ABE had more than 43 full-time employees, and our
business interests were worldwide. Over the years,
ABE behavioral technicians trained over 140 species,
and more than 15,000 individual animals, including
ravens, vultures, pigeons, dogs, cats, dolphins,
sea lions, and many other species to perform in difficult
circumstances and in free environments. I trained
thousands of animals representing over 120 different
species. Over the years Marian and I had taught many
trainers using—as our favorite behavioral model—the
barnyard chicken. Marian and I closed ABE and retired
in 1990 though she continued teaching at Henderson
State University, where she had taught psychology
classes since 1981.
Marian and I continued our private consulting and
teaching activities. In 1994, Karen Pryor and Terry
Ryan encouraged us to join Internet discussions and
to teach “public” classes. We began a
public version of our operant conditioning workshops
using chickens in 1995. We began our operant conditioning
classes in Hot Springs in 1997. Many nationally
and internationally known dog trainers have attended
our classes, including Karen Pryor, Jean Donaldson,
Terry Ryan, Susan Garrett, Sue Ailsby, Sophia Yin,
etc.
Sadly, Marian died in 2001. I continued the classes
in Hot Springs until 2004. I continue to teach and
lecture from time to time, and to consult with private
companies and governmental agencies in the USA and
abroad.
Bob Bailey
January 2006 |