Your thoughts?

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Thats an interesting video and its probably abit of all three.

Hmm?

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Hmm, I'm not convinced there's anything more going on there than a Komodo Dragon who is used to being handfed pieces of meat trying to eat the dog toy, and being very confused.

Perhaps there is some enrichment with the simulation of fighting another dragon over a piece of food, but I think he's a bit disappointed really.

In this video and the other one you posted I don't see any of it as training. Stimulating for them yes but that's about it.
Getting it to follow a Rat... what Monitor keeper hasn't done that with their animals?? The lizard wants the food and follows it... hardly training. With clicker or target training other zoos are getting far better results and I would certainly go as far as saying some of the Dragons are trained. I've seen the Komodos at ZSL close up and they have set routines that they follow perfectly and even respond to their name most the time but if not then the target training reinforces that and they will always follow that. So in summary I think it is possible to train them to a certain degree but what they are doing in those videos from the zoo in the states I would never say was training.

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Well it's building muscle up, so you could call it fitness training, but not very responsive. Then again do you want something that size highly responsive whilst you in there, would it tell the difference between you & prey!

I do that sort of thing with the three of my monitors, but they move slightly faster, not sure what the blackthroat will do when he's full size though lol.

Seems to be just making use of the monitors natural instincts as oppose to "training" them.

As laurie said the target training done with other zoos and institutions seems to be more effective.

You could proberly call it enrichment as itll keep them stimulated to a certain extent.

Just wondering what do we think about the importance of target training compared to exercise training, just the few target training ( few been the word) monitors i've seen don't seem to move at any great pace after been shown the target to indicate feeding.

I can see the benefit of target training a large monitor at feeding time etc, but shouldn't they be able to simulate a chase/charge or flight in captivity, most monitors have great power & agility but seem to lose it the closer contact they have with humans.

That looks suspiciously like Colchester zoo where I am from. And if it is then its deffinately ONE of the three.. In the 'shows' there's a certain keeper who likes to show off alot...

I think thats mostly to do with being comfortable and feeling safe in there surroundings im willing to bet if you introduce a predator/something the monitor really wants to chase and eat it will do.

Not to mention the fact that the majority of keepers dont observe there monitors 24/7.