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	S e tting Goals
	Step 1 in the SPIDER model: Setting Goals for Training of Individual Animals It is important to have a list of goals that are shared with the team that will be doing the training. Having these goals will assure that everyone is working in the same direction and will have the same measurements of success. Behavioral goals for husbandry should be developed, ideally, with the participation of curators, managers, keepers and veterinarians. At an institutional level, Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park’s initial husbandry focus was training the animals to shift, first within holding areas and then on and off exhibit. The veterinarians developed a "top 10" list of animals (difficulty in anesthesia) they preferred not to immobilize for husbandry or medical procedures (e.g., elephants, okapi, giraffe, hippos, rhinos, crocodiles, and several bird species). The veterinarians’ list allowed staff to prioritize husbandry behaviors to be trained for these animals. Examples of specific training goals include: training animals to stand on scales for weights; crating; targeting to position animals for body inspections and injections; and collection of blood, saliva and urine for medical tests and physiological studies.
		Above: Target training a hippo off exhibit to go to a specific location.

	click on camera to view more images	Above: Training "open-mouth" behavior for a lion off exhibit allows administration of medication.
	For some helpful Setting Goals tools: If you are at the phase of developing goals or planning, please review the Questions for Setting Goals and Planning Training. This is not an exhaustive list, but hopefully the answers to these questions will enable a training team to identify and develop the most appropriate goals and training methods for a particular animal. In the "Tools" section we've also included a completed set of these questions to illustrate how this tool might be used.
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