She's trained ostriches and giraffes

Meet Melvin, an adult male ostrich on the lookout for danger. Like dogs, ostriches that are aroused for any reason raise their tails. They may be aroused for many reasons including— fear, territoriality or inter-male aggression. They also flick their wings up and down. If a male ostrich holds both wings out and faces you, beware! If you look like a female ostrich and behave appropriately, this display becomes a courtship display. If you look like a threat, you may find 100-Kg-plus of bird trampling on your back!

Melvin

With their small heads and minuscule brains, it's easy to assume that ostriches must be dumb; however, they are bright enough to find food and to avoid predators out in the wild (which is more than we can say for certain humans on "Survivor"). The hardest part about training animals such as ostriches is that they're usually not as tame as our household dogs and cats. That means they are afraid of people and new objects and it takes a long time to gain their trust.

To start our training, we first got Melvin and his female partner, Myrtle, used to taking food out of a measuring cup that we held out for them.
When they were comfortable with this, we started training them to peck a target in order to receive a food reward. This was difficult at first because they were afraid of the target. So at first while we were just feeding them from the measuring cup, we gradually brought the target closer and closer.

When they were comfortably taking food from the measuring cup even when the target was nearby, we started out target training. Once they figured out that the target wasn't dangerous, quickly learned to peck it in order to receive their food reward. They also learned to peck their specific target. Here Myrtle looks at the lavender target which is her target. Melvin later reaches under the lavender target to peck the white one which is his target. It only several five minute sessions to teach this discrimination.

With regular target training sessions, Myrtle and Melvin started trusting us more. They would usually come over to be trained when they saw us around feeding time, although sometimes it took a while. When we moved the training from the window to the cyclone fence though, we had to start over because they were fearful in this new area. Once, I even went inside, but Melvin and Myrtle were scared (and so was I. They have big feet!), so they walked off.

The next step is for the keepers to first feed the ostriches by "hand" in the enclosure. Once Melvin and Myrtle are consistently taking food, the keepers can work on target training. When the ostriches are target trained, they can be led to different locations using the target and the keeper can "ask" them to position their heads or open their mouths for veterinary examination.
Once an animal feels comfortable enough to take food from your hand, you're ready to begin training behaviors. Sometimes the trick is finding treats that the animal will consistently work for. Often you have to get them used to the foods you will be using for treats by mixing the treat foods in with their regular feed until they figure out how good the treats taste. Luckily these giraffes like Acacia.

Ooh. That was good!

This desensitization will make it easier for the veterinarian to examine her. This is something keepers should practice 10 minutes daily. Hopefully they have time!

Here we are desensitizing Val to having her ears handled. We start by rubbing areas she doesn't mind having rubbed and feed her acacia leaves for good behavior. Then we gradually move towards areas she's less comfortable having handled. Initially when we move towards a sensitive area, we only rub for brief periods—short enough so that we will be successful and Val will consistently earn treats. Then we gradually increase the time.