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When you think back on the Jurassic Park franchise, what’s the first dinosaur that comes to mind? Well, a lot of people probably pick the mighty T. rex. After all, it’s right there on the park logo. If you’ve recently seen Jurassic World (2015), maybe you have Indominus rex on your brain or perhaps the terrifying pterosaurs. Or maybe you think of the Brachiosaurus who first welcomed us to Jurassic Park way back in 1993.

Of course, chances are good that when most people think of the Jurassic Park series, they best remember the Velociraptors. While the T. rex gets all the publicity, the raptors are the true villains of the series. In every single Jurassic Park movie, these bipedal beasts mercilessly hunt down our heroes, outsmarting the humans at almost every turn. Well, every single movie until we finally get to Jurassic World.

In the fourth Jurassic Park film, we’re introduced to a world where man and raptor get along, or at the very least aren’t actively trying to kill each other. An ex-Navy man, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is the park’s Velociraptor expert, and in addition to studying these prehistoric predators, Grady has figured out how to train four of the island’s deadliest dinos. While the park’s first game warden, Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck), thought the raptors were too dangerous to keep alive, Grady has taught these creatures to go, stay, and most importantly, hunt.

Now obviously, dinosaurs are extinct, and Jurassic World is a work of fiction, but Owen Grady raises an interesting question. If Velociraptors were alive today, could a human actually train these coldblooded creatures? Well, while our gut instinct is to shake our head and pity the poor fool who might try and tame these six-foot turkeys, chances are actually pretty good that someone could teach these dinos a few tricks. Humans have a long history of domesticating wild animals including predators. If you’ve ever visited a circus or stopped by Sea World, you’ve no doubt seen a lion tamer or orca trainer at work.

Even more impressive, both zookeepers and average Joes alike have trained crocodiles to respond to commands. And of course, humans have been working with falcons for millennia, a point that paleontologist Jack Horner says is extremely important. In addition to digging around for dinosaur bones, Horner has consulted all the Jurassic Park movies, and he says our relationship with predatory birds isn’t any different than Owen’s relationship with his sharp-toed pets.

According to Horner, “Birds are dinosaurs, and falconry is the training of birds of prey. In falconry reward of food and protection are the positive reinforcements that are advantageous for the birds. Because of the relationship of avian dinosaurs to non-avian dinosaurs, there is no reason to think that dinosaurs couldn’t have been trained using the same methods as falconry.”

So it certainly seems possible that Owen Grady could train a dinosaur, but how would he actually go about teaching the creatures to sit and stay? Well, according to Robin George Andrews of Discover, Chris Pratt’s character could use two possible techniques. First, he could imprint on the raptors. In other words, whenever one of the reptiles hatch, Owen is there, watching the whole thing. When the little raptor finally pops out of its egg, Owen is the first thing it sees, forming a bond between man and beast.

We actually know that imprinting works because it occurs with modern-day animals like birds. We also know imprinting is standard Jurassic Park procedure. Not only does Owen directly reference the practice, but we actually get to see imprinting in practice in the original film. As a little raptor slowly emerges from its shell, John Hammond is right there for the whole show, explaining that imprinting helps the animals to trust him. In fact, he claims he’s overseen “the birth of every little creature on the island.”

Once the animals hatch, Owen could then immediately get to work. In an interview with MTV, Dr. Joel Cracraft (curator of the American Museum of Natural History) explained that you could probably get a raptor to do our bidding “if you raise them young and get them in captivity so they’re not seeing you as prey.” Owen would need to interact constantly with the little creatures so they wouldn’t revert back to their completely wild nature, and that’s where training method number two comes in.

In his Discover article, Robin George Andrews explains that Owen would quickly need to establish himself as the alpha. The alpha is a pretty important position among social animals, and you can win that coveted title basically by showing that you’re the boss. He does this in various ways such as making eye contact, acting aggressively (confronting the raptors and shouting at them), and perhaps most importantly, by winning their respect through the power of food. Whenever the raptors obey a command, Owen tosses them a treat, establishing a connection between good behavior and nice, juicy rats.

That’s where the clicker comes in. These handy gadgets are used by real-life trainers to work with all kinds of animals, ranging from horses to dolphins to crocodiles. So how does the clicker work exactly? Well, according to Wes Siler of Indefinitely Wild, you first teach the animal to associate the sound of the clicker with a reward. So when he’s training the raptors, Owen should press the click button and then give the dinosaurs a treat. Once the raptors realize “click” means “food,” the real training can begin.

Now, clickers are generally used in wide open spaces where you can’t immediately reward an animal for a job well done. If you’re teaching your raptor how to obey commands while hunting a pig, it’s going to be running all over the place. By the time you tell it to stop, it might be on the other side of an enclosure. When you finally reach the side of the pen with a treat in hand, it might not understand why it’s getting a snack. Too much time has passed between the command and the bloody chunk of meat.

However, if you tell the raptor to stop and then press the clicker, the raptor will know exactly why it’s getting a treat. Even better, it learns that when it stops, it’ll get a reward. This way, everybody wins. Owen gets his awesome raptor squad, the dinos get fed, and Jurassic World becomes the most amazing theme park on the planet.

Only there’s one little flaw in the film. According to the Indefinitely Wild article, Owen is using his clicker incorrectly. Throughout the movie, Chris Pratt’s character uses his clicker to get the raptor’s attention. He also clicks it multiple times in a row. In real life, you’d only hit the button once and only to reward the dinos for a job well done. But hey, this is a movie about a genetically modified monster with camouflaging powers so let’s not get too picky.

* Sadly, Velociraptors were really only about three-feet tall...but they could still tear you to pieces.