The Art and Science of Animal Training Conference, held yearly at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, is one of my all-time favorite conferences. This conference is organized and run by ORCA (the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals) a group of graduate students in UNT’s behavior analysis department that researches animal behavior and training. I have notes from four of the past conferences in the conference and clinics notes section of my website, if you are not familiar with the conference.
The upcoming conference will be held on Saturday, March 22, 2014. ORCA has recently announced that the keynote speaker for the 2014 conference will be Dr. Jaak Panksepp, world-renowned neuroscientist from Washington State University. Dr. Panksepp will discuss “The Scientific Case for Emotional Feelings in Other Animals: SEEKING New ‘Laws of Affect’ that Control Animal Learning.”
The conference will also feature excellent presentations by Bob Bailey, Alexandra Kurland, Kay Laurence, Phung Luu, Ken Ramirez, Steve White and Jen White. I’m sure that this will be another thought-provoking conference that will explore new concepts in both animal training and the analysis of animal behavior. Don’t miss out on the fun!
For more information about the 2014 conference, visit the ORCA website.
What I love about this conference is that it is one of the few conferences that brings together trainers from a variety of fields, including dog trainers, horse trainers, zoo trainers, marine mammal trainers, bird trainers, and more. Over the past five years, the conference has gained a reputation as one of the country’s top animal training conferences. The past several conferences have been completely sold out and the 2013 conference had attendees from 22 US states, as well as several international attendees.
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