Dogs, horses, and rats. Birds, goldfish, cats. Dolphins, raccoons, and elephants. What animals can’t we train? In this section you’ll find lots of great training stories and tips. You will also get to meet many of the wonderful animals that I get to train. I hope that you’ll enjoy reading about my adventures (and misadventures) and that these articles and tales can provide you with insight that will help you with your own animals.
My little foster dog has learned a new trick — to shake someone’s hand! Although we’ve been working a lot on basic obedience skills and helping him learn to be more friendly around new people, this is his first real trick behavior. Although, it’s so important to remember, that from the animal’s perspective, it’s really […]
These are my notes from the 6th Art and Science of Animal Training Conference, held in March 2014 at the University of North Texas. Visit this page for more conference notes. Steve White gave a very interesting talk at the conference. His talk was titled “Your dog ain’t so special! Why discipline-specific training methods might […]
Flower is one of my young rats. I’ve only done a bit of clicker training with her, but she’s a smart girl and a quick learner! This is her latest trick — she had previously learned how to go through a tunnel, so we decided to make it a bit harder. Now, the tunnel starts […]
These are my notes from the 6th Art and Science of Animal Training Conference, held in March 2014 at the University of North Texas. Visit this page for more conference notes. Ken Ramirez’s presentation centered around different strategies and approaches for working with more than one animal at a time. I thought this was a […]
I recently watched an awesome hour-long lecture by animal trainer Ken Ramirez that is available to view for free on YouTube. If you’re not familiar with Ken Ramirez, he’s the head trainer at the Shedd aquarium in Chicago. He’s been a professional trainer for several decades and has trained hundreds of animals and dozens of […]
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday This is little Mocha, a four and a half month old Catahoula puppy. The Catahoula leopard dog is the state dog of Louisiana. Mocha has been hanging out with me recently and participating in our Lodge and Train program at Pappy’s Pet Lodge. Besides being 100% adorable, Mocha’s also one smart little puppy. […]
