What Exotic Animals Taught Me About Training Working Dogs Dvd

Ken shares specific tools and techniques that he brought over to the dog training world from his work with exotic animals. These will include, but not limited to, the use of platforms for teaching stimulus control, the LRS for dealing with animal mistakes, multiple types of targeting for faster teaching of new skills, protected contact for working with difficult animals, teaching an all clear for scent detection dogs, and the value of relationships in enhancing reinforcement possibilities.

Presentation by: Ken Ramirez

Ken Ramirez is Executive Vice-President and Chief Training Officer of Karen Pryor Clicker Training where he helps oversee the vision, development and implementation of training education programs for the organization. Ken previously served as the Executive Vice-President of animal care and animal training at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, where he developed and supervised animal care and animal health programs, staff training and development as well as public presentation programs for the entire animal collection of more than 32,000 animals. He worked at Shedd for nearly 26 years. In October 2014 Ken began a new role as a training advisor at Shedd as part of his responsibilities with Karen Pryor's organization.

A 35+ year veteran of animal care and training, Ramirez is a biologist and animal behaviorist who has worked as a consultant to many zoo and aquarium programs throughout the world. He began his training career working with guide dogs for the visually impaired and has maintained a close affiliation to pet training throughout his career. He hosted two successful seasons of the pet training television series Talk to the Animals that compared pet training to the important work done with training and caring for animals in zoological facilities. He has also recently worked closely with several search and rescue dog organizations, service dog groups, as well as with bomb and narcotic dogs. Ramirez has written for numerous scientific publications and authored countless popular articles. He authored the book ANIMAL TRAINING: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement, published in 1999. He also teaches a graduate course on animal training at Western Illinois University.