Welcome! I am very excited to step into the world of blogging and hope that you enjoy reading my posts. My hope is that this blog will give you an “inside look” at the life an animal trainer. I plan to share my newest ideas, successes, difficulties, and day-to-day stories, but first a little bit about who I am and what I do:
I have loved animals all my life – I know many people say this, but really, it’s true! I drove my parents so nuts asking for a dog that they actually moved to a new house where we could have one when I was 8. This is where my training career began. We got a border collie, Libby, and I’ve been in love with the breed ever since. I began to train and show her in 4-H obedience and was there introduced to the sport of agility. I competed with Libby and my second border collie, Sammy, all through high school in AKC agility and obedience. Libby passed just last summer at the sweet age of 17. I’m sure I will have many Libby stories for you later, but here’s a link to one of the last training sessions I had with her. She was deaf, couldn’t see well, and couldn’t sit or stand for more than a few minutes so I had to sit close with her laying in front of me, but she was still so so happy to work! Libby Target
After high school, I went to the University of Illinois and majored in Animal Science. I had always been interested in becoming a vet, but the agility bug got me very interested in animal training and how animals learn. I got very good at many training techniques while competing in agility, but I always wanted to learn more about the theory and why these techniques worked. I took every behavior related class I could in college and though I loved my animal science program, I felt as though I was still missing something about the science of learning. After emailing many professors across the country and talking to every animal professional I knew, I was directed to the field of Applied Behavior Analysis.
I applied to the only applied behavior analysis graduate program with an applied animal training research lab at the University of North Texas with Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz. The lab there was called the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals, or ORCA. You can find out more about ORCA by going to their website (here). Also, I highly recommend their annual spring conference, the Art and Science of Animal Training. It is great for all levels of animal enthusiasts and you will never find a better panel of animal training professionals!
It was at UNT where I finally found the answers to my burning questions about how and why animals learn the way they do. The concepts of reinforcement and punishment are behind all learning, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. Every aspect of the environment around you has the potential to influence your learning. The great thing about understanding this is that an animal’s environment is usually easy to change – much easier than trying to change something inside the animal, physiologically.
Throughout my animal training career and education, I have worked mostly with domestic dogs but have also had wonderful experiences training many species including: cats, horses, kea parrots, macaws, white nosed coatimundi, river otters, several different species of lemurs, marmosets, wallaroos (similar to wallabies), mongeese, capybaras, and Patagonian cavies. The training programs have included crate training, target training, games for enrichment, husbandry behaviors, manners, and even working on reducing fear of humans. Every single program has its own challenges, but that is what makes this profession so much fun! Each time a goal is met, the animal is not the only one who has learned something new; I have too!
I hope that you come back to visit my blog to share this new adventure with me and check out new videos, stories, and training concepts.
Happy training,
Laura