Laura Monaco Torelli, Karen Pryor Academy (KPA) Certified Training Partner (CTP) and the newest member of the KPA faculty, has been a professional animal trainer for two decades. Laura was introduced to Karen Pryor's philosophy and training methods in 1991 when Laura began her career training beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, seals, river otters, and penguins as the Senior Lead Trainer at the John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. In 2000, Laura moved from marine to terrestrial animals, holding lead trainer positions at the San Diego and Brookfield Zoos. She has trained a wide variety of species, including primates, large cats, birds of prey, reticulated giraffes, Arctic foxes, horses, parrots, macaws, tree kangaroos, red pandas, and, of course, dogs! Laura's career has included one fantastic learning experience after another and is now leading her full circle—back to Karen, as she becomes the newest faculty member at Karen Pryor Academy.
clickers
How to Train Your Dog to Play Soccer
By Aidan Bindoff on 09/01/2011Here's a trick that's sure to be a crowd-pleaser—and your dog will have good fun with it, too! Teach your dog how to play soccer (or "football" if you prefer).
Full Alert: Indication and Re-find Skills in Search and Rescue Work
By Angela Eaton on 08/01/2011Serious service
Service dogs of all types perform many specialized behaviors that are critical to their success as partners with their humans. As a search-dog trainer and operational handler for 25 years, I continue to be amazed by dogs’ abilities to solve problems and to collaborate with people in seemingly confusing situations, often under grueling circumstances.
Hearing-assistance dogs are trained to distinguish between sounds and to tell their people when the phone or doorbell rings or when the smoke alarm sounds. Guide dogs are trained to stop at curbs, and to look and listen for traffic to prevent their handlers from stepping into the street until it’s safe to cross. Search and rescue (SAR) dogs are trained to find missing people, to notify their handlers when they’ve located lost or missing people, and to take the handlers to those people.
Search and rescue dogs are used to find people buried in avalanches, lost in the wilderness, drowned in lakes or rivers, and buried in rubble during a disaster. SAR dogs can even locate human remains years after a person has died. A dog trained to scent discriminate works until the person matching the specific target scent has been located. The dog is trained to ignore all other scent during that search.
Treibball: Give it a Try!
By Casey Lomonaco on 07/01/2011New fun
If you follow dog behavior and training blogs or articles, YouTube videos, or other popular electronic media, it’s likely that you’ve heard of a recently imported European dog sport that is sweeping North America—treibball (pronounced “try-ball”). While the sport is very much still in development here, classes are popping up around the country quickly, most with a strong emphasis on clicker training to teach and refine the foundation skills associated with treibball.
Click Your Cat to Better Behavior!
By Marilyn Krieger on 06/01/2011Don’t believe everything you hear about cats!
Myths and legends have been spun around cats ever since people started sharing their world with them.
