August 8, 2022

#21 - Ken Ramirez: Comprehensive Care

In this week’s interview episode, we are joined by Ken Ramirez. Ken Ramirez has been working in animal care and training for nearly 50 years and is the EVP and Chief Training Officer for Karen Pryor Clicker Training, and the author of ANIMAL TRAINING: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement and The Eye of the Trainer. 

Ken is an amazing human being. He has done so much for the animal training industry and even though he’s one of the biggest and most respected and recognized trainers, he is still such a humble and kind person who is always striving to learn more and improve. He’s someone that we can learn so much from whether it’s animal training or how to just be a human. 

In this episode, you’re going to hear Emily and Ken talk about:

  • Primary and secondary reasons for training
  • When choice is coercive 
  • Agency to say no and honest communication
  • Troubleshooting when things aren’t going quite right

Links Mentioned in This Episode:

Meet the Guest

Ken Ramirez

Ken Ramirez is the EVP and Chief Training Officer for Karen Pryor Clicker Training where he helps to oversee the vision, development and implementation of training education programs. Previously, Ken served as EVP of animal care and training at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. A nearly 50 year veteran of animal care and training, Ramirez is a biologist and behavior specialist who has worked with many zoological organizations and dog programs throughout the world. He helped develop, and has been an instructor for, AZA’s Animal Training Applications course. He is past president of the International Marine Animal Trainers Association and has been active in various leadership positions within IMATA for over 40 years. He hosted two successful seasons of the TV series Talk to the Animals.  Ramirez authored the book ANIMAL TRAINING: Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement in 1999 and most recently The Eye of the Trainer in 2020. He taught a graduate course on animal training at Western Illinois University for 20 years. He currently teaches at ClickerExpo every year, offers hands on courses and seminars at the Karen Pryor National Training Center (the Ranch), and teaches online courses through Karen Pryor Academy

Meet the Hosts

Allie pic with Oso

Allie Bender, CDBC, CPDT-KA, SBA

Allie Bender is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant, Certified Professional Dog Trainer- Knowledge Assessed, and a Shelter Behavior Affiliate. She has been in the animal welfare industry since 2006 and professionally training since 2012. She is the founder and co-owner of Pet Harmony, co-author of Canine Enrichment for the Real World, and a national speaker.

While in the animal sheltering industry, Allie realized that her passion lied in helping pets with maladaptive behaviors. Specifically, she wanted to help prevent animals with rehabilitatable problems from being euthanized. She loves working with dogs and cats displaying stranger danger, resource guarding, and leash reactivity. Her favorite thing about working with pets and their people is seeing relationships grow and seeing harmonious households develop.

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Emily Strong, CDBC, SBA

Emily Strong is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant and Shelter Behavior Affiliate. She has been in the animal welfare industry since 1990 and has been a behavior consultant since 2008. She is the co-owner of Pet Harmony, co-author of Canine Enrichment for the Real World, and a national speaker. 

Emily started working with animals at a young age and struggled with the notion that you have to hurt, scare, or intimidate animals to help them. When she discovered the behavior sciences and learned that it wasn’t necessary to do so– that we can care for emotional, mental, and physical health simultaneously– she plunged headfirst into animal behavior. Emily loves helping current and prospective behavior professionals and working with pet parents through our in-depth services. She enjoys working with all species.

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