Wicked Minds, Oh MY!!! {continuing education}
March 24, 2009
On Friday March 20, 2009 I attended the “Great Minds” conference at UNT. The conference was hosted by ORCA, which stands for Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals. ORCA is a student organization based in the Behavior Analysis program at the University of North Texas here in Denton. This organization is really doing some amazing break through research in animal behavior & training. Not only do they research it they also implement and share it.
The Great Minds conference was lead by Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz who is the advisor for the program at UNT. Then we heard from Steve Martin and the Art of Training, this gentleman has experience working with a lot of animals but focuses mostly on birds of prey. Next we heard from Steve White about Skinner & world collide. Then we broke for lunch where I sat next to Angie Drake who is doing her theses on taming feral domestic cats. (Boy did I pick her brain about “Mystery”) After lunch was Alexandra Kurland who clicker trains horses. Next we heard from Kay Lawrence all the way from England, not only did she have amazing information to share, she also has a really neat accent! Last we heard from Ken Ramirez who talked about his personal experiences over the past 30 years during which time he’s trained all types of animals.
Bob Bailey was also supposed to be presenting, recently he had surgery and was unable to come, but being the dedicated man that he is he sent a letter to us anyway!!!
It has taken me 4 days to begin this post, because I am still absorbing all the information I received!!! Friday night I barely got any rest, as I was training dogs all night long in my dreams!!
I consider myself lucky to be able to attend a conference like this and learn from some of the worlds top most sought after and knowledgeable trainers.
~Angie~
