Animal Training: Successful Animal Management Through Positive Reinforcement

by Ken Ramirez (Editor), John G. Shedd Aquarium

A trainer and consultant for nearly 40 years, Ken Ramirez is well regarded as a leader in the animal training world. In his bestselling book Animal Successful Animal Management Through Positive Reinforcement, Ken has selected and organized almost 600 pages of what in his opinion are the best papers, articles, and presentations on the topic of reinforcement-based training, each making a special point, each worth some serious attention. Here’s a chance to really explore the thinking and the training protocols involved in reinforcement-based training—whether it’s your dog or a cranky elephant or a group of killer whales. Contributors include the Baileys, many ClickerExpo faculty members, scientists and graduate students, dog trainers, dolphin trainers, zoo behaviorists, and Ken Ramirez himself. Karen Pryor’s work and references to Don’t Shoot the Dog appear throughout. This is a year or more of entertaining bedside reading for any training buff, and an important resource for the serious student of operant conditioning. Many of the reprinted articles include data, graphs, training logs, and other background material, and detailed references. A trainer and consultant for nearly 40 years, Ken Ramirez is well regarded as a leader in the animal training world. In his bestselling book Animal Successful Animal Management Through Positive Reinforcement, Ken has selected and organized almost 600 pages of what in his opinion are the best papers, articles, and presentations on the topic of reinforcement-based training, each making a special point, each worth some serious attention. Here’s a chance to really explore the thinking and the training protocols involved in reinforcement-based training—whether it’s your dog or a cranky elephant or a group of killer whales. Contributors include the Baileys, many ClickerExpo faculty members, scientists and graduate students, dog trainers, dolphin trainers, zoo behaviorists, and Ken Ramirez himself. Karen Pryor’s work and references to Don’t Shoot the Dog appear throughout. This is a year or more of entertaining bedside reading for any training buff, and an important resource for the serious student of operant conditioning. Many of the reprinted articles include data, graphs, training logs, and other background material, and detailed references.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Dogs, Science

578 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

An AMAZING resource of articles revolving around the use of positive reinforcement philosophy in marine mammal training that can be applied to other species and every day life!

[Aggis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright! I've officially completed this monster of a book and my brain is close to exploding with all of the terms/learning theory floating around in it.

Luckily a good chunk of the ending was a collection of references, terms and links or it might have taken more then an extra evening to wade through.

Material wise I enjoyed the book - it is heavily geared toward Marine Mammal training which is not all that surprising given that Ken Ramirez wrote this while managing the training team at Shedd Aquarium. Despite this is found most of the articles extremely relevant and interesting.

There were a couple of items that I did not enjoy: the majority of these were the articles he included surrounding Domestic Animals & Training - he seemed to be a bit stuck in the past in regards to training resources that he used and although the articles didn't mention dominance training it did feel like that was a reoccurring theme. That's not to say that he advocates for an punitive or forceful techniques but just that some of the articles he chose to include were fairly traditional for my tastes.

I also felt that there were at times too many articles that essentially were restating the same point over and over. While I think this repetition was intentional for readers who are newer to the field it did get very monotonous especially in the earlier and more basic chapters of the book.

[Christina]

This book is a MONSTER!