I always have the same reactions after seeing Ken Ramirez speak or watching him train. One: He is an astoundingly good animal trainer, possibly the best I’ve ever seen. Two: I myself am, by comparison, completely incompetent. Three: I can’t wait to go home and train everything. Or anything. Right away. Because I know I’ll be better than I’ve ever been before after watching Ken train.
That sums up Ken’s brilliance–presenting what he knows in such an organized, thoughtful and benevolent way that you leave his presentations excited, no crazed, to put into practice what you just learned. Rather than feeling discouraged by the gap between his abilities and my own, I always end up feeling inspired.
The same thing happened after reading just the first few pages of his new book, The Eye of the Trainer: Animal Training, Transformation, and Trust. I read it practically cover to cover standing in the kitchen, and immediately went back to teaching Skip “Look” (at me) as soon as he sees a cat. Mindful of one of his first “overlooked fundamentals,” I upped the reinforcement rate, as Ken advises not just for new behaviors, but to maintain ones already learned.
This passage also reminded me how incredibly fast Ken reinforces when working with an animal, as did Steve Martin when I spent a week with him and Dr. Susan Friedman at Natural Encounters training Macaws and crows. (Here’s a post I wrote about my week there; you really want to go if you can!)
What I learned by watching Ken and Steve is that speed dazzles. They’d ask for a behavior repeatedly so fast it made your head spin. Funny, I always used that kind of speed myself when training dogs to heel–I walk fast, really fast–because it keeps a dog’s attention and makes the entire process interesting. But it took watching Ken and Steve to motivate me to up the rate of reinforcement for all new behaviors, not just by reinforcing a behavior that you’re starting to take for granted, but by increasing the number of reps/minute. (Steve trained crows asking for a behavior with less than a second in between requests. We coined the phrase “Crow Speed” for things that happen so rapidly you can barely keep up. Working fast inherently ups the rate of reinforcement, and ups the number of reps too. Skip seemed to agree: I asked for a Look as fast as he could turn his head toward a kitty sunning outside the window, and he seemed to be having as good a time as I was during the session.
Ken gave me and Jim an insider’s tour of the Shedd Aquariam years ago. It was a highlight of life.
There is so much to love in Ken’s new book. One of the things I admire about Ken is his thoughtful, objective approach to different methodologies. For example: He argues that clickers are great tools, because they are precise and consistent (if used properly, he qualifies). However, he also argues that other markers can work well, and which one is best depends on the animal, the trainer and the circumstances. Rather than being bound to one method, he carefully analyzes the pros and cons of each one.
I don’t use clickers now, after watching Steve Martin and other Natural Encounter trainers use nothing but their voice to train elaborate and complicated behaviors . And, I should mention, after years of misplacing and losing clickers. I finally accepted that I am absent minded, and that’s never going to change. But I’ll always have my voice no matter how forgetful I am. I use “Good” (as do many of the Natural Encounter trainers). Some of my colleagues use a tongue click. Ken reminds us that a good marker is not just consistent, it is “unique to the environment,” which makes a clicker superior to a spoken word. I have no doubt that’s true; I think clickers are awesome. But then, there’s the fact that I’m dealing with the reality of me, not some idealized world of perfection. (I should add that “Good” works well for me. I say it very fast and at medium pitch. When I got back from Natural Encounters I trained Nellie, The Cat Who Wants To Live in the House In Spite of Trisha’s Cat Allergies, to go to the door to the garage and jump onto her feeding station in a a few days. No more following her around the house to pick her up and take her back outside.
He also has a great section on targeting and shaping. He is an advocate for arranging the environment to help an animal succeed, and thus argues that using prompts are a great way to help an animal know what it needs to do to get a reinforcement. Of course, you have to fade them out as fast as you can, otherwise they become the cue. But, as he does with all things, he analyzes the pros and cons of every method, with a goal toward “what works best for the animal?” You might be especially interested in the section on Free Shaping, if you’ve been part of the conversation about it.
The first chapter contains the “Six Most Overlooked Fundamentals of Successful Training” and are worth the price of the book. It’s only four pages long, and we should all print them out and put them on our mirrors. Besides his wisdom about training (which he emphasizes is based on trust), the book contains stories from his travels that entertain as well as educate.
Bottom Line: You really, really want this book. Get it now, because Dogwise sold out of their first order the day they advertised it. And if you’ve been lucky enought to work with Ken at The Ranch, the Karen Pryor National Training Center in Washington state, tell us about it!
MEANWHILE, back on the farm. Lots of sunny days, whee! Lots of days with the temperature over freezing, so the snow is disappearing. Of course, that means that in some places there is still deep snow, in some ice, and in some squishy mud. Well, that’s March. I call it Mud Madness, when the mud sits on top of still frozen ground. If you’ve never lived where the ground freezes, think three inches of chocolate icing on top of a formica floor.
Breaking news! I can’t believe that we saw the first blooming crocus this weekend. Not here at the farm, but in Verona outside of a great coffee shop/yarn store the Sow’s Ear in Verona, WI. Wow.
I should have been taking lots of photos during our beautiful, sunny weekend, but was too busy enjoying it all to pick up a camera. I’ll make up for it by adding a few more photos from Kenya. I’m going through them a little bit at a time (we had over 1,500 from the SLR and iPhone combined).
Here’s our tent at Sweetwaters Tent Camp. Yeah, not exactly roughing it. It’s quite cool at night there, and the hot water bottle they bring at night is much appreciated. But you have to be careful about securing the zippers, or the baboons will raid your tent.
The tents overlook a water hole that attracts hundreds of animals, with nothing but a deep ditch (and carefully placed electric wires) between you and a vast array of animals. Here’s a scene taken from our porch: a Waterbuck (on the left), African Buffalo, Plains Zebra and Warthogs.
The camp is set in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy, a former cattle ranch now dedicated to preserving Africa’s native wild animals, including hosting a large number of black rhinos that are protected by rangers who risk their lives on a daily basis to protect the animals. We saw several mothers with young; so gratifying to see them thriving here.
I could swamp you with photographs, but am afraid of wearing out Africa’s welcome. And besides, I really need to go train some dogs . . .
Here’s to a great week of training for us all!
… ….
Margaret says
I ordered the book before I read the rest of your post. Can’t wait to read it. He spoke at Leader Dogs for the Blind a few years ago, and I’ve been a fangirl ever since.
Kat says
Thank you for the reminder about speed. As herders Ranger and Finna were naturally quick and training at a brisk pace just fell into place because of that. D’Artagnan doesn’t have that same type of quickness and reading this post I realized I’ve tended to train him at a more lackadaisical speed that matches his personality more. The herders had a natural intensity and focus that my giant fluff monster LGD lacks but I know he responds to it when I provide the intensity and focus so I just need to remember that training him I need to up the speed to create what I had naturally with his predecessors.
I’ve ordered the book and can’t wait to read it. Right now I’m reading Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy by Zazzie Todd. Well worth the time. I’m about a third of the way through and already know this will join Other End of the Leash as one of the books I most recommend.
Never too many Africa photos. I love them all.
Laura Glaser Harrington says
Thanks for the book recommendation! I’ll be at Clicker Expo this week so I’m guessing I’ll be able to pick up a copy there (I hope!). For anyone considering the Ranch Experience, it’s terrific! Working with animals other than dogs really helped hone my skills. The three different animals (goats, llamas, and donkeys) each taught different things…the goats were speedy and if I wasn’t fast enough my goat would say “see ya” and run to a different trainer and disrupt their training session. If you didn’t keep it interesting for the donkeys they would just say “you know, think I’ll just eat grass”, and the llamas were shy so movements had to be smooth and predicable. If you spooked your llama, they would all take off. Such a great experience overall! Thanks also for the coffee/yarn shop recommendation. My sister lives in Madison and that’s right up her alley! Best, Laura
Mary says
This post is an example of perfect timing! We are getting a Westie next month, and I’ll need all the help I can get in the Training department! (I just pulled out your books that I’ve used with prior dogs…lots of great references to use!!) Wish me luck – our last Westie was a disaster. He had something wrong with him that caused him to be extremely aggressive. (He showed this tendency when we brought him home. We should have returned him to the breeder, but we thought we could “fix” him. Wasn’t going to happen.) I posted here about him last summer, when I was still raw from the experience. This time we’re getting a girl from a fantastic breeder. Hopefully, we’ll have a better experience this time! (I’m open to suggestions, if you want to share! 🙂
Charlotte Kasner says
Just got back from taking my KPA Professional Dog Trainer finals knowing that Ken will be marking the videos.
Gulp!
Book on order – reward for putting myself through a challenging year.
Chloe says
In the last few weeks I’ve heard so much about the book but no one really explained what was in it and I did not want to buy yet another training book.
Thank you for discussing it so well.
I would love to see a demo video showing rapid reinforcement when teaching a new cue.
Buying the book, looking for video. And umm where is our weekly pic of your boy?!
LisaW says
Test. Test. Test. I was blocked by an error message from posting to the last article, so am trying here. Sorry for the test.
Anne Johnson says
Another dog training book to add to my collection. I had seen it was released and followed it because of his work with Karen Pryor. I do believe in using many modalities to train, and the clicker is great. But as you said, you always have your voice and I choose to use my voice most often. I have used clicker with horses and it does work great. Can you imagine the confusion if I used the clicker around the dogs and horses? Too funny. Enough said, I will order Ken’s book and begin reading. Oh, by the way, I couldn’t put Education of Will down as well. Stood to read.
Trisha says
Good luck!
Trisha says
Just took some this morning! Coming next week . . .
Trisha says
So sorry, glad you got through!
Trisha says
Thank you so much Anne for the kind words about Education of Will. “Couldn’t put it down” is about the best reinforcement an author could get.
Heidi Rosin says
Coffee shop/yarn store – that was my real take away as a fanatic knitter lol!
Trisha says
You’d LOVE this place! Great food, gorgeous yarns and lots of rooms for fun gatherings…
Barb Stanek says
The first time that I heard Ken was at the seminar that you and he did — one of your last, unfortunately for me. I was blown away as I always am by you. But then came Ken and what can I say! My world had to expand to take it all in!!!!! Since then, I became a devotee of his also and love everything that I can get my hands on of his.
About Africa. I was lucky enough (Some 50 years ago.) to spend a month in Kenya with my brother who was in the Peace Corps. It was a trip that changed my life and world perspective. I would go back in a heart beat. Your photos give me a mini-trip back. Please keep them coming.
I’ve got Ken’s book and can’t wait for the inspiration that will follow my actual reading of it. I have a ten month old puppy who is so eager to see what I learn! My nine year old boy is eager for me to step it up a notch or two! Can’t wait!
Gayla says
I don’t know what I’d do without you… Thank you for the heads up about Ken’s latest book!
leila levy (dba sesmero) says
Thanks for your lightness of being while talking about training! I am learning Handler Discrimination with a wonderful American Britanny and an even more wonderful beagle…Oh boyyyyyyy they are fast at the “source”…I reinforce and reinforce when they find the glove I left in a box as fast as I can…They look at me saying to me; You are not fast enough buddy…Oh well back to the box drilllllllllll….
MsF says
I have a suggestion for you, Trisha…If at all possible, when posting an answer to a question on this blog, could you include the name of the person to whom you are “speaking?” It would make a difference to all of us when reading the posts. Thanks!!
Trisha says
To MSF: Thanks so much for the reminder! In Facebook it automatically gives the name of the person I’m answering, so I’ve gotten out of the habit. And on the back end here on the blog, it actually says “In reply to…” I didn’t realize you didn’t see that part. Thanks bunches for the reminder!
Melanie Hawkes says
It sounds like a great book but international shipping more than doubles the price of the book! Will have to see if it becomes available as an ebook. Keep the photos of Africa coming, and thanks MsF for the suggestion. I thought it was my phone that didn’t display the comments properly!
Jenny Haskins says
Two good species to train to help with your ‘marking’ skills
Mice and rats. Mice especially as their metabolism is so high so the marker really must be used as the behaviour is occurring.
I did not use a clicker for these. Too loud and too easy to fumble.
I’ve also given up both using and teaching clicker. I found it very very difficult for some people to get the hang of it so it was meaningless to their dog.
And my wretched (wonderful) working Kelpie was so quick I always thought I was mistiming. But then I discovered that he would react to my small muscle movements as I “THOUGHT’ to mark . (Even with a mouth click! )
I found in both case a softly spoken, “G’d!” worked best. Not a great deal of mouth movement (or had movement or . . . .) and I found you very quickly learn to make it automatically without thinking “AH, now it the time to mark! Give a wide berth to “yes” which become s YEEESSSSSS! with noveces, and ‘Good!: which also becomes “GoooooooooooooD” in a sing=song voice