As a dog trainer, Karen Pryor brought clicker training to the industry of dog trainers in the mid-1980s. Her background comes from a career in marine mammal biology and behavioral science. More than 40 years ago, Karen pioneered force-free training methods for animals by using a clicker and a guide stick as a means to training animals, specifically dogs, with positive reinforcement training methods.

Karen has done remarkable things in the industry, not only for dog trainers, but she has also done cognitive research of many species of animals.

She is an accomplished author of many books and research papers, including her infamous book “Don’t Shoot the Dog.”

She began by training dolphins using a whistle and soon figured out that she wanted to bridge her dolphin training experience with other applications, such as dog training.

Karen Pryor on Training Animals

In the training video below, Karen Pryor explains the simplicity of using  positive reinforcement training to train her beta fish. She demonstrates how these techniques can be used to train just about any animal with a marker, target object and training treat.

VIDEO: An Introduction to Target Training a Fish!

“Don’t Shoot the Dog” was published in 1984 and quickly changed the landscape of the dog training industry. What dog trainers refer to as clicker training was adapted from an application of Animal Behavior Analysis invented and developed by Keller Breland, Marian Breland Bailey, and Bob Bailey.

Dog Trainer Books by Karen Pryor

Karen Pryor has published 21 unique works throughout her career, including:

• “Clicker Training for Dogs” (1999)
• “Getting Started: Clicker Training for Dogs” (2001)
• “Click To Win: Clicker Training for the Show Ring” (2002)
• “Getting Started: Clicker Training for Cats” (2003)
• “Click Tricks: 10 Fun and Easy Tricks Any Dog Can Learn” (2010)

VIDEO: Cat Clicker Training in Action

She continued to blow the dog training world away with “Reaching the Animal Mind.” According to ClickerTraining.com, the book “describes how to bring out the undiscovered creativity, intelligence, and personality of the animals in our lives.” She expanded the first edition of “Don’t Shoot the Dog,” and went into a much deeper level on how animals learn in her revised edition of “Don’t Shoot the Dog – The New Art of Teaching and Training.”

She has spoken all across the globe about the neurobiology and behavior science, including a lecture she gave during a TagTeach seminar in 2012.

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