Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Laptop joy

Book touring. I have developed a deep abiding love for my laptop. Speech at the St. Louis Zoo last night, first in 10 yrs without KPCT help and guidance at my elbow. OMG will the videos work? Will the stuff show up on the screen? Will I accidentally erase my powerpoint?
Zoo has supermodern auditorium, yay. Here's your connections, yes you have sound. Gave my New talk re the experience of reaching animal minds, sharing with audience what THEY can do. New vids, new pics I took WITH my own new camera. All ran smoothly, ended on time, many laughs, v. popular, andLaptop came through like a great working dog. Sure, I can do that, watch me! Good laptop!!

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Missy's great adventure

Misha and I are on our usual walk. We live on a busy block emptying to a very heavy traffic street.
A pretty little mini Schnauzer comes up to us. Who are you? And WHAT are you doing running around loose?
This is my neighbor Lois'es dog, I bet. Never off a leash in her six years of life. Uhoh.

Slightest hint of reaching for her, and she ducks away. I fear if I really try to catch her she'll bolt into traffic. But she's flirting with my Misha. He's charmed, too. Tails wag. I walk him up the block. The Schnauzer comes too. They play bow. Her driveway. She knows where she is, runs confidently ahead to her back gate--which is slightly open. That explains her wandering around! In we all go. I shut the gate. The dogs play. Yes, there's a back doorbell. Door opens, the Schnauzer dashes in, owner Lois gapes in surprise. Your dog was out, Lois. Now she's in. OMG in all these years that has never happened. I'm relieved, Lois is grateful --and the Schnauzer, Missy, now has her very first dog friend in her entire life--and they have a play date. My good deed for the week!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

News from Zoos

I'm getting ready for a ten-day trip to St. Louis and Denver, to teach and talk about modern operant training, the same level of clicker training we teach at ClickerExpo and Karen Pryor Academy (www.clickerexpo.com and www.karenpryoracademy.com.)
In both cities the invitation first came from a clicker-focused shelter. The public talks will be jointly sponsored by shelter and zoo. I'll be visiting the trainers at both facilities, touring the facility and seeing what they are already doing with their training and their challenging animals. I'll also be giving private workshops for the trainers in both facilities. Schedules permitting, the zoo trainers can come to the shelter workshops and vice versa--very useful to see how people with completely different animals are nevertheless facing some of the same challenges and using the same wonderful techology of modern training.
I've set up this blog to help me share each day's events with you. The blog also appears on www.clickertraining.com and www.simon&schuster.com, and Fans of Karen Pryor on Facebook. And of course you can follow me on Twitter, where I'm karen_pryor.