His Ken Ramirez Training and Consulting company is a division of Karen Pryor Clicker Training . Ramirez has been active in several professional organizations , including the International Marine Animal Trainer ’ s Association ( IMATA ), of which he is a past president . Ken also has been actively involved in the creation of a certification process for animal trainers in zoological settings .
In the nearly 50 years Ken has been involved in training , his career has been a remarkable journey that was aided with a serendipitous job offer , more time spent in college than most with doctoral degrees , training a variety of species from butterflies to elephants , and spending time in a medically-induced coma after he and his ranger team were attacked by elephant poachers while traversing an elephant migration route in Africa . Yet no matter the title or project , Ken considers himself a trainer first .
In the FALL 202 Chronicle of the Dog article about Ken for his Lifetime Achievement award , he recounted working with a variety of animals . As he says , “ training is the same , and works equally well , for all species , whether training an earthworm or a Harvard graduate !” In 2015 , he used cues ( vibrating cathode , high-pitched tone or flashing light ) to train 10,000 butterflies in three groups ( red / orange , purple / blue and multiple colors ) to fly across a British football ( soccer ) stadium . As if training a butterfly isn ’ t challenging enough , Ken found out many butterflies with shorter lifespans would die before the performance . But the newly hatched ones mimicked the behavior of their longer-lived butterfly brethren . It took 19 days for Ken and his team to train the butterflies with 95 percent accuracy . In his May 27 , 2015 blog about the project ( clickertraining . com / the-butterflyproject ), Ken said a surprise performance for his last day brought him to tears as the cued butterflies flew across the stadium in their color groups accompanied by a recorded classical symphony piece .
On the other end of the spectrum , Ken worked with the Alaskan government and villagers to keep polar bears from entering villages as climate change has forced them to go further south for food , which included the villagers ’ dogs . The project was three-fold : teaching humans to keep meat / food / waste locked up and unavailable ; luring bears from the village to an area of abundant food resources , and changing the bear ’ s desire to enter the town . Prior to Ken ’ s involvement , sentries had fired noise makers at the bears as they tried to enter the town . That forced the bears to just find another way into town . Ken suggested making the bear receive the sound / vibration aversion as he sniffed a garbage can , tire , or fence , so the bear would equate that unpleasant sensation to humans and not return . After five years and implementing the program at 46 different towns and villages , the average annual polar bear incidents dropped from 300-to-400 to just four . Ken said it was the timing of that noise maker that made the difference .
As for the elephants , Ken was asked to help re-route a migratory
herd of elephants to avoid the 77-mile portion of the route when the elephants passed through the Democratic Republic of Congo , where anti-poaching laws are weak . Previously , roughly 60-70 elephants died from poaching in the Congo during the migration . Ken and his team worked to remotely train the elephants to remain in Zambia , which had strict anti-poaching laws , by using barriers and creating new watering holes . In 2018 , the first year with the new route , the migratory herd lost only four elephants , all to natural causes and none from poaching . As successful as that project was , it nearly killed Ken and his ranger team when their convoy was hit by a rocket launcher . A medical helicopter triaged the more seriously injured , those who had also been struck by gunshots and broken bones . Ten hours later ,
Ken was airlifted to a hospital from a village where he had been getting treatment from a tribal doctor . Upon arrival , Ken was placed in a medically-induced coma for several days . The treatment worked and Ken has since made a full recovery . ( To read more about that experience , check out his blog at clickertraining . com / the-steepprice-of-conservation ).
Besides countless scientific articles and papers , Ken has authored “ Animal Training : Successful Animal Management through Positive Reinforcement ,” published in 1999 , and the 2020 release of “ The Eye of the Trainer : Animal Training , Transformation and Trust .” To read more about Ken , check out the FALL 2021 issue of the Chronicle of the Dog .
Registration opens March 28 on our website at APDT . com . Early Bird rates and even a payment plan ( completed by June 7 ) are options available for this year ’ s conference . Register by July 1 for the following Early Bird rates :
• APDT Member - $ 475 for all 3 days
• Non-Member - $ 575 / 3-days
After July 1 , however , the rates will be :
• APDT Member - $ 550 for all 3 days , $ 400 for two days , and $ 200 for one day
• Non-Member - $ 650 / 3-days ; $ 480 / 2-days and $ 240 / 1-day
• A guest pass may be purchased for $ 85 .
There will be three hotel options for this year ’ s conference : The Mission Inn , Hyatt Place Riverside Downtown and Marriott Riverside . The hotel deadline is August 30 . The conference speakers and sessions are still a work in progress . Check back for the SUMMER issue for more details .
Tuesday , Pre-Conference Workshops at an additional cost to the conference fee :
• Safe and Defensive Handling Workshop with Mara Velez . In this four-hour workshop , participants will learn safe canine handling
The APDT Chronicle of the Dog | Spring 2024 11