The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Summer 2020 | Page 15

ASSOCIATION NEWS | 2020 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Park in the beginning to fix their gates to
help contain their wolves. They had people
putting in fencing used to keeping dogs
and cats and people out and animals in, but
they weren’t too good at doing it with an
animal that can really problem-solve like a
wolf, or better yet, a coyote.” Ken was doing
some major renovations for a new enclosure
they had built and Dr. Klinghammer, who
was a friend, wanted to reimburse him, but
funds were tight.
“I talked him into letting me have some
face time with a wolf named Miska, a
blacklisted wolf, which means only senior
staff could go in with him. And it wasn’t
because he was nasty, but because he was
really smart and liked to pinch you in
the butt and chase you around, kind of
harassing you. He wasn’t dangerous, he was
obnoxious. I knew if Dr. Klinghammer
would let me work with Miska and I could
show him how targeting and using markers
worked, that he would be impressed with
that. At the time, Wolf Park did a good
job at taking care of their animals, but
everything was lure training and baiting
and some environmental management to
control them. If they could do this simple
target, it could work even better for staff
and the animals. He let me do it, and he
was so impressed with what I accomplished
with that wolf in 15 minutes that he told
the staff at the park he would allow me to
train any animal there I wanted to train.
I got a senior staff member to write that
down on a piece of paper so he couldn’t
say later on that he never said that,” Ken
laughed.
While Ken was training both staff and
animals at Wolf Park, he met Raymond
Coppinger, Ph.D., the professor emeritus
of biology at Hampshire College, Amherst,
Massachusetts. Dr. Coppinger was
president of Wolf Park’s board of directors
at that time. “He saw me training with
the animals and absolutely loved it,” Ken
said. “He kind of took me under his wing
and realized I was really good at learning
theory, but I didn’t know crap about
ethology, which I didn’t. He wanted me
to understand the biological end of this. I
didn’t understand at the beginning because
he asked me if I would be interested in
doing speaking engagements with him. I
jumped at the chance to do that because
the man was brilliant. For about 20 years,
I worked with him off and on at different
engagements around the United States.
It was great, because he would send me
papers, studies, and books he wanted me
to read. He really gave me a crash course in
ethology during those 20 years. He really
got me to understand how the biology of
the animal affects their behavior.”
Ken’s wife, Marilyn, is a veterinarian, and
during the late 1990s, he would often attend
some of the veterinary conferences, ending
up in the behavior tracks. That’s where Ken
met Karen Overall, VMD. “I developed
a friendship with her, and I started to ask
her questions about neurobiology because
I figured out that all of these intrinsic
behaviors that Coppinger was teaching me
were all connected to neurobiology. She
introduced me to neuroscience. Along the
way Coppinger realized I liked that and
he started tuning me onto people he knew
with Ph.D.s who were into neuroscience
in dogs to help me further understand
how training works and what’s actually
going on in the nervous system with the
animal. And that kind of led me down the
path of understanding behavior problems.
So although I still enjoy training animals
to do behaviors, most of my work is done
in working with behavior problems in
animals. Because of my affiliation with
Wolf Park and places like that, I’ve worked
at a few other theme parks and zoos to help
their keepers and trainers problem solve
with some of the animals they’ve had. It’s
been like a continuing education for me to
do what I truly love and enjoy doing, and
that’s training and working with animals
and the people who take care of them.” Ken
has been giving annual seminars at Wolf
Park since 1996.
Ken was also one of the original 12
founders and a licensed evaluator with
the Pet Partner Animal Assisted Activity
and Therapy Program, where he evaluates
and certifies animal/handler teams to
visit hospitals, nursing homes and many
other areas. In addition, he helped develop
the Pet Partner Skills and Aptitude Test
that he has taught both nationally and
internationally. Closer to home, Ken also
helped develop, mentor and operate the
Doggie Brigade animal assisted activity
and therapy program at Akron Children’s
Hospital that has been ongoing since 1992.
It’s been 33 years since Ken opened Four
Paws Animal Services. “My clients think
I’m a miracle worker sometimes, and I hate
that because I tell them it’s science, there’s
no miracle, it’s that I’m really good at it, I’m
a problem solver,” Ken said. He’ll spend up
to three hours questioning the client and
observing the pet(s) before coming up with
a treatment plan. “I need my clients to
know how to get started with the animal.
There are some handouts, and I often give
them videos to watch. Most of the time
the behaviors I’m training in the animal
are differential reinforcement behaviors
because I want the pet to do this instead
of that. In most of the dogs that I see, they
are pretty well trained, it’s just the owner
doesn’t know how to use that training to
get the animal to stop doing that, whatever
that happens to be.”
He credits many of the organizations he’s
affiliated with in helping him achieve
success. “APDT is a great way of networking
with other people, to meet trainers who
may be doing something different or
better than what I am doing. I met a lot
of people at APDT meetings who were
interested in animal-assisted intervention.
It helped me improve my skills and how I
train with animals,” Ken said, adding there
are times when he would get frustrated at
a conference because a speaker he wanted
to hear would have a session at the same
time he was giving his session. He would
often track them down afterward. “I met a
lot of people at APDT meetings who were
interested in animal-assisted intervention.
Those conferences were like gold to me
because it gave me a chance to network
with a boatload of other trainers with all
different skills levels and every one of them
has something they can offer you, you just
have to find it.”
The APDT Chronicle of the Dog | Summer 2020 13