Our mission is to provide an on-line international, educational outlet to help in raising the bar of animal care and ethics. We provide these services using science based education, hands-on application, and observable use of environmental events and enrichment to modify behavior and communication via training. Our target audience is the companion animal owners and caretakers, zoos, wildlife educators, and those that have the passion to work close with animals. Our core values lie in teaching others the strength of the relationship people and animals can have by interacting through providing choice with positive reinforcement training and applications in behavior analysis.
The opening of The Animal Behavior Center is all based around the experiences I went through when I brought home a shelter animal that was suggested to be put to sleep based on behavior issues. The animal was clearly showing behaviors that were learned and served a purpose for the animal. I traveled seeking education to help give me the tools I needed to understand what purposes these behaviors served. After a few years of education from other animal trainers and behaviorists I decided to go back to school taking master’s classes in Applied Behavior Analysis to learn as much as I could to work with all animals.
The journaling of my work with an array of animals began attracting a following of people interested in working with animals and behavior change. I soon began traveling the United States giving presentations about my work. My presentations soon began turning into 7-hour workshops. Soon I felt I was away from home and away from my animals more than I was with them. That is when I began looking for a large building to turn into an area where people could fly to me and take classes, workshops, and personal training. On February 21, 2013 The Animal Behavior Center was officially opened for business.
I’ve been there and I understand the hardships, frustration, and feeling of failure in not being able to change behavior in an animal. That is and even tougher feeling of frustration when you are giving it everything you have for the benefit of the animal and finding you don’t have the tools to take the next step. I’ve spent uncountable hours standing in the rain, heat, and sub-zero temperatures working with unreleasable wildlife trying to train, approach, and keep them calm and prepare them for educational programs. I know that frustration.
Birds empowered through training from Lara
Pet pigs learning on-line through positive consequence from Lara
Deaf dogs, wildlife ambassadors, and zoo animals educating the lives of humans through Lara
I train a lot of different animals with a variety of histories such as aggression, fear, separation anxiety, submission, over-stimulation, and lack of experience in what should be assumed natural behavior. We have an array of different animals that reside here at the center. They are our educational ambassadors and most have come here from losing their homes. It is an honor to be able to provide them the ability to run, fly, crawl, and swim through the 10,000 square foot center they can now call home. It is an honor to share our lives with them and empower them through their opportunity of choice. I chose to train because, based on my experience, positive reinforcement training and applied behavior analysis are the best forms of communication I have found with any animal domestic or wild, aggressive or young and looking to learn. We practice what we preach on a daily basis with all of the residents here and with each other. Let us share this experience, opportunity, and education with you.