#51: Husbandry with Laura Monaco Torelli

This week Laura Monaco Torelli and I talk about husbandry in the
dog training world, and it turns out it's not ENTIRELY about
teaching dogs to trim their own nails (though that could be part of
it). During our conversation, we talked about exactly what
“husbandry” means, and how we can work it into our training
routines without a whole lot of effort and time commitment, we also
talked about how she gets her pet clients to buy in and participate
in husbandry training solutions, and a few other little tips and
tricks, like using behavioral momentum to make hard stuff easier
and the training sessions more fun. Laura Monaco Torelli is the
founder of Animal Behavior Training Concepts in Chicago, Illinois.
She began her career in 1991 at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, where she
trained beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, seals, river otters,
and penguins. After nearly a decade at the Shedd, she moved on to
the San Diego Zoo and then Brookfield Zoo as a lead supervisory
trainer. During her time in the zoo community, Laura worked with a
wide variety of terrestrial animals, including primates, large
cats, birds of prey, horses, parrots, tree kangaroos, giraffes, red
pandas, and dogs. Laura serves as a faculty member of Karen Pryor
Academy (KPA), and as a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Susan Friedman’s
Living & Learning with Animals online course. She and her team
at Animal Behavior Training Concepts offer private in-home training
as well as group classes at Medical District Veterinary Clinic, an
extension of the University of Illinois College of Veterinary
Medicine. Laura has presented at many professional conferences,
including those held by the American Pre-Veterinary Medical
Association, the Animal Behavior Management Alliance, the
International Marine Animal Trainers’ Association, ClickerExpo, the
Society for Veterinary Behavior Technicians, the Association of
Professional Dog Trainers, the Midwest Veterinary Conference,
TAGteach International, and the Interdisciplinary Forum for Applied
Animal Behavior. She has appeared on various print and broadcast
media, including Clean Run magazine, Chronicle of the Dog, Steve
Dale’s Pet World, WGN and NBC 5 news and WCIU’s You & Me This
Morning. For full show notes, visit:
www.wonderpupstraining.com/podcast/51