Hello, my name is Shaunna and in my 17 years working with animals in zoos, I have found a deep respect for all animals.  I once thought that I was training them, but in fact, they were always training me.

Working from everything from the tiniest bird to the massive elephants taught me that each is unique and has it’s own unique way of thinking and learning. 

As a child, I was fascinated with animals and nature.  My mother couldn’t keep me away from any animal that might be near-by!  Even the smallest creatures caught my attention (I remember my “salamander” phase).  Of course, shows like “Flipper”, “Lassie” and “Rin Tin Tin” were my favorites.  My relationship with our family dog “Panda”, an exceptional German Shepherd was also a huge influence on me.  At a tender young age, I thought that helping animals by being a veterinarian was it for me.  However, after seeing illness and death in animals later on I realized I just didn’t have the heart for it.  So, I had to find another way to work with animals and enrich their lives.

So, I began work at Sea World when I was 16 in merchandise.  Every break found me near an animal exhibit, especially the dolphin pool.  I was then hired in Education and eventually got to work with birds and mammals.  What an exciting start to my career!

  I eventually moved to Colorado, where I worked with elephants, tigers, giraffe, apes, monkeys, rhinos, birds (you name it).  The elephants were very interesting to me.  I began to realize that training was about ASKING the animals to learn and perform certain behaviors.  After all, how do you demand that an 8,000 pound elephant do a behavior?  By asking for the behavior and offering a reward that the elephants liked, the likely-hood that they would comply was increased.  But, this was only the beginning of my understanding of training...I had a long way to go.

Then, it was on to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where I really learned about training through positive reinforcement (a training technique using something positive such as a treat to encourage the animal to engage in learning a new behavior).  I was on The Primate Team there and was fortunate to work with such great trainers as Marty Sevenich-MacPhee (previous Behavioral Curator) and Chris Breder ( Behavioral Curator).  I watched many trainers working with various animals and witnessed first hand how some seemed to have “a way” with any animal they worked with, while others struggled to train even the simplest behaviors.  Chris Breder was one that I watched closely.  She deeply respected the animals and engaged them in this “dance” called training. Marty taught me that EVERY interaction or encounter that I had with an animal was training them something, whether I knew it or not.  This was an incredible concept and one that every pet owner or animal keeper/trainer should know.  I’ll always be extremely grateful to both her and Chris for the wealth of knowledge and experience that they gave to me.  After this, I became a “coach” to peers on my team, I watched their training sessions and provided feedback to help them to become better trainers.

I’ve  had the opportunity to work with other great trainers, such as Steve Martin (owner of Natural Encounters).  Steve is best know for his bird shows (one is currently showing at Disney), but he also lectures all over the country about animal training and the relationships between people and animals.  He is an incredible person and I am honored to have worked birds ( birds of prey, cranes, parrots, vultures) with and for him.

I am now living back in California, running my animal training/sitting/exercising business.  I am ecstatic to share what I’ve learned in the zoo business to share with private pet owners!  I realize that many people do not have the time to train or exercise their animals and I am honored to have the opportunity to do this.

I continue to get emails with questions about training from past institutions and I am honored to answer.  After all, an animal trained with patience and understanding will be much happier (and so will their owner or institution).

I started All Things Animal out of my desire to spend more one on one time with animals and to share with owners what I have learned to better help them and their pets.  So far, I am overwhelmed by the positive response I’ve had!  I’m thrilled to be a part of the shaping of the animals lives with their owners in a positive direction.