Three Skill Sets: Veronica Boutelle on Training, Teaching and Business

More from Precision Animal Training All episodes →

1. 

   E25 · 14 Oct 2026 · 54 minNew

   Prevention Beats Extinction: Smarter Dog Training with Don Hanson

   Kirsten has a way of describing how modern dog training grew up, and it comes in three phases. First the scientific one, when the Brelands' and Baileys' work came through the chicken workshops and the field found out there was a science underneath it. Then the professional one, when it turned out that loving animals is not a business plan. And now the ethical one. Don Hanson has lived all three of them, and because he is a prolific writer, he wrote them down while they were happening. Thirty years of this field's history exists in his archive whether the field asked for it or not. Don met…

2. 

   E24 · 7 Oct 2026 · 40 min

   Shelley and Mike Wood On Scaling Animal Training Across Nine Countries

   Mike Wood interviewed Shelley for a job in the Florida Keys on a glass bottom boat. They were both married to other people. Years later, both divorced, he hired her again to come to Mexico, and that is where it turned into a marriage. It is also where two trainers with one dolphin enclosure turned into close to thirty facilities in nine countries with more than two thousand employees. Shelley and Mike join Kirsten Kraljevic and Dr. Bob Bailey for a conversation that runs from an old Florida mom-and-pop attraction to a backyard beehive. Mike started at Theater of the Sea in 1975 after leaving…

3. 

   E22 · 24 Sep 2026 · 28 min

   Carolark, Fang and Chickens In A Hotel with Carolyn Clark

   After Marian Bailey died, Dr. Bob Bailey was ready to be done. He had promised her on her deathbed that he would keep teaching, and then he got discouraged enough to start looking at other things he could do with his time. Two women talked him out of it. Cheryl Trotter drove up from Houston and Carolyn Clark came down from Canada, and between them they told him they would help and they would not let him quit. Everything that came after, Sweden, Japan, China, and the workshops that built a generation of trainers, happened because those two would not let go of it. Carolyn joins Kirsten…

4. 

   E21 · 16 Sep 2026 · 21 min

   Vicky Darnell & Tiz: From Chicken Workshop to UKC Grand Champion

   Vicky Darnell did not want the puppy. The plan was to get herself trained up first and then bring another dog into the house, and that is not how it worked out. Tiz came home early. Three weeks later Vicky was sitting in her first Chicken Workshop . What she carried back to Chicagoland was not a chicken trick. It was timing, criteria, rate of reinforcement, and the nerve to stop a session that is going sideways instead of hoping it comes around. Tiz started trialing shortly after she turned six months old, the youngest age a dog can compete in UKC Nosework, and finished her Grand Champion at…

5. 

   E20 · 10 Sep 2026 · 58 min

   The Magic of Reinforcement: Dr. Ian Dunbar on Animal Training’s Past, Present and Future

   On this episode of Precision Animal Training, hosts Kirsten Kraljevic and Dr. Bob Bailey sit down with renowned Veterinary Behaviorist Dr. Ian Dunbar for a wide-ranging conversation on how animal training has evolved. Dr. Dunbar traces his path from watching animals as a child to pioneering puppy classes and putting early socialization at the center of good training. The discussion returns again and again to positive reinforcement, the power of shaping small improvements, and the need for trainers to observe real behavior and use simple, measurable data. Dr. Bailey and Dr. Dunbar talk about…

6. 

   E19 · 2 Sep 2026 · 28 min

   The Humbling Path to Becoming a Top Dog Trainer with Chickens and Dr. Viviane Thebe

   In this episode of the Precision Animal Training Podcast, host Kirsten Kraljevic sits down with Dr. Viviane Thebe from Germany, a trainer known for pioneering work with both chickens and dogs. The conversation follows her path from veterinary medicine into animal behavior, the workshops in Sweden that changed how she saw training, and the practical reality of teaching while caring for her young son. Listeners hear how those early chicken workshops grew in Germany and why she has stayed focused on rapid, precise training. Dr. Thebe also talks about founding a “top trainers” organization that…

7. 

   E18 · 19 Aug 2026 · 54 min

   Mechanics Matter: Why Fundamentals Are Essential for Trainers with Jean Donaldson

   In this episode of Precision Animal Training, host Kirsten Kraljevic welcomes Jean Donaldson and Dr. Bob Bailey to explore the evolution of animal training education. The conversation highlights Jean Donaldson’s groundbreaking work founding the Academy for Dog Trainers and the impact of introducing rigorous training plans and standardized curricula. The discussion moves through the transition from traditional, aversive-based dog training to science-based methods, emphasizing the importance of technical skill and well-vetted plans. The guests reflect on how critical fundamentals, repetition,…