THE RANCH EXPERIENCE
We’ve got your goat! (literally). Training our goats, mini-donkeys and other animals will advance your skills like nothing else. The small (12 max) class size guarantees you plenty of personal coaching from Ken Ramirez and multiple animal training sessions each day.
Have fun, become the best trainer you can be and part of our Ranch family in this one of a kind, five-day immersive learning experience. Suitable for novice through advanced trainers.
Course Focus
The focus of this course is skill development through training, interaction, and other forms of relationship-building with The Ranch animals.
Each student will be assigned a Ranch animal and will have the opportunity to build a relationship with their animal, initiate new training, assist in maintaining already-established behaviors, and help with the care of the animal. Each student will also have the opportunity to work with a few other animals.
Students will watch and assist each other with training as well as receive personalized coaching from Ken and the Ranch team. All animal interactions will be under the guidance of Ken Ramirez and the Ranch team.
A typical day will also include a few hours of classroom time, which will be focused on the skills and tasks used working and training on the Ranch.
Curriculum
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You will choose a skill-development focus area for training sessions with your animal when you register for the course. All training sessions will include foundational-skills practice and will be customized to provide specific opportunities to help you build skills in a single focus area.*
In the classroom setting, all skill-development areas are covered for all students.
Foundation Skills
Highly beneficial for everyone, no matter your skill level, but a must for beginners. You will focus on the timing and use of the marker signal, reinforcement delivery, clear communication to your animal, targeting, and stationing.
Medical Behavior Training
You will focus on the skills needed for husbandry training. You will have training sessions that include desensitization techniques to be more successful at training medical behaviors. These techniques may be focused on increasing tactile acceptance, getting used to new equipment, or specific medical behaviors, depending on the needs and skills of each participant.
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Group Training
You will focus on the skills needed to work with multiple animals at once. You will have training sessions that include stationing, fairness, and uses of the marker while working with several animals at once. If instructors find that individual skills still require additional practice at the foundational level, aspects of group training may only be discussed and not practiced.
Zoo Skills
You will focus on the skills needed to work in a zoological setting. Many of these skills are also useful for domestic animal trainers. You will have training sessions that include protected contact work, gating/shifting/kenneling/entering a trailer, and recalls.
Teaching and Coaching Skills
You will focus on the skills needed to teach foundational skills and to coach students through those skills. You will have training sessions that include skills such as uses of video documentation, record-keeping, language/communication, and people-management skills.
*Important: For the safety and wellness of both animals and students, if we determine that an individual’s skills require additional practice at the foundational level, aspects of that student’s skill-focus area will not be practiced unless the foundational skills reach an appropriate level.