It seems to be a common thread in homes with animals and teens, and once more it surfaces in the home of Joan Orr, who will speak on "Clicker Training Your Ferret" at the Portland Symposium. And what might that common thread be? Why, "a husband who is very tolerant of the parade of dogs and other critters that come through our house" to participate in training experiments. With three cats and two rabbits, Joan has trained ferrets, but has none of her own. She does, however, remember Gwen the ferret who was so excited to have learned how to control the clicker game "by doing behaviour to get the trainer to click she went wild. The video of this is now famous in clicker training circles. We also use clicker training with people and call it TAGteaching. The TAGteach community refers to the 'happy ferret dance' when they are talking about a particularly insightful and exciting moment in their TAGteaching." As with others, Joan Orr will admit that she found her most memorable non-ferret experience to be having a baby! And, family is important to Joan, who would spend her time with her husband "since we get along well, have lots of fun, but don't get enough time to relax together." She might spend some of that time on her sailboat, a Hobie cat. For fun she trains animals, coaches kids sports, makes training videos, works in her garden and sails. But, relaxing entails reading, watching movies, gardening and playing games with her kids. Joan's hero is also the author of her favorite book, *Don't Shoot the Dog.* Karen Pryor "brought clicker training to the animal training world against tremendous odds and was a lone voice advocating that physical force has no place in the training of animals or the teaching of humans. She has written numerous books, given hundreds of lectures and stuck to her principles. She has shared her knowledge freely and generously with all who care to know and now trainers around the world use her methods and share her philosophy. Through her brilliance and generosity and ability to communicate the lives of many thousands of animals around the world in zoos, aquariums, shelters and in people's homes have had their lives changed for the better. Her mentoring and contributions to TAGteach has helped fast track this approach of positive reinforcement based teaching into the world of human teaching and has touched the lives of many people. Through Karen's direct influence a large collegial group of clicker trainers and TAGteachers is spreading the world, bringing joy and success to teaching and learning and changing the world one click at a time." Joan would like to be remembered "as a person who made a contribution to society through the promotion of positive-reinforcement based teaching and training principles." Come learn how to use a clicker to train YOUR ferret! See some of the things Joan has done and learn more about clicker training at one of the following websites: Doggone Crazy (http://www.doggonecrazy.ca) and TAGTeach International (http://www.tagteach.com) See also http://www.doggonesafe.com and http://www.clickerbunny.com -- renee :) It's amazing how much can be accomplished if nobody cares who gets the credit! Ferret Emergency Response, Rescue & Evacuation Team (F.E.R.R.E.T.) http://www.ferretemergency.org [log in to unmask] International Ferret Congress http://www.ferretcongress.org American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org [Posted in FML 5631]