Testimonials

I feel so blessed to have interacted with so many incredibly passionate animal in my career.  I teach seminars and mentor trainers as part of my profession, but can be absolutely honestly sincere about the following fact - I learn more from them than they do from me.  Thank you to all of you for providing me with the space to ramble on about my favourite topic.  Thank you for the lessons.  Thank you for enriching my life with your space and letting me share moments with you and the animals.

Here are a few testimonials.  I have never been very good at keeping them, but will resolve to do better at this going forward.

Robynn Ingle Moller - Bester Zoo (Midrand)
Learning is one thing, understanding and being able to implement  is all together another thing.  Gabby Harris has an ability to make a nervous learner feel confident and a confident learner feel appreciated.  Gabby once said to me that training an animal is no different to training oneself.  Knowing the clues is the key.  I have only ever benefited from her courses, and enjoy watching her audience slowly and sometimes with huge leaps of a-ha moments learn something new or fundamental.  The process of animal conditioning is not for the faint hearted or lazy, but for those that commit to not only the animal but to the environment, their goal and to themselves.  Gabby shows that she commits and teaches me everyday that nothing is impossible. 

Lungisane Mbele - Assistant Curator, Bayworld, Port Elizabeth (Eastern Cape) 

I have worked with Gabby for more than 10 years and one the most powerful tools she taught me about training were patience and observations. The art of training is to listen or to pay attention what the animal’s needs so that you can communicate the message clearly on what you want to train. Successive approximations are the best way to build up to behaviour from small baby steps. Currently I work as a Assistant Curator with seals and target training through successive approximations is working well for our programme. I am not afraid of animals but I respect them, only because I had the best mentor and a great teacher Gabby. She also taught me intuition, shifting gears, variable schedules of reinforcement and to avoid being predictable in front of an animal. 

 

Marketa Sucha - Private dog trainer - Czech Republic.

I have just finished reading your book.  I have no words.  The book is full of feeling, love and care.  It is the first book about animals I have read where I cried.  I felt gratitude and great respect for animals.  I admire you, that you can so perfectly describe everything.  I am very happy I have your book.  I think the book should be read by everyone who has an animal.  For me it is the best book I have read.  Thank you very much.

 

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