Dog trainer Ilana Alderman, one of Annie's closest friends, has a reputation at School For The Dogs for being a kind of Disney Princess: She looks sort of like Snow White, and seems to titter with birds and befriend fish like Cinderella or Ariel. For nearly a decade, Ilana has focused on training (and enriching the lives of) pretty much every animal she's come across. She has taught fish to play basketball, helped ring tail lemurs learn to step onto scales, taught goats to enjoy being milked, built tiny amusement parks for mice, and even trained the squirrels in her yard to ring a doorbell. She also has helped Annie organize her closet, and feels this is a kind of animal training too. Ilana has never owned a dog, but she has helped many dog owners, and is the architect of the School For The Dogs Professional Course and its open source free online text book, Born To Behave. She and Annie discuss her journey into the world of behavior and the latest animal who is benefiting from being her presence: Her son.  

Find Born to Behave at http://schoolforthedogs.com/courses

For more from Ilana, see this summer’s bonus episode: Annie reads animal trainer Ilana Alderman's 14 tips on getting a toddler to brush his teeth https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bonus-annie-reads-animal-trainer-ilana-aldermans-14/id1355439730?i=1000524543383 

Find Ilana on Instagram @baby_enrichment and on the web at childcooperativecare.wordpress.com/

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Partial Transcript:

Annie:

Ilana Alderman. I have tried so hard to get you on this podcast. You know how hard I've tried. So, God, I don't even know where to start, cause you are such a dynamic person who I also happen to love very much.

Ilana Alderman:

Aw honey.

Annie:

But, why don't you just introduce yourself, and then maybe we can kind of go chronologically. Why don't you introduce yourself by whatever title you would currently give yourself in your life, and then we could maybe work backwards or forwards. Forwards from, from early on…

Ilana:

To now. Okay. Yeah. The title I would give myself professionally would probably be Animal Behavior Consultant or I, at parties, I say I'm a dog trainer. It's just so much simpler. And yeah, I like to work with any species of animals, including humans. So everything to do with behavior and how it works, and how we can change the way people or animals feel in a given situation. That's what really fascinates me. And let's see what else we were asking me, how did I,

Annie:

I mean, I say that you came into my life, I guess it was before the fire.

Ilana:

It was before the fire!

Annie:

Cause I remember you came to School for the Dogs when it was in my living room.

Ilana:

Yes.

Annie:

And yes, I think at that point you were thinking about doing Karen Pryor Academy and you were living upstate and you came in to just talk to me a little bit about it. Little did I know what a force you were. So it must have been like 2013, 2012.

Full Transcript at SchoolfortheDogs.com/Podcast

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