Sara Crockett
of Contingent on Kindness Behavior Consulting
Sara Crockett holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Central Michigan University. Following graduation, she completed graduate coursework while working as a teaching assistant in the biology department at CMU.
Sara began training assistance dogs with a National ADI accredited organization in 2014. She became passionate about finding the most up-to-date least intrusive ways to teach service dogs. Since then, she has been embracing every opportunity to learn and practice the science of behavior through continuing education and hands-on opportunities, whether it is with dogs, horses, cats, or children – including her incredible little human learner who is three-and-a-half years old.
Working at A Pleasant Dog in Grand Rapids, MI, Sara learned about mediating canine play, managed a daycare stay and train program, and worked one-on-one with service dogs in training and their families.
Sara has taken Dr. Susan Friedman’s Living and Learning With Animals online course which is focused on using applied behavior analysis to teach both animals and humans. She has also taken Tromplo’s R+ Trainer, R+ Parent course, as well as Peggy Hogan’s online Shaping course. In 2017, she spent 5 weeks shadowing at a center that uses applied behavior analysis therapy with children on the Autism spectrum. Sara has also attended three ClickerExpo conferences, and experienced the incredible opportunity to spend a day doing hands-on learning with Peggy Hogan and her horses in northern California. Sara has volunteered for local organizations including animal shelters, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and John Ball Zoo, where she had the opportunity to assist zookeepers as an animal care volunteer and the education department as an animal handler. Whether it’s webinars, learning from colleagues, or learning with her own animals and son, Sara plans to never stop learning.
After taking some time to further her education while also starting a family and moving to a 5 acre hobby farm, Sara created Contingent on Kindness Behavior Consulting, with a little nudge from her colleague and close friend Laura Perkins of Laura Perkins Animal Behavior.
Sara shares her home and land with her husband Steve and their son, along with Ricky the Sheltie, Lucy the goldendoodle, Chloe the cat, Karli the horse, and Fion the pony. It brings her joy to show her son that all animals can be treated with thoughtfulness and kindness. If Sara’s not spending time with her family, training, indulging in a webinar or an in-depth discussion on the Animal Training Academy – Engage Facebook page, you might find her sewing, singing and playing guitar, gardening, and whenever it’s possible again – enjoying live music and local breweries.
Sara’s goal is to inspire and empower others with knowledge about the science of behavior and learning. She’d like to consider herself as a guide, helping others to find the most thoughtful and effective ways to teach behaviors, whether the learner is a human or an animal, and is very excited for you to learn along with her!
Laura Perkins
of Laura Perkins Animal Behavior
Laura Perkins has a Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas where she studied under Dr Jesús Rosales-Ruiz and a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from the University of Illinois. She is a CPDT-KA (Certified Professional Dog Trainer – Knowledge Assessed) and holds a memberships through APDT (Association of Professional Dog Training) and ABAI (Association of Behavior Analysis International).
Laura Perkins has a lifetime of hands-on experience working with dogs. Her interest in dog training developed at a young age in 4-H. When she started her undergraduate education, she thought she might like to be a veterinarian, but quickly realized that her true passion was to understand how animals learn and how to make the learning process more effective. She took every behavior course she could and did a study abroad course “Advanced Animal Training” with Dr. Roger Abrantes. These experiences led her to seek out a graduate degree in behavior analysis to gain a deeper understanding of how learning works.
Between college and graduate school Laura completed an internship at the Trevor Zoo where she worked as a zookeeper and trained husbandry behaviors in kea (parrots), river otters, lemurs, fox, alpacas and red pandas.
During her time in graduate school, Laura worked as a volunteer at the Herd Museum where she trained husbandry behaviors in coati, capybaras, lemurs, and wallaroos. She also was a member of the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals (ORCA) and co-hosted the Art And Science of Animal Training Conference in 2012.
Laura worked as the behaviorist on staff for Clackamas County Dog Services in Clackamas, OR. There she worked with approximately 1,200 dogs that passed through the shelter over a year an a half. Her role was to get to know each dog in order to understand their behavioral needs. She also provided enrichment and training for the dogs and taught volunteers how to work with the dogs.
Laura’s passion is teaching people to solve the behavior problems they have with their pets using positive, science-based training techniques. Laura has been a training and behavior consultant via her own business since 2012.
Laura lives in Chelsea, MI with her husband, 2 dogs; Doug and Dan, and 2 cats; Cecil and Ida. In her free time, she loves to hike with her dogs. She also enjoys training for sports such as nosework, agility, and obedience and working on cooperative husbandry behaviors with her dogs and cats.,