Animal Training Academy

Chris Shank Bio

Chris has a background in animal training having attended the Exotic Animal Training and Management program at Moorpark College in California. She went on to become a dolphin trainer all the while caring for her flock of forty mixed species white cockatoos and breeding them for sale. While she no longer breeds birds, she continues to free fly her cockatoos and has been doing so for forty years. Chris keeps up her training skills by working with her flock as well as her horse and donkey using primarily positive reinforcement training. She learns as much as she can about the four quadrants of training and their use and effects on our learners. She does so by attending training clinics, be they about parrots, dogs, chickens or horses. Chris operates Cockatoo Downs in Dallas, Oregon, a parrot educational facility.