Who Is Ken Ramirez
Ken Ramirez is one of the most respected animal trainers in the world, with more than fifty years of experience working with dogs, marine mammals and dozens of other species. He is the Chief Training Officer at Karen Pryor Clicker Training and has trained everything from guide dogs to zoo animals using reward based methods. Across all of that work, one idea keeps coming up in his teaching, training is not something you do to a dog, it is something you build with a dog.
That idea is called engagement, and it might be the most underrated skill in dog training. A dog that is engaged with you is not just obedient, it is genuinely interested in working with you, which makes every other lesson easier to teach.
What Engagement Actually Means
Engagement, in Ramirez's terms, is the state where your dog is focused on you and actively wants to be part of whatever you are doing. It is different from simple obedience. A dog can sit and stay because it has been drilled to, while still being far more interested in the smell drifting across the yard than in you. An engaged dog checks in, offers eye contact, and treats you as the most interesting thing in the environment.
Building engagement is not about bribery. It is about making yourself, and the training process, genuinely fun for your dog. Once that foundation is in place, every other behaviour you teach becomes easier because your dog is choosing to participate rather than being managed into it.
Tip 1: Be More Interesting Than the Distractions
One of Ramirez's core principles is that engagement is earned, not demanded. If the world around your dog is more exciting than you are, your dog will choose the world every time. That means varying your tone of voice, moving unpredictably, and reacting with genuine enthusiasm when your dog chooses to look at you instead of the squirrel three houses down.
This does not mean turning every walk into a circus. Small, well timed bursts of energy, a silly voice, a sudden change of direction, a game that starts out of nowhere, go a long way toward making you the most interesting thing in the yard.
"Training should be a shared process. The animal should want to be with you and want to train."
Ken Ramirez, Animal TrainerTip 2: Use Play as a Reward, Not Just Food
Food is a great motivator, but Ramirez is quick to point out that play is just as powerful, and sometimes more so. A quick tug game or a short chase after a good response builds excitement and strengthens the bond between you and your dog in a way that a treat alone cannot always match.
Mixing food rewards with short bursts of play keeps training sessions unpredictable and fun. Your dog starts to associate working with you, not just eating, with genuine enjoyment.
Tip 3: Build the Habit Somewhere Quiet First
It is tempting to jump straight into busy environments and hope your dog stays focused, but Ramirez's approach always starts low distraction. Practising engagement games in your backyard or a quiet room lets your dog build the habit of checking in with you before real world distractions get involved.
Once your dog reliably offers attention at home, slowly add mild distractions, a second person in the yard, a toy on the ground, a car passing on the street. Only increase the difficulty once your dog is succeeding consistently at the current level.
- Start engagement games indoors or in the backyard before busy spaces.
- Add one new distraction at a time, not several at once.
- If your dog struggles, go back a step rather than pushing through.
- Celebrate small wins, a glance in your direction still counts.
Tip 4: Reward Check-Ins Before Your Dog Wanders
A simple but powerful habit Ramirez teaches is to reward your dog the instant it glances back at you, even if you have not asked for anything. This is called capturing a check-in, and it teaches your dog that looking to you is always worth doing, not just when you call their name.
Over time this builds a dog that naturally offers attention throughout the day, on walks, during play, and around new people or animals, without you having to constantly ask for it.
Tip 5: Keep Sessions Short and High Value
Ramirez is a strong believer that shorter, more frequent training sessions beat long, drawn out ones. A tired, bored dog is not an engaged dog. Aim for sessions of five to ten minutes packed with variety, quick wins and genuine fun, then stop while your dog still wants more.
Ending on a high note, before frustration or fatigue sets in, keeps your dog looking forward to the next session instead of dreading it. That anticipation is exactly what engagement is built on.
- Keep most sessions to five or ten focused minutes.
- End while your dog is still enthusiastic, not worn out.
- Mix food, play and praise so nothing feels routine.
- Train little and often rather than one long weekly session.
Final Thoughts
Engagement is not a trick you teach once, it is a relationship you build session by session. Ken Ramirez's approach reminds us that the best trained dogs are not the most obedient ones, they are the ones who genuinely want to work with their owner. Start by being a little more interesting than the world around you, reward the moments your dog chooses you, and keep every session short enough to end on a win.
With a bit of consistency, you will notice your dog checking in more often, holding focus longer, and generally being a more attentive partner on walks and at home.