Sean Senechal
The AnimalSigner, Sean Senechal, combines a strong intuition and curiosity with practical and scientific perspectives. Sean founded the AnimalSign Center to research, practice, and educate on enhancing language development and visible communication between animals and people. Sean created AnimalSign Language as a tool to allow humans and animals to communicate more precisely with each other. This language uses signs made by gestures, pointing, tapping, pictures, or vocalizing. A university instructor, Senechal has lectured on human and animal, biology, behavior, communication, and cognition. Now, he teaches Human Biology and Behavior, as well as Biological Psychology at California State University, Monterey Bay.
She offers online Canine Biology, Cognition, and Communication at e-trainingfordogs.com.
In 2014, by demand, she begins teaching AnimalSign ONLINE! the AnimalSign Online Training and Cerfitication courses.
Sean Senechal is an expert in animal communication, learning, and behavior. Obtaining extensive post- M.A. graduate work as animal physiologist and cognitive scientist, she is an alumni of several California colleges. At CSUMB she obtained a math and science teaching credential; from CSUMB and Florida Institute of Technology, she obtained her BCBA. She practices Applied Behavior Analysis for children with speech delays. Combining this ABA with AnimalSign techniques. At UCBerkeley her B.A. was in Sociology, with initial focus in physics/math; at SF State University, she obtained a M.A in biology with emphasis in physiology and behavior; at UCDavis her extensive PhD graduate work focused on animal physiology, primate learning, and human attention.
Ms. Senechal, an educator, trainer, and speaker, gives private and group classes, seminars, and workshops internationally on various topics. The most popular are on her revolutionary approach on how to enhance 2-way human-animal communication, which naturally inspires canine manners and well-being. Sean educates/trains not only service dogs for children with autism, but as an ABA Behavioral Supervisor/Consultant she provides intervention for those same children. Senechal incorporates the most modern, positive (best of both human and animal) ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) techniques into her own unique approach for young animals and humans.
Author: Sean authored AnimalSign To You, Signing is not just for primates anymore! and Dogs Can Sign, Too. A breakthrough method for teaching your dog to communicate to you with Random House/Crown/TenSpeed Press, now on Kindle (Random House). She also publishes her own Custom K9Sign and K9Tap booklets to assist individual client (animal and human) preferences. In 2014, she will release her book on EquineSign for horses, and FelineSign for cats will follow! Yes, cats can sign, too! (when they want to).
Providing zoo animals enrichment programs to aid communication, she has collaborated with the Monterey Zoo by exploring the potential for elephants to communicate through card exchange. We are hoping to fund another study where we will teach the elephants several signs (for their benefit).
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Raised across the street from the Washington, DC Zoo, Sean now lives in Monterey County, iCalifornia with her horse, cats, and dogs-Chal (a German shepherd) and StarLight (a Border collie).
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Princess!
Princess the Signing Horse is a Warmblood/Thoroughbred mix born at the Stanford barn in California. Smart, sensitive and charismatic, she is the prize equine student at Senechal AnimalSign® Center. She has mastered and helped develop hundreds of moves, some becoming signs. Always eager to learn more signs and to play, Princess has showcased her beauty and brains on ANIMAL PLANET and News TV shows, radio, newspapers, private events, and on DVD.
Chal
Chal is the first K9Signer at the AnimalSign® Center. She is a German Shepherd, born in 2003 bred by VonFalconer in Santa Cruz. She is very intelligent, has a sweet, friendly temperament and a reflective disposition. She is large with tan/black coloring. Her training program includes recreational agility and tracking, her gift. She found one of our neighbors lwho was missing on his 10- acre property.
As a Therapy Dog, she helps people overcome their fear of big dogs. Her education includes K9Sign Language lessons, a language she helped create. She loves to K9Sign and has created her own signs to express needs, emotion, and request for help and patience. K9Signing is part of her life, and she uses it regularly. She helps me expand signing to include other forms of gesturing to make communication easier for dogs. Her current favorite is K9Signing by tapping her message using K9Cards. Chal’s K9Sign page is now on YouTube.
StarLight!
Starlight is our youngest K9Signer. She was carefully selected as gift from Karen Thompson’s Border Collies for this project. She has learned signs by observation of Chal, by molding, and is quick to perform a COPY of my moves. In just days she learned to sign Food, Toy, Water.
She now is focused on bringing me cards on Frisbees to tell me what she wants.