Laura Monaco Torelli is the founder of Animal Behavior Training Concepts in Chicago, Illinois. She began her career in 1991 at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, where she trained with beluga whales, dolphins, sea otters, seals, river otters, and penguins. After nearly a decade at the Shedd, she moved on to the San Diego Zoo and then Brookfield Zoo as a lead supervisory trainer. During her time in the zoo community, Laura worked with a wide variety of animals, including primates, large cats, birds of prey, horses, parrots, tree kangaroos, giraffes, red pandas, foxes, and dogs. She is currently part of an exotic animal rescue and rehabilitation training team for the Wildlife Discovery Center in Lake Forest, Illinois.
Laura is a faculty instructor with Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training & Behavior, and serves as a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Susan G. Friedman’s Living & Learning with Animals online course. Laura has presented at numerous conferences and taught seminars across the United States, Italy, Sweden, the UK, Singapore, Japan, and the Caribbean. She was an invited speaker for the American Veterinary Medical Association Convention, Midwest Veterinary Conference, Penn Vet Working Dog Conference, ClickerExpo, the Association of Professional Dog Trainers Conference, Aggression In Dogs Conference, and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants Conference. Laura has appeared on various broadcast media, including FOX 32, WGN, NBC 5 news, WGN Radio, and WCIU’s You & Me This Morning. She contributed her training videos for the Fear Free Professional Trainer Certification and Karen Pryor Academy Better Vet Visits online courses.
